Holy cow, guys.

Holy cow. Life is so good right now. Let’s start at the beginning of the weekend.

First, on Friday morning, I baked lemon-blueberry-zucchini bread and it turned out delicious. I ate some with my college friend, Deb, and her daughter, Isa, as they arrived for a day visit from St. Paul. We did a craft together and then we visited the animals at the Mower County Fair.

Next, we drove to Owatonna to meet up with Joe and Amanda at a playground. Fun fact: Deb and Amanda were college roommates freshman year. They lived across the hall from me. Deb and Amanda caught up while Joe, Isa, and I played on the swings.

Deb and Isa had to return to the city. Joe, Amanda, and I stopped at jD and Lauren’s house for a short while. They met, made connections, and I traced Elliot on the driveway with sidewalk chalk. Then we went out for supper and shopped for wood at Lowes.

The next morning, I drove to Lanesboro to meet up with sister Emma and (crazy) cousin Molly. We met in Lanesboro because kayaking the Root River was the agenda. We ate lunch and then signed in for our trip. A-kayaking we went! It was an adventure to say the least. We decided we needed pie from the famous Whalen pie shop afterwards; best. decision. of. the. day.

Now, today, we had all sorts of more fun. There was church, of course, but then this afternoon consisted of bike rides, geocaching, and eating outside – three of my most favorite things with some of my most favorite people. First, we tried to take a ride on the Spam Belle, this rickety boat on a tiny lake in Austin. They have posted hours they supposedly run … but no one was there to drive us around the lake. Shucks. But then we used Dave’s house as homebase and the four of us tooled around the city on bikes. Great fun was had by all. Once we returned home, it was organized craft (button trees!) and movie time.

My guests leave tomorrow morning or so and that means I’m sad. The last couple days have been so full of laughter; so wonderful. Life will now slow down again, at least for a couple weeks (until I head to Pennsylvania to be the visitor instead of the visited for a couple days). I have no more slated visitors for the rest of the summer. But it’s been a great summer of visitors. So fun. Life is so good right now.