and so it goes

our time in Europe was amazing.

will never be forgotten and if it were up to me, 

we would have never left.

but alas... we've been home for a week,

greeted by our loving kids (puck and winnie),

a pile of laundry,

tons of homework- including 2 tests for me... eek!

and the realization that everyday life has begun again.

now if you don't mind, i'm going to pretend that i am back here,

about to have an aperitif and beautiful conversation with my honey:

i promise more to come... much more. Tomorrow?

just a tid bit.

i've been up since 3:30am and it's now 1am Paris time, which is what i'm on... so i'm pooped

first stop was Lausanne then off Wengen.

then Basel and a day stop in Offenburg

Strasbourg and finally Paris.

It was the trip of a lifetime and still feels like a dream.

It's a strange juxtaposition to be back.

on one hand, it's nice to have the comforts of home, but I miss

Europe... more than i thought i would. 

it was an amazing adventure that i hope to relive again and again.

au revoir for now!

my last week at the office

this is what happens when i'm training my replacement.

she needs to know how to do important things like this.

in less than a month.

i'll be here:

then here:

then here:

and lastly:

i honestly can't thank my most amazing parents enough for the trip of a lifetime.

i feel so incredibly blessed to be given the opportunity to experience such beauty,

especially with my wonderful family.



ps... 10 points to whoever guess where we're going :)

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The Classic

A little background here:

My Grandpa Louis was the oldest of 13 siblings who gre up on a farm in MN.

My Dad was the youngest of 8 siblings on a farm in the same area.

My Dad has a total of 72 first cousins... On one side.... yeah.

For the past 41 years, that family has gathered together on the last full weekend in July for a get-together/golf tournament/family runion catchall and if you take into consideration all of the 6 generations in attendence and the age limit you have to reach before you can come- there's roughly 150 family members at the 9-hole golf course.

i can honestly say that it is something that i look forward to each year.

there's something special about my dad's family. i'm not sure how to put a name to it.

it's more of a feeling.

i know... sap sap mush mush.

but really, every single person that attends the Classic is funny, generous, outgoing, caring, hilllllllarious, etc. etc. etc. etc.

i could go on forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever...
you get the point.

anywhos... this year was no exception. we headed down on friday afternoon.

you can see the Milroy watertower waaaaaaaay in the background <3

we hugged and visited and drank and laughed the whole time.

it is always so much fun to catch up with everyone.

next year we're going down on Thursday... fo sho.

Swoon.

a man with a baby.

MY man with a baby.

it just melts my heart into a puddle of mush and love.

that my friends is the beautiful, perfect baby A.

she's the new addition to the Papagiannopoulos family

and might i say- possibly my favorite of the 3 :)

i held this precious little peanutski forever and quite honestly

didn't want to let her go. ever.

I shared her with Kevan for a milisecond and then

demanded her be returned to my arms at which

point he 'accidentally' knocked her little knit hat off

and she and i both got pissed, stomped to our rooms and slammed the door.

well... at least one of us did.

Really though, she laid in my arms just looking around

(mostly at my beautiful face- really, who can resist?)

and only made one little cry noise for a second when 

her parents opened her presents without her... i would've been pissed too.

i cannot wait to watch this little beauty grow

and could not be more proud or happy for her amazing parents. 

worse than the amazon.

i swear i'm not lying. jonathan yuhas told me so...

because of the mass amounts of snow we received this winter

and then the torrential rains and flooding of this spring

the ground is so saturated that this heat wave is causing the

air temperature (that is already at 97) to feel like 115 and wet.

People don't really think of Minneapolis as having hot weather, 

but they don't realize that it can get unbearably humid.

the thermometer may only say 94, but the humidity in the air

will actually bring the temperature up well past 100.

 gross.

so what did we do to celebrate this deadly weather?

went to a twins game with 37 billion other sweaty, hot, stank-a-sauruses.

we had fabulous seats (dugout level) and wonderful company (thank you Vinings!)

and it was hotter than hell. seriously. i dripped the entire game. 

i think the sky may have even been on fire for part of the game.

thanks for a wonderful, memorable night as always!