Anniversary Weekend

Hey y'all -

Last Friday was your parents' fifth wedding anniversary. In case anyone's wondering, five years is exactly how long it took me to start forgetting my anniversary. Your dad remembered, so points for him. Standing in the kitchen drinking coffee the morning of our anniversary, we had this conversation:

Brooke: Anything you want for our anniversary?
Thor: Can't think of anything I need. You still want one of those colanders?
Brooke: Nah, I bought one at TJ Maxx the other day.
Thor: So we're good?
Brooke: Yeah. How do you want your eggs?

Cue the Barry White! Launch the rose petals in the air! Turn the lighting down to its most ambient! Romance is in the air, my friends.

All joking aside, I had the BEST time on our anniversary weekend.

On Friday, we went out to First Fridays, which is a great monthly event in Missoula. Stores and restaurants stay open late and have gallery showings and refreshments and kids' activities and you can walk all around downtown checking out fun things and window shopping.

We had dinner at The Top Hat, which is a restaurant and music venue downtown. They were hosting Family Night, and may I say, every bar needs a bring-your-kids night. Parents got to sit with their friends up in the lounge area while the toddlers and preschoolers went nuts on the dance floor. We ran into some parents and kids we knew, and we all shared pizza and eggplant fries and had a great time.

Hagen walked up to a little pigtailed girl who was standing by herself on the dance floor and took her hands in his and started bopping up and down. For a split second, she just looked bewildered, then she screamed in his face and ran away. This is your dad, explaining to Hagen that girls are unpredictable, but you gotta get back out there.

The only flaw in the Kids' Night festivities at the bar was that someone (I suspect) forgot to tell the band that it was Kids' Night. This is the look of a musician whose booking agent didn't inform him he'd be playing for toddlers:

They played a lot of melancholy ballads and a cover of "Mrs. Robinson," and the whole thing was wildly inappropriate, but the kids didn't seem to care.

I had mentioned to Laney that the brewery by our house was going to be hosting a kids' art project for First Fridays, so she came up to me mid-dance and yelled, "DO WE STILL HAVE TIME TO GET TO THE BEER LIBRARY?!?" One of her teachers was sitting next to me and asked, "What the heck is the 'Beer Library?'" I explained: That's what Laney calls the brewery by our house, because you go there and get your growler filled up, then you take it home and enjoy it, then bring it back and get another refill. Beer Library."

So we raced off to the brewery where your dad and I enjoyed a pint, while you enjoyed the paint.

The next morning, we had breakfast at IHOP

Then Laney and I headed off for a girls-only shopping day. I stopped into the crafts store to pick up a few things for your school's Halloween Carnival, and ran into a pumpkin painting activity table, so we had to stop and do that. Damn you, Michael's.

 Sunday, we hit the park and the carousel.

Not ready to go

I can't remember ever having such a fun family weekend. I think the weekend was so much fun in large part because I decided to stay away from my computer as much as possible and just focus on being present. My job has been more demanding than usual lately, and I spend a lot of time with one eye on my inbox. This past weekend, I kept both eyes on what's most important. A very happy anniversary, indeed. 

Love,

Mom