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around town

around town, baby, home projects, life

Hello! Some life updates.

March 21, 2018

Oh, hi there! It's been a while. Almost a year to be exact…

As you can imagine, the past year has flew by. I can't believe Luke and I were in Arizona this time last year on our Babymoon soaking up the sun! These days our lives are filled with diapers, house projects, work and trying to relax when we can.

This outlet has taken a backseat to life, which I'm 100% okay with, but I would like to carve out more time to post every once and again. So, without further ado, here is what Luke and I have been up to the past year…

We had a baby! I was due at the end of July, but she showed us her stubborn side before even meeting her and cooked for an extra TWO weeks (that experience can be a blog post of it's own)! Zoe Lynn Wagner was born on August 7, 2018. She is a happy, healthy baby girl and we are more in love with her than I could ever imagine. I even think her little poops are cute.
We bought a house! Luke and I had been searching for a new home for over a year and we finally found "the one" last fall. We took a brief hiatus from searching towards the end of my pregnancy and the first couple months of Zoe's life. We knew we didn't want to be moving with a newborn, and I'm so glad we made that decision. Our little apartment was perfect for the 3 of us, but as the days went on, we realized very quickly that we'd need to find a larger space. We originally saw the home in September and put our first offer in, fast forward a few months and offers later, our offer was finally accepted at the end of November. We closed at the beginning of January…did some fun stuff, then moved at the end of January, on my birthday! This leads me to my next point…
We are going to be on House Hunters! I applied a couple years ago when we first started to look, only to find out they don't even audition you until you have a closing date! Sorry people, it's all a sham. I re-applied once we did have our closing date, we auditioned, and bam we were casted! It all happened very fast. It was very exciting, but we also found out we couldn't really do any house projects or move into our house until it was filmed. We basically filmed, did some major house projects, worked at our real jobs and moved all in a week. Oh, and Luke threw his back out the day before we moved so he was down for the count for a couple weeks. Needless to say, January was a whirlwind.

February and March have definitely been a little slower for us, which has been great! We've been able to actually live in our new home as a family, figure out the house quirks, decide what we want to do next and look forward to our first spring in the new house.

I'm planning some posts and will share more about life with Zoe, house projects, our experience on House Hunters and anything else life randomly throws our way. Bye for now! I promise it won't be another year before my next post 🙂

XO,

Jenny

around town, food

You’re the apple of my eye.

October 23, 2016

I may have a minor apple allergy, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying one of my favorite fall activities – the apple orchard! There’s nothing better than wandering the orchard ground with the smell of apple brats and cider in the air.

We visited Aamodt’s Apple Farm, in Stillwater, MN. It was a super warm October day – too warm for fall boots! Boo.

Unfortunately the “pick your own” season had ended, but we were able to snag some apple donuts and a few harlson’s for my soup-makings!

If you’re looking for an alternative to Aamodt’s, we also love Pinetree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake.

Do you have any recommendations for apple orchards or fun fall activities in your area? Comment below! I’d love to hear local tips 🙂

around town, book it! aka travel, food

Day Trippin: Stillwater, MN

September 25, 2016

Luke and I are HUGE fans of Stillwater, MN. We used to venture there as high school sweethearts and walk along the river. One of the first “fancy” places he took me was the Dock Cafe for a delicious meal we couldn’t really afford.

I have very fond memories of Stillwater, and still get excited every time we have a free day to go there. It’s the perfect day trip from Minneapolis – far away enough from the city, but still close enough to make it in 30 minutes or less.

We fell into a Stillwater routine the past few times we visited over the summer. It goes something like this…

9AM: Load your bikes up and head to downtown Stillwater. There is a large FREE parking lot on the edge of town next to the Stillwater marina and the old MN Zephyr train station. It’s way less congested than the other side of downtown coming in from 36.

10:45AM-12PM: Cruise down the Browns Creek Trail. This is a new trail paved over the MN Zephyr rail line. It’s open to bikers, walkers, skaters, etc., so it can get a little congested on a busy weekend. WAY less congested than River Road in St.Paul/Minneapolis though, from our experiences. Going out of Stillwater, there is a gradual incline, so be prepared to sweat! You can take this trail all the way to the Gateway Trail where it connects after 6 miles. We usually like to do the round trip 12-mile trip, which makes for a good ride. Not too long, not too short where you don’t feel like you got a workout in.

Browns Creek Trail

12PM: After biking, we’re usually famished and our go-to restaurant is Lolo American Kitchen on Main Street. I won’t go into too much detail here, since I already did a write-up of Lolo in my Hidden Gem’s TC post, but to re-emphasize my love, just go and eat there already!

1PM: Now that you’re belly is happy, time to walk off that lunch with a little shopping! There are tons of cute shops all along main street. A couple of my favorites are the newly revamped Stillwater Farm Store, Alfresco Casual Living and Mara Mi. Personally, I find Mara Mi the most dangerous since they have WAY too much cute stationary to handle (I mean how much stationary does a gal really need?) AND they serve Izzy’s ice cream. Double uh-oh. Lastly, we really like the 45* store – we’ve snagged a few sale items there and they carry brands like Patagonia and Keens.

2:30PM: We usually end our visit with a trip to Candyland to get some Chicgao Mix for the road.

If you’re looking for more things to do, here are a couple alternate suggestions of places we like to frequent:

Pay a visit to Wedge & Wheel, a cute little cheese shop across the way from Mara Mi. The selection of cheese & meat can be a little intimidating, but we’ve had nothing but fantastic service from their staff, who is always happy to lend a suggestion and samples.

Another great spot a little out of “downtown” is Lift Bridge Brewery. It’s in a bit of a weird location, but it’s a great taproom! They offer tours of the facilities, great beer and FREE popcorn. Can’t beat that 🙂

We’ve only eaten here once, but it left a mark on us: Domacin Restaurant & Wine Bar. Aside from their extensive selection of wines, there food is superb. It’s described as “New American with Mediterranean Influence”. It’s a little on the spendy side, so be prepared to throw down some dough. Great spot for a special night on the town with your honey!

What’s your favorite spot in Stillwater?