Life with the Rusch's: February 2013

4 years

Thursday was our 4 year anniversary. we both worked. we decided from the beginning that instead of spending our money buying Valentine's day and anniversary presents, we would find something to do together and spend some quality time. the first year, Seth was sick, but at least we were together. the next 2 years, a favorite band of ours, Trampled by Turtles, played at Twin Ports Brew Fest near Duluth. this year, the band decided not to play the venue and a different band was playing. we still debated going, but then we decided to do something different this year. Friday morning, while daddy cleared the snow, Eleanor played outside on the swing set. then we headed down to Minneapolis to the Depot hotel. They have a waterpark that is perfect for younger children. I would highly reccomend this place! especially on a friday afternoon. they open at noon and since school wasn't out yet, we had the place pretty much to ourselves! ( there was one other family there for part of the time) the kids had a blast! we played for about 3 hours and then we took the kids to Grandma Cindy's house for the night.

Seth and I had a dinner date and then came back to the hotel to watch a movie. dinner was at Haute Dish and it was awesome! a little on the spendy side, but the food was excellent! I had a sampler platter that started with a sweet potato soup shooter with marshmallow foam, followed by a salad, the highlight being the candied onions but the whole thing was excellent. then I had crab macaroni cheese and tater tot Haute Dish ( basically 2 croquettes, some super tender roast beef and green beans). Seth had pig and fish. some salt cod, proscuitto wrapped pork tenderloin, pork belly and clams over white bean puree. everything was very good as was the service.

we went back to the room and watched the Hunger Games. We both read all the books but don't have time to watch adult movies very often. It was good, but of course could not live up to the books. In the morning, we walked down to Hell's Kitchen and had yet another amazing meal. and then we picked up the kids and returned to reality.

Winter Wonderland

Wednesday, Eleanor spent the night at her cousin Oliver's with Grammy and Grampy and they took them to the mall of america to go on rides on thursday. It was wierd not having her around but she sure had a blast!

We enjoyed having the weekend off together. We got our taxes done and our very old tv decided to expire, so we went out and got a new one. We also got Eleanor a new game for the wii, Nickolodeon characters just dance. She was very excited and super cute dancing all weekend. (it also has all of my favorite kid show jingles in one convenient spot! yay!)

Sunday, we hunkered down while it snowed and then got outside to play in it. we finally got a snowman built (it is now bending over and only a matter of time until it falls :( )

watching the birds at the bird feeder

my new glasses arrived earlier this week... still getting used to them!

Ben, relaxing in his sister's hat

Eleanor loved playing outside! I think she could of stayed out there all day!

Ben wasn't too sure what to think....

Eleanor eating a snow "pear"

Our little dare devil climbed right up to get a good view of Daddy using the snowblower!

Ben, enjoying a snack after coming inside

snuggling on the couch early morning

a weekend to celebrate

after working a few extra shifts this week, it was nice to spend the weekend with family... friday was a low key evening with just the 4 of us at home. Saturday, we headed to my moms for lunch and then she watched the kids in the evening while we went out to Gasthof's (don't think I spelled it right but oh well) with Ron and Teryl and Em and Corey to celebrate Teryl's retirement and their upcoming trip to Germany. it was wonderful food and a fun experience. after dinner, Seth and I headed to St Paul to my cousin's house for a party to celebrate my aunt's birthday.... an extra special one this year since she has been battling with cancer recently. It was nice to see a lot of my family that I don't see very often!