Celebrating the 4th in the Twin Cities!

While we were in Michigan, we decided to drive home through Minnesota and stop for a couple of days to visit our "old" friends. The last time we were in the Twin Cities was 3 years ago before we moved out to Colorado!

Our friends, Matt and Katie Schaap, were so gracious to let us stay with them, even though Katie had to work the whole weekend!

We celebrated the 4th of July with our former neighbors, the Banats, from Como Student Community Cooperative, part of the University of Minnesota's family student housing. We went with them to a parade in Saint Anthony Park (where the Banats now live), which is very near our old apartment. It was so good visiting with them and also seeing places where we used to spend a lot of time--our local library, Luther Seminary, Speedy Mart, and various shops and restaurants.

Bryan and Silas in front of the Finnish Bistro (formerly Taste of Scandinavia--yummy food and Dunn Bros. freshly roasted coffee), a favorite hangout of ours.

The boys watching the parade.

The Banats had us over for a BBQ lunch after the parade. Here are Eli and Silas snacking with Sami and Pia after running through the sprinkler.

Me and Andrea, both due the end of the summer with baby #3!

Bryan and Nael

We took the opportunity to drive through both the Minneapolis and St. Paul U of MN campuses and stop by our old apartment, which was home for our first 5 years of marriage. Since this was also Eli's first home, we took pictures of him outside the entryway and also outside our old apartment door. We have a lot of fond memories from 1007 C!!

A special part of our visit included some time spent with our dear friend, Bonnie Oberloh. When we lived in Minnesota, Bonnie and her husband Larry led our church small group and also became very close friends, mentors, and honorary parents/grandparents to us and Eli. Sadly, Larry passed away a year ago from a long struggle with colon cancer, and we were able to reminisce with Bonnie about our times with Larry and how the past 3 years had gone for them. It was a blessing for us to hear of Larry's legacy and to see how God is working now in Bonnie's life!

Bonnie (ever the teacher!) reading to our boys.

Bonnie's daughter Heather and her family were able to stop by for a short time to see us. Here is Silas playing with Ferdinand and Dominic.

We were also blessed by spending some time with our good friends, Elizabeth and Daniel Thompson, and their adorable baby Grace. It was a testimony to God's grace and power to hear of how He's been working in their lives as well.

We also saw many other good friends from church at a 4th of July party we were invited to. I sadly have no pictures as Eli got sick all over the Lings' couch (it was pretty awful), so we decided to forget the fireworks and leave to put him to bed.
The next morning I was able to have a nice breakfast (minus Bryan and our boys since Eli was sick) with our friends, Steven and Robin Lee, their son Sammy and new baby Melina.
Before we left for home, we also had the opportunity to attend worship at Faith CRC, our former church, and saw many more friends and friendly faces. :) It was a whirlwind of a trip--only 2 days--and with Eli getting sick it put a bit of a damper on our ability to see everyone we wanted to see, but despite that (and the astronomical cost of gasoline!), we were glad to be back in a place very special to us!