there's no place like a place with family

last weekend, we got to spend a long weekend (4 days!) in mn with my side of the family. it was so wonderful. we originally planned to have a nice, chill weekend at my sister and brother-in-law's new house, but like most weekends we go up, there are a lot of people to see and much to be done, so chill it was (mostly) not. BUT fun was most definitely had.

we got in late on thursday night, and ruby of course, perked right up when we pulled in the driveway. so we stayed up a bit and chatted with my sister, lisa & lucien. finally got to sleep and friday I got to spend a bunch of time with ruby & maren, one of my nieces. they are a hoot together. they're both pretty chill (albeit LOUD) and really fun to watch. we made a target trip, had lunch, and shuttled my sister to and from a doctor's appointment.

during said trip to target, lisa and I picked up hair dye so we would look fly for our dad's 60th bday party on friday night.

yeah, so that didn't work out quite as planned. lisa's looked great, but mine? well, it turned out mine had the wrong color mix in the box (red mix, brown box) resulting in me getting a very unpleasant hair dye surprise. it was really, really red. so, as to be expected, i panicked, went to dinner, and drank beer. (we went to buca's. dad loved his golf membership and the pasta was wonderful, per the usual.) also, my oldest sister, wendy, and her kids were at lisa's, too, so it was fun to hang with them.

saturday morning was spent attempting to locate a salon to correct my red hair debacle. when no openings were available in minneapolis, I called the aveda school in milwaukee, made an appointment for tuesday (today) morning, and committed to developing my alter ego ("sage", per my sister's recommendation) for the rest of the weekend. (and to be fair, after a few shampoos, the color was not that bad. it actually looked kinda cool. it just wasn't "me".)

however, it was very rocker-chick, which worked because lisa, lu, and I went to First Avenue on saturday night and lost our ever-loving minds in some amazing music. it was the perfect night, topped off with meeting the lead singer of cloud cult. eek! beer was drank, music was danced to, shenanigans ensued, and all was right in the world.

sunday was spent nursing a pretty significant (and well-worth-it!) headache while celebrating maren's birthday at a train store. it was actually a very cool location and it seemed like all the kids had fun.

sunday evening was the one chill time of the weekend and it was much needed and enjoyed. got to visit with my other sister sam, and her new beau, jesse & watched Food, Inc. with lisa.

monday we left in frigid, freezing, holy-crap-it's-cold temperatures and made it home by late afternoon. it was a much-needed trip just before ruby's neuro appointment today (more about that later) because i would have just sat at home worrying, if we had been home. it's hard to come back & leave family, but also nice to be back at our house.

and here's a photobomb of our weekend. enjoy! (especially the one of ruby in her wig. very niiiice, rubinski.)