A Saturday Scrum

My cousin Tiffany has been playing rugby 

in Duluth for a few years now.

Lucky for us, she finally had a game in town against NDSU,

so we could watch her do her thing.

The whole family came out to watch.

We basically made up the entire cheering section for Duluth!

It's a pretty physical game.

I'd never been to a match before,

but we had recently watched Invictus 

so I figured that pretty much made Adam & I experts on the sport.

 Walter got his hands on a ball,

but he opted to play with this mini football instead.

Sorry Tiff!

But it may just have been that the football actually fit in his hands.

10K Fans

Remember this embarrassing confession,
followed by this post,
documenting my triumphant return to running!
Well, it was around that time that I talked to
some friends about running the 10K at the FM mini-marathon.
A few weeks after I committed,
I found out I was prego and became not as interested in running.
But that didn't stop us from coming out to cheer on my friends.

We grabbed some coffee and then set up shop on this corner.

We had a good view of the runners coming around the bend,

and Walt and I cheered them on!

We soon discovered we had already missed

some of the ladies we came to see,

so we decided to pack it up and find a new location.

We moved over to the homecoming stretch of the race,

and saw my pal Janna finishing up,

as well as Katie and Kari.

By this time Walt had had enough of his stroller.

He loved walking around on the blocked-off street.

He even took off running himself,

no doubt there will be races in his future!

Congrats Alissa & Janna on a 10K well run!

You ladies did great.

Also, next time I say I'll run a race with you guys,

I swear I'll do it. (As long as I'm not pregnant!)

My Little Pumpkin at the Patch

This fall, I took Walter on his first trip to a pumpkin patch.

He liked walking around on his own,

and checking out all of the pumpkins.

Kaitlyn and Lexi joined us,

so we did fun things like measure our height,

and stick our faces behind cutouts.

That was as close as Walter would get

to sticking his face in the hole.

The girls climbed up on this big painted hay bale,

but Walt stuck with this little one, much closer to the ground.

We went out into the patch,

 where you could pick your own pumpkin right off the vine,

and then we walked through the yard

and looked at all of the already-picked pumpkins.

He kept wanting to pick them up,

so Lexi helped him hold one.

He eventually got tuckered out -

so he took little rest in the grass before we headed home.

Since it Still Feels Like Summer....

We may as well have one good last summer grillin' meal.

So, for today's Meal Plan Monday, burgers it is!

Grab some onion soup mix and worcestershire sauce -

and mix it into your hamburger.

Husk some sweet corn -

and get it boiling on the stove.

Then, slice up some onion,

 and saute them in a pan.

While you're at it, slice up some avocado as well.

 Once your burgers are done,  

 get your buns -

(Even Adam, the white bread king,

loves these 100% natural multi-grain thin buns!)

and assemble a monstrous cheeseburger

topped with ketchup, avocado, and grilled onions. 

Complete your meal with sweet corn and potato chips.

And with that we can say -

So long summer meals!

You were delicious while you lasted.

I'm Baaaaack!

Thanks to my storage fiasco, I'm way behind.
So here, finally, is September's Sweet Journey post.
September's dessert was:

Divine Brownies

My first step was to measure out some

semi-sweet chocolate chips and butter.

Then I threw them into a bowl

and popped it in the microwave to melt.

 In the meantime, I gathered a few more ingredients:

eggs, sugar, and salt.

 I tossed them all into my KitchenAid,

and beat it until it looked like this.

 Next, I grabbed my melted butter and chocolate chips,

 and added it to the mixing bowl. 

 After a quick stir -

 this is what the batter looked like.

 The last ingredient to add was flour.

After stirring it in, 

 the batter was done!

 I spread it into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan,

and baked these babies for about 25 minutes.

I've always made my brownies from a box mix,

so these homemade ones were a real treat and easy to do. 

As always, you can find the full calendar recipe below. Enjoy!

Divine Brownies
9 1/2 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
3 large eggs
1 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. all-purpose flour

Preheat oen to 350 degrees. Grease or butter 9x13" pan and line bottom with parchment paper. Melt butter and chocolate together over a double boiler or in the microwave, making sure to use short increments of time between stirring. Stir until completely smooth. Beat eggs, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl until combined. Beat in chocolate mixture. Fold in flour until fully incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.