Visit from the Deans of Mattapoisett

Come outside and play!

Jay's parents and his brother Greg visited the past 4 days and got some amazing weather and quality time with Sir Lucas. We visited the aquarium at the Mall of America (what would a trip to the Twin Cities be without a stop at the MOA?), the Children's Museum in St. Paul, went to cousin Ingrid's 2nd birthday party (a Malawian theme!), watched some March Madness (good season, Syracuse!), ate some good food, and spent a lot of time lounging around the house. Jay went on a bike ride to Lake Harriet with his Dad, Bunny's (the local sports bar) with Greg, and saw The Hunger Games with his Mom (cuz everyone else was!).

Lucas loved spending time with his grandparents and his uncle and will sorely miss all of the extra attention he got.

"Nana Dean" with Lucas and Karen on the front stoop.

Jack Dean helped sweep these annoying things that fell from our  trees.

Uncle Greg with Lucas on a big rig at the MOA.

Thanks to Kristy and Brian and Ingrid for an amazing Malawian birthday party today!

Settling in...

Hopefully the followers of our California blog have not deserted us after a six-month blog hiatus, but nevertheless we are back - reporting live from our new home in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

We arrived in MN at the tail end of June and stayed with Karen's parents in Inver Grove Heights (on the St. Paul side of the River) while we looked to purchase our first home. Jay started working at The Blake School in August while Karen got us set up with doctors and address changes, etc. etc. etc.

In early October, we finally moved into our first house on Raleigh Avenue in St. Louis Park - in a neighborhood filled with 2-year-olds for Lucas to play with and young parents like us. On only our second official night here, we went to a Raleigh Block Party and met everyone and, after becoming hermits for the winter, have already reconnected with our new friends - sitting on the front lawn and grilling together.

Karen now works at Blake part-time in the 4th grade classroom on the same campus with Jay. Meanwhile, Lucas spends three days a week at daycare and two days with Grandma and Grandpa.

Now that the weather is getting nice again (and I know - I've been told a million times - I can't complain about this year's winter), we are excited about the fun times we know we'll have this spring and summer.

Some highlights in photos:

Lucas on the front stoop on Halloween. Grrr!

Grandma made Lucas and his cousins dress as gnomes for Halloween. They loved it!

Lucas scoping out his new neighborhood on Move In Day.

Playing the violin at Rock The Cradle at the Minnesota Institute of the Arts.

Riding giraffes with cousin Ingrid at the Como Zoo.

Tractor riding at the corn maze.

Zooming around on the trike at physical therapy.

Happy to be sitting on our new zebra ottoman.

Lucas got inspired by kids on the 7-12 co-ed basketball team at the Courage Center.