Happy Birthday to my Besties Baby!

Seems not that long ago Jen and Chris' relationship started blooming ...

then becoming serious .... then a wedding date was set ... then the Big Day arrived ...

followed 16 months later by their best blessing yet: Johnathan James Aswegan!

This past weekend I traveled to Iowa to help Jen & Chris celebrate their 1 year anniversary of being parents, as marked by John's first birthday bash!

The theme, of course, was fish!  "John Caught the Big ONE!"

It was so much fun watching John's family adore him and ooh and aah over him and his reactions to his presents and his cake!  He was in a great mood for the party and managed all that attention very well!

The Birthday Boy is prepped for his cake!

 

John's best gift: a new fish pole and life jacket!  And of course, in Iowa Hawkeye colors!

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After the party festivities, we cleaned up and headed back to the Aswegan home so John could settle in for a nap and Jen and I, along with Kayla "Fishy" Fish, got ready for an evening out!

Our evening started at a local wine bar in Mt Vernon.  A quaint little place called the Lincoln Wine Bar.  It is a very intimate little bar that offers a great selection of wine and unique foods.  We opted for the wild mushroom brick oven pizza with a nice bottle of malbec wine.

Kayla   - - -  Jen - - -  Tiffany

our bottle of malbec at The Lincoln Wine Bar in Mt. Vernon

After the wine bar we went to three local bars in Lisbon (just behind Jen's house, literally!).  We enjoyed fried pickles and interesting conversations at Whitey's before moving onto two different drinking establishments: The Three Finger Saloon and um, can't remember the name of the last one (things got fuzzy at that one!).

We were good girls and were home by midnight.  Chris had to work early Sunday morning, so Jen had to plan accordingly to be prepared to be up bright and early with John.  And bright and early it was!  6:30 seems to be his natural rising hour and Sunday morning offered no changes to that!  Thankfully, I got to sleep a bit longer than that and slept until about 8am.  I had plans to meet my dad and Susan at the Village Inn in Cedar Rapids for breakfast. I had been dreaming of my Ultimate Skillet since I rolled into town Friday afternoon!

We got done with breakfast about 10:30 and I headed home!  That was a particularly long and boring drive ... compounded by my aching foot (I had been on it much more than I should have been, no doubt!).

I got home a little after 4:00 and got things all settled in for the work week to come!  Really enjoyed my weekend with my bestie and her family!