The Helleen Twins are 30!

Thirty. 3-0. It's a big birthday, and this past Saturday Mitch waved goodbye to his twenties and welcomed his 30's. My brother-in-law Mike and I put our heads together a few months ago attempting to plan a special birthday extravaganza for Mitch and Jennie. After brainstorming different party ideas and concepts, we noticed a common theme - beer. We did a little research and settled on a day-long bus tour visiting local breweries.

During our planning process, we managed to keep all the details a secret. Mitch and Jennie were told they had plans for the day, but we kept the specifics to a minimum. Days leading up to their birthday, Mitch was speculating. I told him we needed to make sure the house was clean before Saturday (since Rachel was coming over to hang with Harper, this was also a detail he was unaware of). Thursday night Mitch was on a cleaning spree. He was cleaning out closets, vacuuming floors, and organizing rooms. While he worked, I went about my normal Thursday routine. Made dinner, played with Harper, watched some TV. Finally around 9pm, I told him to sit down since he was making me anxious running around like crazy person. That's when he said, "Well, we need to get this done. Are we just meeting here? There's not a big group coming?" When I explained that only one person was coming, Rachel - to hang with Harper and no big group was coming to our house he responded, "you bamboozled me!"

Leading up to Saturday, he kept throwing out guesses. I finally told him I had three pieces of advice for him. 

1.) Get a good night sleep Friday. 

2.) Be ready to leave the house at 10:30am Saturday. 

3.) Plan to pace yourself, it's going to be a long day. 

All was going according to plan, and we were out the door by 10:30am. All 16 of us met in Hopkins at Mike & Jennie's house ready for a day full of breweries. Our tour guide, Betsy showed up and we shared our plan with the birthday pair. We all piled onto the bus, ready for our first stop - Fulton Brewery.  

We walked into the Minneapolis brewery around Noon, ready to start the day! After trying several samples, and grabbing a pint (I enjoyed one of their specialty sodas, Citrus Ginger was incredible!) we walked behind the closed doors to the brewery. The tour was very informative, and the story was fascinating. Just regular ole' guys making beer in an alley in South Minneapolis, that spiraled into a booming business. It was a great first stop, next up - Flat Earth.

We ventured to St. Paul for our second brewery, Flat Earth. The vibe was totally different from Fulton. It was an older building, with furniture that looked like it came out of college frat house. Guests didn't seem to mind, since samples were unlimited and the drinks were cold. The owner gave us a quick rundown of the brewery history, which was very different from Fulton - but still very interesting. The facility was scarce since they're moving to a new site in a couple weeks. After an hour of laughs and drinks, we were on our was to the third and final stop.   

It was back to Minneapolis for our last brewery. We walked into Harriet Brewing and I immediately loved the vibe. The splashes of bright paint on the walls and the jazz music blaring from the Tap Room, it was the perfect hangout spot. After a short introduction, they passed out our drink tickets and sent us to the Tap Room. People grabs their pints and enjoyed the dim warehouse setting, with local artwork hanging on every wall. The live jazz band gave the coolest low key vibe, and it was such a fun spot!

It was so interesting to see the differences of all three breweries, but they all shared one thing. The passion and love for brewing, and to hear the support each business received from family, friends and complete strangers was inspiring. 

Our first celebration was complete, and we headed home to get ready for the next set of festivities. 

We came home to pick up Harper, and quickly headed to Rojo for a birthday dinner. The West End restaurant is one of my favorites. As usual, I binged on entirely too many chips and salsa and still managed to eat all of my dinner with no problem. It was such a great family dinner, and I know it was special to Mitch to have everyone there to ring in this special day. 

Afterwards, Harper spent the night with Grandma & Papa Schumer (thanks again) and we ventured next door to Cooper for post-dinner birthday drinks. Several friends met us at the bar to have a drink with the birthday twins. Since it was a long day, we didn't stay out too late. By midnight, we were in the car eager to get home.

I think Mitch and Jennie enjoyed their special day. They absolutely deserved it. I don't think Mitch was looking forward to this birthday milestone, but with so many exciting things in our future - it's sure to be even better than his 20's! Plus, 30 looks great on you mister! :)

Until next time...

The Helleen's