Summer Family Outings + Button Tanks / My Monochromatic Life

This post contains affiliate links. Please read my full disclaimer here.

Welcome to Friday! Who is ready for the freakin' weekend? This gal! It is officially the last month of what most would consider summer time and I want to make the most of it. Who's with me? Hoping to have some sunny afternoons again to play with my little miss and spend some time with the family. What are you up to?

On my Monday post this week I mentioned that I had a very busy weekend. We literally had plans every day. It was really fun, but kind of tiring. Instead of making Monday's post unbearably long I thought I would break it up. The first part of my weekend, the brewery tour, deserved it's own posting. The rest of my weekend was very family, kid-centric. Kind of a different vibe, haha.

Saturday was the family reunion on D's side. Every year at the end of July D's father's side gets together at a beach to eat food, play games and just be together. Every year the crowd changes. Some years we have lots of people (they have a big family) other years it can be quieter. This year was a quiet year, which in some ways was ok because Reese just wanted to walk around. This left me unable to do much socializing. We rent a pavilion, which is nice so you can get out of the sun when it is too hot. They also have a decent little beach, with sand and everything. We brought Reese's bathing suit but not ours assuming she would just walk around and splash. She loved the lake the last couple of times we went so I thought it would be no problem. Turned out I was wrong. She hated it. The last two times we jumped in the lake off of the boat and we were just floating with her. I honestly think the sand overall freaked her out. She hasn't really been in the sand before and even at home, she doesn't like the unevenness of our grass sometimes. We tried to play with her and dunk her in a bit but she couldn't quite get past it. I think if we had brought our suits and swam with her further out she would have been fine, but all she wanted was for us to pick her up. Eventually, I just sat with her on the beach on our towel and visited with my in-laws. It was pretty adorable so I wasn't going to complain. Later that night I was exhausted and legit passed out at 8:30 PM. No shame in my game.

Sunday we finally took Reese to the zoo. I have been wanting to for so long and we didn't go last year because she was way too small. This summer, weekends have gotten so busy we just haven't had the time. In Minnesota, we have two zoos, Como Zoo or the Minnesota Zoo. Honestly, the Minnesota Zoo is the superior zoo. It is much larger and has better exhibits. This one does have a charge and is a bit further away. Como is a bit smaller and free. I wasn't sure how Reese would do so we thought best to test her out at the smaller one.

In the end I am glad we did. We brought our big stroller so we could try to contain her, which worked for about 2.5 seconds. She has a strong independent streak and just wanted to walk by herself. It was pretty great though to see her excited. We started in the monkey house with some smaller monkeys. As soon as she saw them she perked up and then looked at me and I snapped this great face.

Her attention span for each area only lasted a minute or two and then she wanted to keep walking. We walked around the whole place, maybe took 1.5-2hours before heading home. It was plenty enough time and she definitely enjoyed it which was the whole point anyway.

For the #momlife part of my weekend, I needed to wear something comfortable, casual but chic. There are definitely days where I wear tee shirts and leggings (read: every night) but when I am out and about I like to keep it cute. I was out and about at Target the other day and came across this top from their A New Day collection. I have been looking for a top like this for a while that didn't make me look like I was wearing a maternity top. I loved the thick straps and the straight neckline. It is a look I have been favoring but so far could not find one that looked good on my body type. I could not recommend this one enough. I have worn this top twice now, once with these shorts and once with a cut off jean both adorable. I went with the shorts this weekend because it was pretty hot and we were going to be outside. I will say I think it looks best with a more fitted bottom because the top is so blousy and boxy. It needs to be paired with something more fitted. I loved this with these black shorts I got at a local boutique. Y'all know I love black and white and the fold over part of this short just felt like a summer dockside vibe. I finished the look with my favorite tan sandals, a fun lariat necklace and this hat that is basically my go-to on sunny days.