Weekend Away

I think I've mentioned on here before that I'm not one of those moms who needs constant "me time" or really any sort of consistent "me time" for that matter. However, once in awhile I get to a point in my life, well, a point in my mood, when I "need to get out....now!!!!! Several weeks ago I had one of those moments and I just needed out. Problem was, there was no way I could get "out" at that particular moment in time. I'm not very good at scheduling my meltdowns and this one happened right before a major performance of my husbands. Oops. So, I decided to give myself something to look forward to. We tried to go see some dear friends 4 hours away, but a last minute decision was made not to and the weather confirmed that decision by being nasty. So I planned something that I had been wanting to plan ever since we moved here almost 4 year ago. A trip down to the Cities. And to add to the fun I called my favorite sister to see if she wanted to meet us there. And the rest, as they say (when they want to be completely predictable) is history! Here I am with my favorite sister at the Minnesota Children's Museum. A blonde and semi-red head..yeah, we are seldom taken for sisters. The lighting wasn't particularly fantastic and there must have been a "puffy-eye monster" lurking somewhere, but here's the one and only picture of the two of us that weekend.

My sister's youngest drawing a picture.

Veronica was not sure what the goat was doing on the roof, but Brett assured her that goats do indeed like to jump on the roof. That's Emma in the background riding a....uh...rooster, I think.

Cousins, minus the one that was at my feet not wanting to take a picture. So really, this picture should be called siblings + 1 cousin.

Lauren (who's 1 year older and a couple inches taller than Emma), Emma, and Gigi are posing with the cool headbands that Jocie made for them.

Doesn't she look cute and ready to swim? Oh yeah...him too. Only one of them went in the water, and it wasn't the redhead in the pink swimsuit.

Weekend recap: Children's Museum, Mall of America which of course included the American Girl Store, Legostore, Rainforest Cafe, we had ice cream for lunch because we couldn't find anywhere to eat in the food court and the sitdown restaurants were full, after walking what felt like 20 miles in one day we went back to the hotel and swam (I sat and watched my feet swell, that was a new experience), the kids watched a movie and the adults had a drink and chatted, we slept, woke up to a new 2-year-old, ate at the IHOP, went to Mass at our bishop's former parish (lovely!), and drove home. Turns out my sister headed to the zoo after breakfast...I always new she was the crazy one.

Needless to say, we had an absolute BLAST! It was great reconnecting with our niece and nephew and always fun seeing my sister.