Minnesota Side Trip

So you know how we went on a 20 hour car ride to get from Texas to Illinois? And it was so looong.

Why not tack on another 6 hour trip? Somehow Sean convinced me to go on another drive to Minnesota. He served his mission in Minneapolis/St. Paul and has been itching to return for years. The opportunity was too perfect to not take advantage. Into the car we went to spend two days in the land of 10,000 lakes.

I got to meet some of the people with whom Sean worked. This is Ka Ying, the mother of a whole family that joined the church. Two funny things:

1) She would not smile when the camera was out. I got lucky in capturing this one of her smirk.

2) She would always grab a prop to present when I was taking pictures. Like these two bobble-headed puppies. (One of those puppies is for you, Pursers)

Here's one of her daughters. The whole family was so kind and welcoming. I usually didn't know what was going on since they were speaking in Hmong but it was still so fun and it was wonderful to meet the people that mean so much to Sean.

I could understand when Ka Ying kept telling me, "I luh yoo." Aw.

We drove through the twin cities for a while. Sean was so funny, half the time exclaiming his shock that he was back in Minnesota and the other half telling stories about the places we passed. And occasionally he'd mutter something in Hmong, seeing if he remembered all his vocabulary.

Being in Minnesota, we had to make a trip to the Mall of America. We mostly just walked around the different levels and window shopped. My favorite store was called The Afternoon (I think)- it sold fun, unique books, jewelry, decor, etc. It had a nice eclectic style. Our only purchases were a couple of Minnesota Twins onesies- I know I know, they're division rivals with the Sox but how could I not buy Twins gear for my twins?

We also made a quick trip to the Walker Art Center. Since we were on a tight schedule, we only walked around the sculpture gardens outside. We found some delights.

It had just rained and water stuck in this meshy wall. So many Seans!

This semi-reflective glass panel let us see what Sean and I would look like as one person. Trippy.

This is what the boys have been doing like crazy and what one artist decided to chisel into marble. I identified.

Cherry pickin'.

Boy, I tells ya, Sean l-o-v-e-d this trip. Good thing I let him convince me to go!