Friday, October 12, 2007

Lovely Minneapolis

As I write this a month later, I consider our time in Minneapolis as the perfect ending to a great journey. Both of my sisters live in fair Mpls but only one of them was home when we visited. Although I was sad not to see Mik and Mac while we were there, it was also our good fortune that she was away because we were able to stay in her apartment just a block away from the Dunks (sister Ali and brother in law Rob, cousins Alex and Gracie). I have a lot of photos from this time but for once those aren't as important as what actually happened, which was a whole lot of Not Much. We spent ten days in Mik's apartment, usually joining the Dunks in the evening but not always. They have busy lives and we were definitely a disruption, but our time together was wonderful. We caught the zoo and the science museum and IKEA and watched lots of movies at home. For me, our time in Mpls was very valuable because I was able to slow waaaaaay down and spend a lot of time just thinking, being, and processing everything that had come before. I gained some insights into what I needed and wanted to do when I returned home and by the time we left all three of us were centered and ready to return. I'll always have fond memories of my morning dash out for Caribou coffee while the kids watched videos in the apartment and the late night movie watching at the Dunks. An unremarkable, quite remarkable time.


This here is something that only happens to me and my sister. On our first night we tried to open a bottle of wine and the whole neck broke off! We had to strain it through the coffee strainer to drink it (you didn't think we would pour it down the drain, did you?)




The girls got along pretty well, although Eli was more interested in her big cousin Alex than in playing with Gracie, who is only 16 days older.



The boys had a good time comparing their Photo Booth creations.



A rare photo op where the whole gang was together.



Museum visit. It was 89 degrees that day and two days later it was in the low 50's. Ahh, the Midwest.

2 comments:

Danielle said...

Nope. Sorry. I've done the whole wine bottle thing, and yes, of course, I drank it too, but not without much angst and terrible imaginings of all the glass shards wreaking havoc on my intestines.

(Ummm, I did mention that I work really hard not to fall into that worst case scenario negativity thing, didn't I? Yup. My name is Danielle, and I'm a recovering obsessive. ;)

mere5oh said...

I am gla you enjoyed the apartment! I wish the boy and I were there to see you guys. We sure do miss you a lot! But, at least we can catch up and follow our families here and we'll see you soon, when I return to New Mexico to graduate in May! Thanks for the spice rack also! I am going to place it over my stove. We love you all!!