Minneapolis

This weekend we took a trip up to Minneapolis to spend some time with Jeff and Kendra before the AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) annual meeting. We stayed in the heart of the city and did fancy city-things like take a taxi to dinner and get lost. I think I was most surprised by the actual city-ness of the area; who would've thought the skyline would be nicer than Milwaukee's? Saturday morning we walked down to the river/mill district and enjoyed the sunshine. We found an old mill that has been converted into a museum and everyone and their baby (literally) were having a photo shoot. It was a pretty cool place for pictures, so Jeff snapped a few of us and we had an impromptu shoot. He makes us look so good...

I touched up this one for Facebook, but this right here is the au naturale version

I really like this one, but it's an unflattering shot of Daniel's hair and it makes him sad to look at it

After walking back to the hotel, we dropped Jeff off at a meeting and took off for the Mall of America. Oh. My. Goodness. It was the most intense shopping experience of my life. We probably saw half of it and we were there for more than 4 hours. There was so much to see and so many people and there was literally every store I could ever imagine.

A store dedicated to Christmas tree ornaments? Check.

Marshall's? Check

Best Buy? Check.

Alpaca Connection? Check.

Lego store? Triple check.

2.5 story Lego transformer and helicopter with Lego man

Lego dragon that wound around the store

Daniel and Lego Woody

(Not pictured: Lego caveman and mountain lion)

After the mall we went back to the hotel and then took a taxi to the original Buca di Beppo. It was delicious and we were able to get seated right away even though we didn't make a reservation. We walked back to the hotel after that and got a feel for the nightlife of Minneapolis, then played cards and watched the re-broadcast of the BYU vs. Oregon State football game, but the connection was yucky so we mostly played cards.

This morning we checked out of the hotel, drove Jeff and Kendra to the airport so they could pick up a rental car, and we went to sacrament meeting at a local ward. Daniel and I sat down and started talking about introducing ourselves when we see people visiting in our own ward and how it's awkward to say, "Are you new?" because they may not be new, you just might not be attentive, and I suggested saying "Have we met?" or some other form of that instead and literally 30 seconds later a member of the bishopric came over and asked "Have I introduced myself?" It was a sweet confirmation and we realized how lucky we are to be part of a church that is really invested in its people.

Daniel's brother, Mark, is serving a mission in Peru right now and yesterday we bought him the most amazing gift ever at Alpaca Connection...

It's an alpaca made of alpaca (we realize the horror of the situation), and it is seriously the softest thing in the world. Mark likes alpacas and has said several times that he is going to bring one home from Peru, so we thought we'd give him a chance to do so and decided this would be a good birthday/Christmas present for him. The store had several to choose from and we like Mark's so much we might buy another one for us!

The only downside of our trip is that somewhere along the way I got sick, probably from being in the chill yesterday. My nose is stuffy and runny at the same time and my sinuses hurt. We're leaving a little early tomorrow so I can pick up some medicine before work. It's okay though, this weekend was worth it :)

-Jenn