Groovy Girls

I have so much I want to write about my trip with my girls…but I am tired, my brain is mush after the past few days I’ve had, and I can’t seem to formulate very many coherent thoughts. I will just say this for now, with more to come as my mind settles and I take care of some things that are pressing right now: It was outstanding. Wonderful. Groovy. I have wanted to take a trip like this for several years now, but I never took the time to actually do it.  Wonderful is an understatement.

I’m so thrilled to finally have done it. Our plans changed a couple of times, and instead of heading south through Memphis, I ended up driving north through Iowa, ending up in Minneapolis. We spent two days shopping  til we dropped at Mall of America, and a day on a beautiful lake in St. Louis Park, MN.

For now, here are some photos and random thoughts of things that made me smile, laugh and just generally made me happy—so many fun memories to last a lifetime. For me, one of the best parts of the trip was seeing how silly Lauren and Rachel were and how much they enjoyed each other’s company. I love how their personalities are so different, yet they are both very comfortable being their true selves, even when they are being weird and dumb. I love that they have the confidence that I have never had to be who they are, and I soaked it in like a sponge. If I have done nothing else as a mom, I’m glad I have encouraged them to be who they are.  I absolutely love  the young women they are growing into, and I wish I would have been even half as confident and secure when I was their ages.

Anyway, here are the highlights of our trip.  

*At IKEA, they thought it would be hilarious to set all of the kitchen timers to go off at the same time. My first reaction/thought was to be the stern adult and make them stop, but I didn’t. They wanted to go back in an hour and see how people reacted when a whole bin of timers started buzzing. (We didn’t)

 

*They both went through the entire bedding department at IKEA making beds. They probably made more beds at IKEA than they have made in their life in their own rooms.

*More IKEA craziness—they found this little egg shaped chair in the children’s department that they curled up in, pulled a curtain over the top, and then asked me to spin them around. They got quite a few looks and lots of laughter from other shoppers passing by as they unfolded their long legs and bodies out of the chair.

 

*At Lake Calhoun, they found a playground meant for little kids, but they didn’t care, and I gotta admit, it was rather entertaining watching them run around and play and act like little girls.

 

*They tried on silly hats nearly everywhere we went…Huckleberry Finn hats, Minnesota Viking  hats, raccoon hats at truck stops. They did the same thing when we were in Texas; I think these girls have a weird hat obsession.

*Before we left, they made a bucket list. Some of the items on that list were not going to happen no matter what, like adopting a puppy, but we tried to fit other wishes from their list into the trip.

*They wanted to ride a boat, and while this isn’t what they likely had in mind, it was fun anyway, even if we were a couple of wimpy chicks who did more floating than pedaling. That is HARD work! It was the only time during the entire trip that we wished Tony was with us.

 

*Something else that was on their bucket list was to eat food we hadn’t eaten before. One day for lunch, we had crepes. They were so delicious—Rachel had pepperoni pizza, Lauren had a turkey club, and I had veggie. I also ate a fish taco at The Tin Fish when we were at Lake Calhoun. My mouth waters a week later thinking about that fish taco.

 

*Another item on their bucket list was to go zip lining. That didn’t happen either. However, we did find an awesome but monstrous climbing apparatus inside Mall of America called The Ghostly Gangplank, and they insisted on taking it on. Me? I was more than happy just to keep my feet safely planted on the ground and take photos while I drank coffee and tried to keep myself from having a panic attack. I think it would have been better-named if it was called The Ghastly Gangplank, but the girls loved it, and it was worth spending $12 for them to do it.

The next picture cracks me up. The girls had to spend .50 each on these cute blue shorts that were made out of plastic-coated paper because their own shorts were too short. I love how Rachel had to roll the waistband on hers to make them shorter. :)

Finally, just because, here are a few of my favorite pictures from our  travels:

*Lauren took these photos of some flowers at Lake Calhoun. She was trying to take “artistic photos.”  I think they turned out quite lovely considering they were taken with my phone.

*Some pictures from Lake Calhoun:

 

*when Rachel was climbing out of the pedal boat, she accidentally dropped her iPod in the lake. Lauren didn’t hesitate and got in to look for it. After 20 minutes of searching the murky lake with her feet on the muddy bottom, she actually found it! And amazingly, after Rachel stored it in a bag of rice for a couple of days, it still works.

 

*I don’t typically buy souvenirs for myself when I go on trips, but I couldn’t resist this pendant:

 

I bought it at a shop full of jewelry made by Minnesota jewelry artists. The stone in the center is a moonstone, and while I’m not sure if I really believe in the healing properties of gemstones, the moonstone is said to aid communication by promoting clear thinking and inspiration as well as assisting in the balancing of emotions. I can use all the help I can get! Really, I just bought it because I think it’s really pretty and I was drawn to it in the store.

I also bought myself a Minnesota coffee mug that was made by a local artist.

 

This isn’t quite the post I thought I would be writing after our trip, but hopefully, that one will come soon. We had such a fun time. That sounds very simplistic, which is okay with me, because it was. It was a fun time with just me and the girls, and it was such a letdown when we got home because I could have spent double the amount of time on our trip that we had. On our way home, Lauren said she we need to make it a yearly tradition. That kind of made me sad as this time next year, she will be off to college, and after that, maybe she will have better ways to spend her summer than a road trip with her mom and sister. Even if that comes to be true, I know that I will never forget the 5 glorious days I spent driving through Iowa and Minnesota to go shopping at a huge mall with my girls (when I hate malls!). We made so many memories that I know they will not forget any more than I will.