mInNeSoTa MaDnEsS 2o1o

This last week, my family and I took our yearly trip up to Minnesota - only this time, we drove a lot farther, and we had a few more complications.

I started thinking about the trip early on - my cousin's wedding, my grandma's 80th Birthday party, seeing all of our relatives, and bringing our pop-up camper along. But my anticipation soon came crushing down when we found out there was something wrong with the engine in our suburban - the only vehicle that could pull the camper AND fit all 5 of us. Of course, this happens the day before we were supposed to leave, so there was no time to fix it. So my parents looked into a few options: rent a car and spend an extra 600$ that week, not go, or cram into our little tiny Subaru legacy. (Which, by the way, is a great car). So they used process of elimination (without me, of course) to decide what to do. Obviously, they didn't want to see an extra 600$ go down the drain just for our comfort. Obviously, we all wanted to go - no matter how we got there. So. We all crammed into the Subaru, and let me tell you: that was a tight squeeze. You see, the poor car is supposed to seat five . . . but let's just say you can only fit 4 comfortably - especially for long car trips. haha :) Then there came the issue of packing. We are all used to having the Suburban to spread out all of our stuff and basically bring what we want. But this time, we had to cram all of our junk (for a whole week) into the tiny trunk of our little car.

To this day, I'm still not entirely sure how we made it all the way up there, but we managed somehow, because sometime after a cheap hotel, we were all standing in my Grandma's driveway. Whew! My rear end was so sore I was sure it was going to fall right off, but somehow, that's still here too ;) So we spent Tuesday and Wednesday night at Grandma's (my Dad's mom) house, and then we were off to see my Grandparent's (My mom's parents). Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa live only about 45 minutes away from my other Grandma - so it was a short little trip :) When we made it there, we all went over to my Aunt and Unlce's house to eat and 'chill' for the afternoon. Well...my unlce as a speed boat, and we talked him in to taking his neices out for a swim on one of Minnesota's lakes. That was wonderful. We got to go tubing and jump in the fReEzInG cold water and go for a little swim :) I then spent the night at my cousin's house and woke up and went Strawberry picking! I love strawberry picking: the 'eat more than you pick' rule, the fresh air, and all of the sweet little red berries. Then my sister, cousin, mom, and I went back to my Grandparent's apartment to de-stem and clean all of the ripe berries so we could freeze them to bring them home to make jam :) After that, unexpectedly, my parents decided to go to the new Twin's stadium and take the 10$ tour (which, by the way, was WELL worth the ten dollars). There were only about 40 other people besides my family, and we all got to walk around the new stadium and see everything. We went in the visitor's dugout and locker room, we sat in all of the private rooms that your company has to rent for a LOT of $$$$$ (waaaayyyy too much if you ask me), we got to walk on the fields [okay. so we weren't supposed to walk on the actual grass, but just guess who decided to step on it a few times just to say she'd done it?!] Anyways. All in all, we definitely had a blast at the Twin's Stadium :)
[just a warning - everything in that gift shop is WAAAYY overpriced, but it's the MLB, what do you expect??]

Then, after the strawberry picking and the Twin's tour, I went back to my cousin's house and got to hang out with her (the rest of my family was at my Grandparent's apartment) . Yes. that was an EXCELLENT day.

Then. (yes, there's more), we went back to my other Grandma's house for some of her delicious food:) We woke up, and went to my cousin's wedding. That was a perfect wedding :) So we spent the afternoon there (and evening, really) and went back and crashed at my Grandma's house :) We woke, went to church with her, went out to lunch with her, and then we were in a cute little town somewhere in Minnesota at a cute little tea room for my other Grandma's 80th Birthday Party (which was perfect too, of course) Boy, was she surprised when she saw that laptop! :) We then spend the evening walking around that cute little town, wishing the stores were open. We stayed at a little hotel with the rest of that side of the family, then woke up to my "Birthday celebration". ya. It was my Birthday, so we made the best party we could. Mom went to the gas station and got me a couple of doughnuts and an orange pop :D and then I opened the 'presents'. But basically, because we couldn't possibly fit anything more into that car, I just got a bunch of cards with some money :) I was content. Even if it wasn't the BEST Birthday, it was better than some of the other ones I've had. haha :)

Then, like before, I don't know how we did it, but we were home. It was 1:00 in the morning. and we were all exhausted. I crashed into my bed, and that was the end of Minnesota summer trip, 2o1o :)