Friends, Food, and Fun

'Why would anyone choose to go to Minnesota in the middle of winter?' my husband asked me. And, I have several good reasons to make the trip, but my top two reasons are for my girlfriends, Margaret and Melissa. Since we became friends when we lived in Phoenix, we've tried to get together to have some girl-time. It just so happens that Margaret moved to Wabasha, MN this past summer. I've never been to MN, and with Margaret's new work schedule, and when some other factors were considered, we decided to get together up in the frozen north this year. Maybe next time we'll end up somewhere tropical....

We all met in Minneapolis on Thursday. It was a toasty 20 degrees F when I landed at the airport :) Everything was covered in snow...I guess it's all pretty typical for February. We stayed downtown next to Nicollett Mall which put us in the heart of lots of restaurants and shopping.

On Friday afternoon, we headed down south to Margaret's home in Wabasha. We got there at dusk and got a little tour. Wabasha is a quaint little town with a population around 2500. They were having the Grumpy Old Men festival this weekend, which included a polar plunge! We didn't take part in the festivities but I heard on good authority - from the mayor's wife who lives next door to Margaret - that some of the men that made the plunge were in their 70s! Oh, and it was about 7 degrees outside as well. Anyway, Wabasha is also known for their Eagle Center which has about 90,000 visitors a year. So evidently, in the summer, Wabasha is considered a little tourist town. I thought it was a really sweet town. We met Nels and Everette and ate supper at a cool little pizza place that also had a bar and a chocolate shop.

Nels and Margaret have a beautiful view of bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. You can even see an eagle's nest on the other side of the river in one of the larger trees. Seriously, I was extremely jealous of their view. I spent most of the first morning there just soaking in the scenery.

On Saturday, our big event was shopping at the local grocery store. We all decided to cook something - which is one of our favorite past times. We worked out, cooked and played with little Everette - he is so sweet!

It ended up snowing almost all day on Saturday! - but it only accumulated about 3 inches. On Sunday, we took advantage of the snow and went sledding in Nels' and Margaret's backyard. They have a very nice sledding hill, but Everette wasn't too excited about it. I don't get to sled much, so I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is Nels showing us how it's done. Doesn't he have nice form?

Um....until he ended up heading for the tree...

Bristol didn't seem to mind the snow.

Thank you Daddy, Grandma, and Grandpa for taking care of the kids and house while I was gone. I'm truly blessed with such a great family and wonderful friends.