~My Mini Minneapolis Marathon~

Recently I escaped to Minneapolis with two friends (and  Maggie, Robyn's Magellan GPS, who kept us on the right track even when I took wrong turns) for a marathon style shopping visit.  I say marathon because really it was a go, go, go, on your feet, sometimes literally running kind of an experience...

Our first stop was IKEA, which by the way is my new favorite store.  That place is pretty overwhelming.  We wanted to browse through and look at all the showrooms, but we also had a long list of things to grab and only two hours to find them all.  To make a long story short, we did end up making it out of the store before they had to kick us out, but it did include two of us awkwardly running through the lower level of IKEA while pushing loaded down pallet carts twice our size.  There are no pictures to document this event, but believe me when I say people were laughing.  

The evening ended in a Hilton where I was quickly educated in the different between cheap-o motels and a top rated hotels.  It's all in the down pillows, smooth sheets, and massive soft and fluffy towels.  Totally worth the extra $2 bucks (Count em' 1, 2).  Thank you, Expedia.com.

Early Saturday morning brought a visit to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Temple with Robyn, a much needed trip for me since I don't make it to the temple too often with two little ones.  My spirit was nourished and I felt so peaceful and happy.

Then the peaceful was replaced by pump it up music.  We were off to The Mall of America, the largest mall in the United States.  It's over a mile wide, has it's very own zip code, and holds a gazillion stores inside (not to mention an amusement park and aquarium).  Cool huh?  First stop was the much loved H&M.  I was first introduced to this store in Vienna, Austria back in the summer of 2004.  I love H&M for their low priced blatant high fashion knock offs.  Fabulous!  

I was also introduced to a new lovely store called Martin+Osa.  According to my fashion analyst, Tiffany, it is still in the development phase,  but basically it's the big sister to American Eagle, kind of like how Banana Republic is the big sister to Gap.  Anyway, I bought a dress... a fabulous dress at Martin+Osa with hopes of getting to wear it on a hot date in the near future (hint hint Nick).  

Little time was taken for sustenance as we had places to be, but these smoothies totally rocked.

We did take a few minutes to check out the American Girl Store and relive my 8 year old childhood dream of owning my very own Kirsten doll.  Side note: My mother was wise and choose not to invest in a $90 doll.  Instead she stole away one of my favorite blonde dolls, Rachel, and made her an outfit exactly like Kirsten. She even braided her hair like Kirsten.  What an amazing mom I have!  I loved that doll to pieces (literally... one day her head fell off) and I wish I had pictures from that wonderful birthday.

Since we just couldn't get enough of IKEA the first day, we went back a second time around to browse, and browse and buy some more.  In the end we were very glad we brought the van and very tired.  As we loaded up the back people were laughing, pointing, and making comments in a variety of languages.  Notice the vanilla Coke in my hand... that's right, I was running on fumes.  Like, this shopping trip rivaled shopping days past with my sister, Erin.  I was totally beat and Tiffany kindly drove all the way home.  

Good friends, great shopping, lots of laughs and flexibility made this trip a huge success. As we headed for home I waved goodbye to IKEA saying "Don't forget me!  I'll be back next year!"   

 I really think I might try to make this an annual event.