Mall of America

Frank and I flew into Minnesota about 6 hours before Travis and Theresa, so we killed the time at The Mall of America. This is the largest mall in the country. I would believe it. It is four stories high and you feel like you just walk and walk for ever. There is even an amusement park inside. According to Travis, you could go into every store and spend 10 minutes and you would be at the mall for 4 days straight!


This is the Nickelodeon amusement park. I know Addie and Quenton would have loved it.

This was the best Mexican food I have eaten in a long time!!!

Frank trying to decide what to eat!

Me and my little friend.

Minnesota, here we come!

Frank has a dream of visiting every ballpark in the US. It seems like every year we pick a new ballpark to visit. This year it was Minnesota Twins. Our friends, Travis and Theresa, were going to visit Theresa's family and they asked us to tag along. Luckily the Twins were playing the BRAVES. Unfortunately, the night we went to the game, the Braves lost. But we still had fun. It is a new ballpark and was really pretty. Our seats gave us a perfect view of downtown Minneapolis. There are lots of pictures, sorry.


We had great seats right behind the Braves dugout about 30 rows up!

Frank and me enjoying the game.

Travis and Theresa also enjoying the game.

New Microwave!!!!!

As most of you know the house is more than 20 years old and has all the original appliances. Well we knew it was getting time to start replacing them one by one. The microwave started cooking only parts of our food and we thought, we would just deal with it until it finally quit. Then the handle broke and it was hard to open. Then finally, Frank turned it on and smoke came out and it completely died. We bought a new one, but since we are so cheap, we decided to install it ourselves. It wasn't hard at all, the worst was trying to get the old microwave down. Now we are in the 21st century, and can't believe how bad the other microwave was. We feel spoiled now.

Charleston!!!!!!

So we got a free trip to Charleston and it was about to expire. It was beautiful and neither of us wanted to come home. We had never been there before, so most of our weekend was spent at The Market, the shopping area. This is the area where slaves used to be traded years ago. Now there booths where people bring things they make and sell them. Next time we will visit Folley Beach and some Plantations. There are a ton of wonderful places to eat, I only wish we could have visited every one. We picked a restaurant and ate, then left and found another restaurant we wanted to eat in. We hung out in a bar, that used to be a church! Now that is crazy. There were still the stained glass windows and everything. I can't wait to go back!

This was our first stop. Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for dinner. They had the best shrimp I think I have ever eaten. By the way, I am not tipsy. Again, difficult to take a picture of yourself.

We thought this looked just like a pirate ship.

Still trying to perfect the art of taking pictures of ourselves.

This girl was giving samples of her Italian Ice. Great idea! It was so hot, I could not resist buying one.

GQ Frank in front of a really beautiful hotel.

The funniest thing happened. We were walking, as we had been doing all day. A boy on a bike came up and asked if I wanted to buy a flower made from grass. I said, "No thanks". His response was, "Here you can have them all." He handed them to me and rode off on his bike. Weird!

Hair today, gone tomorrow!

So I finally got my hair cut. My hairdresser went on bedrest the day before the wedding. Then she did not have the baby until February. By then she was so backed up that it took forever to get an appointment. So here is the new do.(Sorry for the picture quality. This is what you get when you have to take them yourself.)

BEFORE

AFTER

Farmer Frank!

Now that Spring is here, we have finally finished the garden. After many, many trips to Home Depot and the Farmer's Market, we have all the vegetables and herbs we need for the summer. This is a lot of work and TLC to make this work all summer. Here are a few shots of our garden, we will have to come back later in the summer to show how our work has paid off. Hopefully, we will have a large harvest to share with friends.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes!!! Every kind. Grape Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, big Tomatoes, Pear Tomatoes. We will be giving them away this year!

Cucumbers, they didn't work last year. Keep your fingers crossed this year!

Zucchini and Squash, we will be making lots of stirfry or roasted veggies!

PEPPERS!!!! We have Jalapeno, Poblano, Anaheim, Hot Cherry, Bell Peppers in every color (green, yellow, orange, red, and even purple). We will be making lots of salsa!

Herbs, Broccoli, and Swiss Chard. The broccoli and swiss chard are new to us this year, I hope they work.

If this works, I will be so happy. This is Citranella, it is to help keep the mosquitos away. Last year, I think we had super mosquitos, they would bite even through the OFF!!!

This is Frank after a long weekend of planting the garden. He is so happy with the end product. Now he can't wait to start harvesting!!!!!

April

Now that Spring is here, we are spending lots of time outside. OB's new spot is the flower pot. We will see how long the flowers last now that OB thinks she is in charge. We have been working on the garden, and getting it ready for lots of veggies this summer. She is usually outside getting into something or just eating a stick, her favorite thing to eat. Strange, I know.