1973 Photo

I heard a lot about a photo my family found and my dad said he thought it was me standing next to him. I really didn't believe everyone and told them to bring the photo for me to see. My dad brought the photo on Tuesday and HOLY COW does it look like me! I tried to find a photo of me smiling without teeth showing, but couldn't really find one.

I never really thought I looked a lot like my mom, but I really do - forehead and all!! I have the nose of my dad though.

Our Flight Home

We got up at 4am (2am CA time) to catch our flight home. While trying to sleep on the flight home, we saw snow the whole flight. Rocky Mountains after we had a short layover in Denver:

Here are some white fluffy clouds. They're just pretty, so you get to enjoy them too:

I was able to spot the Cirque du Soleil tents while we were landing in San Jose:An amusement park Doug pointed out:

Then we had a 2+ hour drive home from the airport. We saw some ships on our journey:

I'm so thankful we were able to go to Minnesota, especially on such short notice. It really was a lot of fun although we went there to remember and celebrate my grandma. I'm so grateful for my uncle Rob and my aunt Judy. They opened their home to us and were our taxi as we travelled from location to location. They even took us over to my grandma's apartment where I was able to get a few things to remember my grandma. I say "few" loosely because we ended up getting an extra suitcase from my aunt Judy. Here are some of the things we brought home (I still can't believe we didn't break anything):The pink, glass boot on the very right of the picture and the tea cup and saucer were very special because they were my great grandma's and grandma's. Each granddaughter got one. The clear, painted glasses were painted for my grandma by her best friend Rosie. And the milk white glass was some of my grandma's favorite pieces.

The butterfly in the glass dome below is a music box and was also part of my grandma's collection. I've had the butterfly next to it for about 10 years and was just thrilled to have a butterfly from my grandma's collection that matches mine so well; not to mention the butterfly is resting on my favorite flowers too.

Doug was able to learn A LOT about that side of my family and says he understands more about me too. I kept teasing Doug, "Too bad you didn't know all this BEFORE we got married huh??!!" We also laughed a lot about how many times we heard, "Oh, yah, sure." And we even started saying it. Doug was trying to perfect his Minnesotan accent while he was there.

We were totally exhausted when we got home. We brought our luggage inside and then fell asleep pretty quickly.

Tuesday in Minnesota

A Catholic Mass was held Tuesday morning for Grandma, then we headed across the parking lot for a luncheon.

Sitting above is Judy's mom and standing is my uncle John.Above on the left is my dad and standing across from him are my 4th cousins.Above on the right is my brother Jason. It was great to spend time with him; I don't get to see him very often. Across from him is Aurora (was married to my uncle David) and her boyfriend.Above on the left is my cousin Sabrina and her dad (my uncle) David. Above Sabrina's shoulder is Judy (uncle Rob's wife).

On the way to my cousin's house we saw a frozen lake (granted all the lakes are frozen right now) like what was used while filming Grumpy Old Men; there a bunch of ice fishing houses, but didn't get the camera out in time (so here's the lake behind the tree):Family hanging out at my cousin's house:Above on the far left is Joyce (my uncle Mike's wife). Uncle Mike is on the right, resting his head on his hand. Uncle Rob, smiling in the center.Above is Cathy (uncle John's wife), uncle Mike, and Judy.My dad and cousins.I'm bummed the picture above ended up so dark: it's Dale (my aunt Lynn's husband) standing and next to him is my aunt Lynn.My dad and uncle Rob.My cousin Christy and her husband, my brother, me and Doug.

Grandma's Memorial

Click on the photos of the picture boards to enlarge them.

The family brought her favorite photo album, a couple of her Santa Bears (my grandma loved Santa Bears and she had a bunch of them), and the poem "When I am Old I Will Wear Purple."
She loved golfing, skiing and butterflies also.

Monday in Minnesota

BRRRRRR.....Pictures from my uncle's house.The snow in Minnesota is different than California. Here, we can play in the snow while wearing a sweatshirt and/or even a light jacket. Not in Minnesota! We wore layers upon layers - and I still didn't brave the cold to go play in the snow.We headed off to the Mall of America while we had a couple hours to hang out.

A Lego statue...Here are the roller coasters in the middle of the mall...
I took this picture for my mom; it's the Wicked Witch, probably 4 feet tall:An Earnhardt display in the mall:

We stopped at Johnny Rockets for a milkshake with my uncle Rob. Then we headed to another mall where my aunt and uncles were having photos done. While we waited for a couple of them to choose photos we went to the China Bowl for lunch.

It was fun to sit, talk and laugh with family I haven't seen in a long time. It's the first time Doug met anyone on that side of my family.

While we were eating I made a mess and went to the jewelry store next to the restaurant to get my ring cleaned. I met an Australian who did his best Minnesotan accent for me. It was hysterical! Don-cha-know?!

Flight to Minnesota

We left from the San Jose Airport since we were already there for Cirque du Soleil. We had a layover in Chicago - so of course we got a piece of Chicago pizza.
A couple photos on the way to Chicago.It's kind of hard to see, but I thought it was so cool that it was snowing sideways while we were landing.A frozen plane - luckily ours wasn't that frozen.We had a delay while we waited for our plane and the runway to be de-iced.It was pretty neat to watch them spray the ice off the wing. I'm glad we were still able to fly out although Chicago was dealing with a winter storm.

OVO

What a fun show! I'm so glad we were able to see OVO!I told Doug, "I don't know exactly where we're going, so I really hope there's a huge circus tent when we get there." Sure enough, there was!!

This is the pole holding a portion of the tent up...and the blue tube is air blowing into the main tent:I took a picture of the stage while we were waiting for the show to start....SHHHH....don't tell!!

Cirque du Soleil is amazing!

Here is our view from the Sheraton, San Jose - it was cheaper than our Vegas hotel and a much nicer view:

We really liked the hotel - the decorations were very simple and the room felt cozy, but spacious.