Minneapolis

Ok, so these are not the greatest pictures ever taken (you might say actually that they are rubbish), but when you have two days without children and a city to explore, pictures take a backseat, blog or no blog. There were restaurants to dine in, shops to browse through at leisure without fear of an impending meltdown. Touristy things to do and time to chill out. Read a paper, watch TV. And two full nights sleep. Do you know how cool that is?
Our reasons for visiting Minneapolis were to do with Chris' next stage on the ordination process - but the visit happened to fall on Chris' 28th birthday so we had the opportunity to make something of it. .

First stop - Mall of America. If shopping was a religion, then the Mall of America would be the ultimate place of worship. It was so huge that there was a fairground , theme park type thing - inside it. It was overwhelming, but of course it was important to take a look.
We were staying in downtown Minneapolis, and by some strange flukey gift of God the only place available was the executive lounge of the Hilton. Oh how we love business conferences that take up all the other rooms in the area! So we were on the 25th floor overlooking the metropolis - hence the piccies. We had complimentary fancy brekky and evening appetizers in our own exclusive lounge. Fabulous.

Downtown was great. There were lots of cool restaurants and things, but we made our home in the British pub (which sold Hob Nobs) and the Irish pub (which didn't). Just a bit further out of town we visited a cool zoo and watched a polar bear with OCD and hung out in a conservatory. There were lots of cool cultured things about Minneapolis - contrary to what you might have seen on American Idol recently! Some parts are very European, right down to the local who both look and sound Scandinavian! And lest we forget, Prince from Minneapolis...which means it must be cool.
Another significant thing that was cool about Minneapolis: the temperatures. It was allegedly a mild winter. Since when is 15F/ -9 C mild? Since never, that's when .And that's without the wind chill... Its a bit of a shock after living in Phoenix. Inside the buildings its fine though - warm and toasty, like it should be..
We visited the college which Chris will have to attend to finish the vicar thing, a great place.

It was great to be away for awhile, but also wonderful to come home. The grandparents were still smiling, emerging victorious (if a little tired) after looking after the girls. The girls were in great shape. Tia had found new words and Zoe had grown by two whole days. Within minutes of coming through the door there was spit up on my left shoulder from Zoe, and snot and a muddy footprint (don't ask) on my right shoulder from Tia. And I couldn't have been happier.