Food that's practically free!

Papa Murphy's is having a really good deal today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. It's their customer appreciation days and a large Pepperoni pizza is only $3.99. What? Yes, it's true. I think pizza will be on the menu the next couple of days. Ha. Just Fyi...

Day 8

On Thursday, we didn't really have any plans, so we decided to drive around the cities...St Paul and Minneapolis. We drove past the football stadium...
and we toured a cathedral and a basilica. I didn't take any pics cuz I was kinda disappointed with them. After that, we went to the St Paul temple and it was such a relief to be there after touring the gaudy and depressing cathedrals. Here's some pics of us at the temple.
As we were driving around we saw this was playing...
Unfortunately we didn't win the lottery(before every show you can enter your name into a cauldron and if they draw your name you can buy tickets for $25), so we didn't get to go. But that's ok. We ended up going to Perkins (Andy's fav restaurant) with some more high school friends.
End day 8

Day 7

Wednesday was the day Andy couldn't wait for...Valley Fair! Valley Fair is an amusement park in MN. I spent the whole day comparing it to Lagoon(the amusement park in UT) and I have to say, Valley Fair had WAY BETTER rides. Lagoon has a better water park though. If you ever get a chance to go, here are the rides I HIGHLY recommend.

• The Xtreme Swing. This was the all time scariest ride for me. It didn't seem to bad waiting in line, but once I was actually on it, I couldn't even open my eyes. It's a swing that holds like 10 people on each side and it swings you super high up in the air with your feet dangling.
• Steel Venom. While I was waiting in line for this ride I was begging Andy not to make me go on it, but I'm glad I did. It turned out to be my favorite. This ride is U-shaped and you go at least 50 mph while on it. It's another feet dangler and one side of the U is twisted so you turn as you go up it. The other side is straight but you dangle in the air for a second or so while you're at the top. So scary but so fun.
• Andy's favorite is a roller coaster called Wild Thing. It used to have the highest hill in the world, but I guess Japan just built one that is taller. Regardless it is so scary and so fun. And it's a long coaster so you feel that the wait in line is ok. We went on that one 3 times.
  
• My other fav was in the water park. It's called Panic Falls. It's a 4 person tube with no handles and there were times I thought I would fall off the edge. It was so scary cuz there wasn't anything to hold onto, but so fun. However we waited in line for this for over an hour. boo

Here's our only pic of the day
We had such a fun day. Exhausting, but so fun. We ended the day with eating at Taco Johns. Andy had to go there at least once while we were there. ha
End day 7

Day 6

On Tuesday we ventured into the cities so we could go to the Mall of America! This is what I saw when I first walked in...
When we first got there, a guy from a kiosk basically forced me to to go to the kiosk so he could demonstrate his straightner on my hair. It was "all ceramic and was incapable of burning the hair" Yeah, whatever...my hair burned and I was mad. No worries we didn't buy it. Ha. Andy wanted us to walk every floor on each side so I could experience "it all". It took us practically all day. We went to an area called Underwater Adventures where you walk through this tunnel and all around you are sharks, sting rays, huge fish, etc. It was so neat. Maybe not worth the $18 ticket per person, but I'm still glad we went. Here's us in the rainforest exhibit part
In the Mall of America there isn't just stores. There's the Underwater Adventures, Legoland, and an amusement park, called Nickalodeon Universe. Here's some pics of Legoland from above
Here's Andy with his hero. jk
This is my only pic of the amusement park.
To experience it all we had to go on a ride and we chose the coolest and scariest one...The Last Airbender. I wish I got a pic. It was a U-shaped ride and there was a surfboard that had 2 pods with 6 seats on them and you would go up and down while each pod was spinning. It was pretty fun, but once again, not worth the $13 ticket price. Geez.
That night we had dinner with another friend of Andy's and her family. It was fantastic.
End day 6

Day 5

My day started out on a farm. We went to visit Terry and Kathy, the couple Andy lived with in high school. They have a huge property where they grow soybeans, one of the two major crops grown in MN. (The other is corn) Terry took us on a tour of the farm and we decided the history channel show "American Pickers" would have a hay day there. Scattered along the property are at least 10 cars and there are 2 sheds full of stuff. I wanted to get the full experience of being a farmer so Terry decided to take some of his harvested soybeans from last year to the co-op, which is where a farmer takes his crop to get weighed and stored and then gets paid for the product. To get the beans out of the silo, Terry had this huge pulley system that took the beans from the silo and shook them to get excess crap off and then dumped them into this huge thing attached to the truck. (I have no idea what the proper terms are so bear with me. ha) But here's a pic to kinda show what happens.Then we hauled the truck and this thing above to the co-op. Andy told me I couldn't take pics of that so I didn't. But yeah, it was an experience for me. I have to say though that I enjoyed it. It was really neat to see a snippet of what a farmer goes through. Next, Andy and I got free haircuts from Kathy...what a wonderful women! We couldn't leave without shotgun shooting and Andy kept referring to himself as a "top shot"...once again another reference to the history channel...we're kinda geeks. Ha. He really is good shooter though.
After we left Terry and Kathy's we decided to meet up with a friend of Andy's from high school who just happens to own a family restaurant called King's Wok(I think). It was super tasty and the best part was it was free! What a good friend.
That night we went with Andy's dad and nephew, Jordan, to the Cokado Corn Carnival. Right when we got there we saw a Christian family perform on a stage. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. They were "hallujah-ing" and praising the Lord so emphatically. They even asked by raise of hand who thought they were going to be saved. I thought they would be boo-d off the stage but they were well-recieved. Here's a pic of them...sorry for the quality
Here's a pic of us to remember the festival.
End day 5

Sunday=day 4

We started out the day going to church. It was really neat to go to church with a lot of recent converts. We don't get that very often here in Utah. We were able to talk to some and I was so impressed with their testimonies. After church, Andy took me to where his branch used to meet. It was an old house then and now it's an office building of sorts. It was interesting to see cuz I've only ever gone to churches built by the church. Here's the pic...Later that day we went to the Twine Ball exhibit! His hometown houses the largest twine ball i the world made by a man. There's a museum there and a little hut thing that houses the twine ball. This is so big it's even in the travel brochures I read. Ha. Here's our pics....

You gotta love my reflection in the pic. Ha.
Those are all the pics from that day, but that night we went to his parent's house and played games. It was fun to spend the night with them and for me, getting to know them better.
End day 4

Our first day in MN

Preface: this was such a fun day!
It started out surprising his parents who didn't know we were coming. I think this was my favorite part of the trip. To see the surprise and joy on their faces was priceless. Especially to see his mom running to us with outstretched arms. Priceless. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics.
Here's a random pic from that day of me and Andy at Lake Ripley.
That night was another highlight of our trip: the Meeker County Fair. It was so fun. We went to a demolition derby which was SO much fun...We played bingo for a quarter a round and ended up winning the jackpot during the blackout round. Score!

Like I said, it was a super fun day. End day 3

Day Dos

Day two began bright and early. Thanks sun. We drove around Billings for an hour or so trying to find the temple there. A GPS would have been handy, but oh well. We finally found it (thanks Mom) and we able to do a session there. It was so neat for us to see different temples. What a wonderful experience. Here's a pic and don't mind the fact I look like I just woke up, cuz I did. Ha.After that we spent the day driving, driving, driving. We did make a stop at the Bismark, North Dakota temple.
And then we made it to Minnesota! We were so excited!

End day 2

Since it's been months since I last posted, I guess I should share what we've been up to. The biggest event was when we went on a much needed vaca....to Minnesota! We had so much fun and there are tons of pics to share so I decided to split our trip into days. We left Thursday, August 5th and came back late on Saturday, August 15th.
Day one
We left Thursday afternoon and we were so excited to leave on the adventure of our lives! We weren't even sure if we could go due to car problems, but in the nick of time Andy got it all fixed. Wahoo! We drove to Idaho Falls where we made a temple stop. We were able to do sealings at the Idaho Falls temple and I'm so glad we did. What a beautiful place. Here's a pic...



After that we drove to Yellowstone, where we were planning on going camping, but since it was raining, we decided to sleep in the car. Andy decided he wasn't tired yet so we kept driving and ended up in Billings, Montana. And that's where we spent the night...at a rest stop. Ha. End day one.