When blogging friends meet...

“How many slams in an old screen door?

 Depends how loud you shut it. 

How many slices in a bread?

 Depends how thin you cut it. 

How much good inside a day? 

Depends how good you live 'em. 

How much love inside a friend? 

Depends how much you give 'em.” 

― Shel Silverstein

She is Robin~ All Things Heart and Home.

We've logged hundreds of posts together.  We both started blogging about the same time 4 years ago. Our hearts were drawn to the same blogs.  Our comments mingled side by side, till one day we visited each other.  Then we spent hundreds of hours of reading, learning, and knowing each other. We've sent emails, texts, cards, gifts and notes.  We've celebrated the birth of her grand babies, the weddings of her daughters. We've mourned and grieved- the passing of my father, then Sara's father, then our precious Sara.  

We've talked about laying eyes on each other.  

We had planned to visit Sara.

Sara left us all too soon.

And life kept happening.

My breast cancer diagnosis.

Her Celiac Disease.

Hockey- all things boys -hockey.

So this time when she offered to fly with her daughter to a conference in Minneapolis.  I simply said "yes."  I longed- too long- for it to be yes.

I dared hardly tell anyone.  I was holding my breath, crossing my fingers that this was our time.

We had the best day! 

Moments after meeting.  We fell right into step.  We talked and remembered.  We chatted and laughed. We hugged and grew teary eyed.  Time was fleeting.  I had no desire to check my phone.  No need to monitor my family.  All was right with my world.

Whenever we need a hotel downtown Minneapolis, we've discovered Hotwire is the way to go for us.  We know that at least a 3.5 star hotel will be clean, comfortable and close to all that we want to do. Plus, the rooms are deeply discounted. We were surprised when this time the name of the hotel was revealed as The W at the Foshay Tower.  The Foshay Tower is a landmark building modeled after the Washington monument, and it used to be the tallest building in Minneapolis.  The IDS building (below) now towers over the landscape.

The sun was just setting as we walked over to Pizza Luce.

And this is what the W hotel looks like on the inside.  In keeping with the Art deco theme of the original building- the wow factor was big.  

Our day came to a close all to quickly...

Robin is everything I knew her to be and more.  She is soft spoken grace.  I'm used to the love that permeates her words.  In real life, she simply radiates that warmth and light that makes you feel loved- and that is her special gift.

She is all things heart.  She is all things home.  She is Robin and I am the lucky one who calls her friend.

Today is her birthday.  Happy Birthday sweet friend!  Love you to the moon... 

I gave up food for these photos, breakfast that is. Looking back? As crabby as it made me, I don't regret it. In fact now I hardly remember the hunger, I just remember the tranquility, the stunning charm everywhere I looked.  We drove a few minutes from our hotel on Sunday to Nicollet Island, plunked down in the middle of the Mississippi River.

Confession- I cheated a little.  I followed Rick and his camera.  I bent low when he did.  And turned my camera when he did.  And looked for what he saw.  It was like when you are little and learning to dance and you climb up on your dad's shoes to get the feel of the steps for yourself.  Dancing on my own after awhile,  I was feeling bold after getting the hang of what he was doing, and took some from my own point of view.

Then I "picniked" my way through editing.  My tiny, outdated, point and shoot, needs some help on the back end in bumping up the volume.  Rick's photos are stunning straight out of the camera.  Oh well.  Mine end up looking similar to his in the end.  I guess sometimes it doesn't matter which path you take, the destination may be the same regardless.

After some shopping for school shoes at the Mall of America and getting my Imac fixed (yay for the Apple store), we stopped at my friend's house on the lake.   Normally we would have left for home by this time.  We knew it would make for a late night.  I knew, it would be worth it.

It was a gorgeous night.  The boys were drawn to the fishing instantly.  My friend Kristi and I spent a few precious moments together catching up.  

We went for a pontoon ride around the lake to cap off our night.  All too quickly it was time to leave.  

Colton and Christopher being goofy together.

Sweet little Brynne who has grown again since I saw her last and delighted me with all she could say and do. 

Thanks Paul, Kristi, Christopher and Brynne! 

It was Colton who pointed out the sunset to me.  He is learning so well... "mom there is the sunset, just like the ones you love!"   I feel such urgency to squeeze as many moments into my day as possible.  I don't think I missed a single one this day, I was completely filled up.

Twins weekend

Its difficult to adequately express in words sometimes, the deeply generous acts of so many people, for our family.  This past weekend we were so honored and excited to have been given tickets to the Twins game on Saturday.  We had amazing seats in the Legends Club. Along with the tickets came a hotel stay for two nights, and a surprise "tour" of Target Field before the game.  Let me just say, we had a completely fabulous time.  We got the "rock star" treatment, and it will be a weekend we won't soon forget.  We left Minneapolis late Sunday night and the kids re-hashed every detail of their magical two days.

Our tour guide was Tom who is the Coordinator of Engineer and Broadcast.  He has been with the Twins for 22 years now, and can't say enough how thrilled he is to be working for such an outstanding organization.  Rick was in techie heaven.  It was obvious Tom had such pride in the facility and its state of the art broadcast equipment, as well as the overall Twins organization.  The boys and I were simply in awe of all that it takes to showcase a Major League Baseball Team.

Even the piping for the ballpark beer was impressive.

Below is a view of the Champions Club.  You valet park your car in the back of Target Field, walk a few steps and enter the Champions Club.  The first thing you see are the two World Series trophies from 1987 and 19991. 

From the lounge and dining area of the Champions Club its another 10 steps to your seats and the field.  All of the food is included in the cost of your tickets...

This is Tom, showing us the broadcast booth.  

The two places we were not allowed, the locker room, and the dugout.  This was as close as we got to the dugout, but the boys were thrilled with getting a good look.

Since batting practice had started, the boys simply did not want to leave the field.  Each boy staked a claim at a railing just waiting for a ball to come their way.  

Nolan was taking so much in, he was actually quiet.   He didn't want to miss a thing.

Our seats were directly behind home plate in the The Legends Club.  A few steps away from our seats was air conditioning and amazing food, more than just your ballpark standard food.  Even I was able to get a veggie wrap with goat cheese... so yummy. 

The view from our seats.  We even had waiters/waitresses for beverage orders, so we didn't have to leave our seats- cushy seats too, I have to say.

It was Colton who saw our names with a greeting flash across the scoreboard.  "Mom, look, thats us!"  "They know we're here!"  "How'd they know that?"  The innocence of being 9, and the wonder of it all...  from a mother's perspective, I love these childhood moments.

One final surprise came.  An usher calling out our name.  "Are you the Westra Family?"  She had a bag full of Twins goodies, from all of the Miller family who generously thought of every last detail.

We even had an unplanned surprise at our hotel.  As we drove past the stadium on our way into town we saw the opposing team's (Detroit Tigers) bus parked outside.  As we sat waiting for Rick to check us into the hotel, the Detroit Tiger's buses pulled in ahead of us.  They were staying at our hotel!  Nolan was so enamored with the players.  He would hide his Twins cap and take a baseball around for them to sign.  They graciously signed his ball and he managed to get a lot of the player's autographs by the end of our stay.  We'd like to think we brought the Twins some luck... they won Saturday night, the only game in a four game series. 

Our utmost thanks and appreciation goes to Chris, Katie, Caroline, Marty, Mike, and Tom, and perhaps a few people whom we don't even know, who created our unforgettable Twins weekend.  

I can honestly say most days I have a hard time forgetting I am a woman living with breast cancer.  Last Saturday, the biggest gift I received, was forgetting about the cancer, and experiencing just how "alive" I really am.  

The Westra's "Griswald" adventure.

I've been excited to go for so long now. Somewhere. Away. To recharge, regroup and renew. With teacher conferences and almost a week off from school its our last hurrah before winter descends upon us permanently.

What started as a "we'll get up and go" directive from my dh turned into a five hour delay. With the rest of us packed and watching out the window, "I'll be home soon" became interminably long. The business doesn't stop because we want to leave. Several hours into our wait, I begin to think of folding. I can't keep up the house of cards charade with the boys. They don't have a grasp on hours and minutes when they just multiply into "too long."

Finally in the car, I always fall for the last ploy... "I just need one last stop at the office, it'll take a minute." "Mutiny" crosses my mind. By now, at 4 in the afternoon, we're starving, tired and I have used up an exhaustive supply of patience.

We stop for dinner at 9:30 pm. Whether it was the spicy and heavy food or the long day of hurry up and wait, we arrive exhausted at our hotel and settle in for one of those really long nights of little sleep.

For some reason, Nolan can't sleep. He is up poking one of us every few minutes. I give up trying to sleep after 2 am and we all acquiesce to getting up shortly after 6. I begin dreaming of home and my bed.

Realizing McDonald's would be one of the only places open and serving breakfast, we jumped in the car. We plugged the name into our new GPS and started looking for the closest one. A list with many locations popped up. So we jumped on the highway and began driving. Several minutes later we realize our GPS has routed us to the airport! We void the directions and begin again for the next location which is back the way we came from. We quickly discover its the airport McDonald's again. Now traffic is beginning to pick up for the morning commute. I'm beginning to crave my morning bowl of shredded wheat and fresh ground coffee. We pick a suburb and head off in a new direction and this time its a long drive. Finally after many turns and confusing directions we arrive at a location that is no longer a McDonald's! I don't think any of us were even talking to each other by the time we finally found breakfast at yet another McDonald's. (The next day we discovered one just 6 blocks down on the same street as our hotel.)

Next we decide to go to the Mall of America. Ah the sheer number of stores is staggering. If you can't find it here, it doesn't exist. I am thrilled to begin tackling this long list of winter items we desperately need. We are shopping for winter boots when one of the boys has to use the restroom. Sounds harmless enough. Since I am off in another part of the store looking, my dh decides to take the boys on his own. Without telling me. Of course, minutes before I had warned him I didn't have my cell phone with me, but it fell on inattentive ears.

So in true Clark Griswald fashion, what should have been a 15 minute excursion, quickly developed into another 5 HOUR separation. At the Mall of America. Did I mention how many stores there were?

I tried everything I could think of to find them. I walked to all of their favorite stores. I sat and waited by the car until I was shivering with cold. I found a pay phone that took credit cards, but my card was new and I didn't have the new pin number memorized. So I couldn't use an ATM or the phone. I had two dollars on me. However the stores are not allowed to open their till to make change. So I had to find something to buy that left me with enough change for a phone call. Just try finding that "item" when a 12 ounce diet coke is 3 dollars, because you are at the Mall of America.

Finally, the Nestle cookie guy took pity on me. He broke policy and made change for me after I bought a cookie. I had enough change to make a phone call. I don't know if my dh was really happy to hear from me or not :)

When I say I was apprehensive to take the boys to the water park alone that night, can you blame me? I would have to say though, it was the highlight of our trip. For two active boys with some pent up excitement and energy this was the place for them. For 4 hours they swam, and tubed and sat in the hot tub and ran through the sprinklers. Fortunately sleep came quickly to us all that night. It seems we were going to need it for day two of our adventure...