We went to the drum corps show at the new TCF stadium at the University of Minnesota. Beautiful facility. We had Loge seating. I highly suggest it. I might be conned in to going to more football games if I had seats like that. This is Quinlynne seeing her first drum corp. I think it was Teal Sound from Jacksonville, FL. She did pretty well for the most part. Next time, though, I'll take some coloring books.
I was about to fall asleep driving. Luckily, we were just getting ready to exit Minnesota & enter Iowa. We got out & I took Quinlynne's picture with those signs. (I didn't edit the pictures.) So, is that total rednecky to take those pictures? She looks a little nervous in the Iowa picture because it was starting to rain and I had her perched atop a guardrail. 
This is Quinlynne riding this ride called the Splat-o-sphere in the Nickelodeon amusement park in the Mall of America. I couldn't quite get a picture of her face...but the ride takes you up, then drops you a few feet, then takes you up, and drops you. She was so tickled. She couldn't catch her breath she was laughing so hard!
This is Quinlynne looking down at the throngs of people while we rode the Ferris wheel at the amusement park. She liked it because it took us allllll the way up to the top of the building. (That's 4 stories.) 
Quinlynne posing in front of the swing ride thing that she rode more than once. She had to pose with Uniqua & Austin from the Backyardigans. It was a good thing I made her wear her sneakers. If people were wearing flip-flops, they had to take them off while riding rides. She mocked me because I was wearing sneakers with a skirt. "Momma, you're not wearing sneakers with a dress are you? You look like a dork." I can hardly wait until she's a teenager.
This is Quinlynne at the entrance to the Mall of America. (Again, I didn't edit the pictures.) I was trying to tell her on the way there that we were going to a really big mall, not one like Woodland Hills. When we exited, I pointed out the mall to her. She still was not enthused. As we had to drive to the top of the parking structure, she started getting a bit excited. We walked into the mall & we were on the 4th floor. She looked down & started getting a bit more excited. When I took her to the center to look down onto the amusement park, her face totally lit up. As we were riding the escalator down, and down, and down she said "Momma, thank you sooo much for bringing me to this absolutely huge mall!"
At the stadium on Saturday (I told you I'm having to skip around) we kept on getting herded back inside. "Ladies & Gentlemen, please look to the escorts for the exit to bring you to the concourse." There had been a lightening strike 6 miles away. Then, it rained a bit, then we were under a tornado warning. They should've just asked this Okie....we were in NO danger of a tornado. Hello- you can feel it when they're coming. The weather wasn't hot enough, the sky was too light, the clouds weren't right, and it wasn't still. Anyhow- how to occupy a 4 year old? Why, let her have the camera, of course. This is me, giving a "sexy" look...haha! And laughing b/c I looked ridiculous.
This is Quinlynne, my friend Chad, and myself. (Isn't he handsome?)
Mom, playing with her phone while we were stuck indoors. I swear- it got old...
Oh, then there was this fun time when we had to all go into the stairwells. I'm not kidding. We were there for about 30-40 minutes. And I'm not kidding.....it was only a thunderstorm....NO TORNADIC ACTIVITY!! I'm a bit perturbed. 
There are so many pictures of this (us sitting around) because that is mainly what the day consisted of. We only were able to see about 1/3 of the corps before the canceled the whole darn thing. OOOOOOH- ticked!
Check out mom with her feet all propped up, enjoying herself. See what I mean about the Loge seating? That's my mom, my aunt & my cousin sitting there. 
This is the Teal Sound. This is the 1st corp that Quinlynne saw & paid attention to. So, I had to take a photo.All in all, it was a good trip. The day we left Minnesota it was 71 degrees. At some points the thermometer said 69. By the time we made it to Kansas City, it was 96. Welcome back to the hellish weather!! It was great while it lasted!
