18 Years

The Mall Of America opened on 1992. That year my cousin and friend Theresa asked me if I wanted to do a shopping trip  up there and spend the night in a hotel. So her, Erica and I booked a hotel and went up on  a Sat. morning to shop the weekend away. We also managed to go to a movie on Sat. night.  We had so much fun that we decided to make it an annual trip. A couple of years my sister Diane came on the trip. And a couple of years into the trips my friend Jodi joined us and has gone every years since. We also started going on Friday night to make it a whole weekend trip. We always stop in Lakeville and eat supper and then go to a movie on Friday night. Some years we have seen some really great movies and other years we have seen some real duds! Now we  look back at some of the awful movies and laugh about them.
 When I think about how all our lives have changed in those 18 years it is hard to believe.When we started going all of us had kids still in grade school, and Jodi still had one in diapers! Now all of our kids are grown up and two of us have grandchildren. We have all gone through lots of happy times, heartaches, job changes and moves in those years. We don't get to see each other as often as we use to as our lives have changed, but every year on the first  weekend of Dec. we get together and have a  whole weekend of girl time to talk about what the year has been for us.
The trip has now become less of a shopping trip and more of a time for us to be together and catch up. I look forward to it every year and and happy to call Theresa, Erica and Jodi my friends.
Later Sharon