Holly meets Ree!

So we took a little road trip to Minnesota. We visited the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN to see Ree Drummond aka Pioneer Woman aka one of my favorite bloggers. She just released a new cookbook and was having a book signing. We decided to make a little family trip out of it.

We spent most of our time at the mall in the amusement park area. We were quite pleased with the number of rides available for Poppy.

I told Chris to take a picture of Poppy in the mirror. I love it:)

Mommy's turn. Shortly after Chris took this picture the nice lady who runs the ride came over to tell me that the camel that Poppy was sitting on was stationary and that it might be more fun for Poppy if we moved her. She was right. I shall pay more attention next time.

Poppy loved this little coaster. It was fast for such a little thing.

We also spent a lot of time in line for Ree. Almost four hours, it was crazy. They were filming for a new TLC show, "Mall Cops". I'll have to make sure it gets TiVo'd.

I could not have done it without Chris. I owe him big time. He helped me keep two little ones entertained and it wasn't easy.

All the ladies standing by us agreed with me that he deserves major brownie points (Ree even noticed he was with me and gave him mad props).

Finally she arrived! I was in the bathroom with Poppy so I missed most of her Q&A but I was able to snap this picture.

She was beautiful and sweet. It was great to finally meet her, although I stuck my foot in my mouth by asking "Do you have many vegetarian fans?" She looked at me like I might be a little crazy, given that she lives on a cattle ranch and wrote a cookbook full of meat-containing recipes. What can I say - I was a little starstruck and didn't know what to say. I really need to work on my small talk skills, but I'll try not to dwell on it too much - I know Ree understands social freaks like me ;)

Marlboro man turned the camera on the crowd.

So I'm not posting the picture of me and P-dub because:

a) it is out of focus much to my disappointment (I set it to aperture priority at 4.5 and set the ISO at 1000???)

and

b) I look like I smell something

But, this is a picture of Poppy not getting the hint that we needed to move along:

Chris had to intervene and pick her up and carry her off (I had Chloe). Ree was very kind about it. Thank goodness we had gotten to know the gal behind us quite well.

If you haven't heard of Pioneer Woman, you must check out her blog. She is funny, clever, and kind and writes about many things, there's a little something for everyone. Reading her blog makes me happy. And that's saying a lot considering her family raises cattle and I'm a vegetarian. Maybe there is hope for world peace after all!