Minneapolis Vacation!

We just got back from a wonderful family vacation to Minneapolis. (Thankfully, in one piece...No, we were not on the bridge....we were about 45 minutes south at the time.) We love Minneapolis, we always have the best time there. The people are friendly, there's so much to do, and we made it in 4 1/2 hours with one potty break!

We hit Legoland first. We've gotten smart and we get that out of the way first, so we don't have to hear about it the whole trip.
Then, we spent the night at the MetroDome watching the Twins play the Royals (yawn.) The boys had an absolute blast and agreed it was much different than watching the Cedar Rapids Kernels. I spent much of the time trying to prevent Lily from kicking the people in front of us in the head, but enjoyed watching the boys enjoying themselves.
Noah finished up his ice cream sundae and made a fashion statement.
Monkey see, monkey do (sort of).
The next day we spent at Valley Fair. It was 95 degrees, but love that there's rarely any humidity up there and there was a nice breeze. Lily did much waiting....waiting to get bigger so she can ride the bumper cars too.

This was Lily's favorite ride, the kid sized carousel. She thought she was big stuff. She calls it the 'up and down'.
I'm not sure how many times I heard, "Hi, Mom!" Let's see...once a lap....5 laps...times 500 rides...it was alot. Glad I captured it on my camera.
Lily wasn't to sure about the 'Rub-A-Dub Tubs' She has this look on her face like 'why are you putting me in this big tub?'
Bathing Beauty.

Waiting patiently for the water park to open.

"choo-choo."
Noah was so excited to try all these rides at the park. He's pretty adventurous. A lot of the rides had a height requirement of 48 inches. Well, guess who is 47 1/2 inches tall? Poor kid. So, when he saw this contraption below we decided to splurge and pay the extra 6 bucks and let him do it. You jump on a trampoline and then you're connected to these harnesses that have hydraulics on them so you go really high. He was a good 30-40 feet in the air. He LOVED it. He told my mom that it was really hard on his legs and when he was done he could feel his "heart beeping" in his legs.
So, we asked his brother if he wanted to do it as well. He agreed, not so much because he wanted to, but because his 6 year old brother was going to do it for crying out loud. Let's just say, Jackson is not a big fan of heights. He took a few jumps, then casually said, " I think I'm done now." This picture makes me laugh because I can tell his body is all tense and he's looking down. Don't look down, Jackson!
Since I'm picking on Jackson :)... I may as well continue on. He will officially kill me when he's sees I've posted this picture below. Look at that face. I love you, Jackson!


The last day in Minneapolis we went back to Mall Of America and did a 'build your own car' thing. I honestly think this was Joe's dream come true but it was 'for the kids' (ahem.) They boys loved it as they are very into cars and "tricking them out" (yo.) Joe got a little offended as the 16 year old sales associate explained to him what 'pimping' your ride means, like he was an old fart or something. I have to admit it was pretty cool as you pick out all the parts separately and put them together yourself. I mean, if you're into that kind of thing ( which, I'm not...)

And last but not least, the creme de la creme...the cherry on top... the storybook ending to a perfect family vacation....the best store in the whole wide world.....IKEA. I can not tell you how much I love this store...Excuse me, I'm getting choked up...it's like.....coming home. We started off by pulling into the parking lot and before anyone could get out I gave my prepared speech.

"Now, I would like to take this moment to remind everyone that I have been very patient. I did not complain at Lego Land. I did not complain at the baseball game. I was very patient while everyone got to do their special thing. I want you all to know that I am going to be in this store for a VERY VERY long time. I don't want to hear any whining, complaining, etc."

No one seemed to appreciate my wise words as I got lots of eye rolls and snorts. All in all everyone was great, the kids were troopers, it was great to get away....and we all came home safely.