Trip to Minnesota

A few weeks ago we went up to Minnesota for a little fun get-away with my parents, my sister's family and my niece, Morgan.  Thanks Jeff for watching Stella last minute!

These kinds of trips are fun and will be great memories for the kids - however, I will share two versions of this trip.  

In Carter and Dylan's Minds…

Wow- what not to LOVE about this trip!   Car ride up wasn't too bad- watched movies and colored.  And asked mom and dad a zillion times if we were in Minnesota yet, when we will be in Minnesota, when are we going to be there.  Repeat, repeat, repeat!
Staying at a hotel - awesome!  So cool, the room even has a fridge!

Swimming / slides / playing - all Carter & Dylan's favorite things!  We went to the Water Park of America right by the Mall of America.  They do have a pretty darn cool indoor watermark, with some high slides.  Friday night we went to dinner at the hotel, then headed straight for the pool.  The boys could not wait to go swimming.  They loved it all and with their life jackets they were able to do most things, which was good since it was mostly Keith vs. them and I had a Olivia most of the time until she went up with mom and dad.  The boys really enjoyed the wave pool, which was good to help build their confidence in the water.  I stayed close by, but let them try to keep their selves up if they were knocked down by the tubes / waves.
Saturday morning called for more time in the pool.  While all of us girls and dad went shopping!  After swimming they went to Edenborough and had a blast.  It is a massive indoor tree house with obstacles and slides, sure wish we had one in Iowa.  The boys the perfect age for it.

Overall - they had SO MUCH FUN.  The next day Carter kept asking me if we were going to go to that really fun place again!  

Olivia had her first pool experience.  It was just OK.  I don't think she was feeling her best.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trip in our perspective…
It's great to take your kids places, but boy is it a lot of work!  Call your parents up right now and thank them for all the trips they ever took you on b/c you probably never realized how crazy it was for them while you were busy having fun.
Anyway, It has been really busy around here lately.  I always feel as though packing is an obstacle within itself.  Then it was our first time bringing Olivia somewhere so we had to pack/plan out all the baby needs (do not miss all those road trips to IA).  We initially planned to stay all weekend, but with Olivia's baptism we had a mandatory meeting at 8:15 that Sunday (the day we turned clocks ahead - in case you were wondering), so we had to leave MN Saturday evening.
Overall the ride up went well.  Olivia did really good!  On Saturday, Keith manned the boys well I shopped- which proved to be a bit exhausting since 22 lb- Olivia was not too interested in riding in her stroller.  So I lugged her around most of the day!  Did I mention she was not feeling her best, so she was bit on the fussy side or maybe the not the easiest to carry around kind.  Not sure what the heck was going on, but every stop we made was just jammed packed!  We went to Ikea (or what I'm calling it- I think there are too many people here and their prices seem to be going up), the Galleria, back to the hotel - and then that is where we went wrong.  We went to the Mall of America.  I have never seen this place so busy.

At this point the boys were a bit delusional from exhaustion.  We finally got into the parking ramps and this was worst than any Christmas shopping I have ever experienced.  You were almost trapped in.  No spots what so ever.  Then you had to almost follow people as they were walking to their car, hoping that their car was near or you wouldn't have a shot at the spot.  So we did this for of 30 minutes.  This my friend is a relationship tester!  At one point I almost got out and jumped on a guys car as we were following a lady to her spot and he pulled out in front of us.  A-hole!  I'm still mad.  At that point Keith and I got out and switched spots.  By some miracle we finally found a spot.  In front of a locked door so we had a walk a bit. But it was a spot, we got into the darn mall.  Then we did not have a stroller for the boys.  The mall was madness.  So either I would carry Olivia and push her stroller with the other hand.  Or hold both boys hands - well, try to.  Keith went to the lego place with them, I left with Olivia.  Next thing I notice is my leg is wet.  Look around to nothing that could have possibly spilled or dropped down from the sky onto me. Only to be an odd diaper fail.  Carry her / push her back.  Get the diaper bag, find a bathroom.  Anyway - this really was chaos at this point as I think I have blocked a moment or two out here.  At that point we had hiked the mall plenty.  Then Keith left to feed Olivia, me to walk half the mall with both boys, carrying Carter at one point - motivating them to keep going at hopes we could get pretzels soon.  And there we were, sitting on a bench at the mall, all of us devouring pretzels.  Then we got the heck out of that place.  Keith says he is NEVER going back to MOA, not to even ask.  Only maybe on an odd hour middle of the week.

We got back probably about 10ish.  Somehow the boys did not fall asleep the entire ride back!  How is that possible?  Even I fell asleep!  The next day at our meeting we were wiped out - because it's never fun to get 3 kids dressed, out of the house somewhere before 8, especially when it feels like 7 and everyone is wiped out from a trip and there was a good chance they would have actually slept in..  The Pastor kept saying- ooh, I'm really sorry about planing this meeting on the day we turned the clocks ahead and seemed to look more at us.  We must have looked like a huge train wreck.  probably true!
I'm pretty sure I just unpacked our last bag or two last Saturday.

Seriously, despite my complaining, the boys had a great time and i really enjoyed seeing them have so much fun!  It was great to get out with my family and I wish we could do that more.  BIG THANKS TO THEM!