So, we had a busy week this past week. We went on a little family trip - nothing big, but with the ages of the kids right now there was a lot of planning involved. It went GREAT!! We went up to the Twin Cities for a few days. We left on Tuesday and made our way up to our Minneapolis destination. We chose the scenic water route for the drive up and heard a lot of "waller, waller" "lo look, WALLER" which is Adelaide being very excited about seeing water! She never tires at pointing out every body of water, boat or airplane she sees.
We made it up to the Como zoo for our picnic lunch (just about an hour later than planned, so pretty good!). We then took in the zoo. We got there just in time to see the Sparky Show. Well, Dave and the big kids saw Sparky, I had to feed Elise who was oh so patient with us all week. After the zoo we checked into our hotel and had a little down-time. The room worked out just fine, but it was not what we thought we were getting (downfall of on-line booking I guess!). Tuesday evening we went over to Leah's house -super cool pad Leah! Stephanie and Matthew came over and we had a great little grill-out. Matthew did a superb job with the grilled fare! it was a great time with old friends and we got to meet Leah's new puppy!! Kids loved the puppy
even though he is still a little nippy - they kept going back for more!
Wednesday we had tickets to a Twins Game. The morning was taken up with some walking around and heading over to the stadium. It was a 12:05 game and we arrived a little early so we could settle in our seats and get some ballpark food. Bonus that it was dollar dog day! Vinny found his fave to be the soft pretzel and Addie is all about the popcorn. I spent a good deal of time checking out the facilities. Elise had two diaper changes, Addie had one, and Vinny had to go potty once as well. Needless to say I had a pretty good path worn between our seats and the restroom! We made it through the 4th inning (that was considered a successful game for us). We all had a good time at the old Metrodome.
Wednesday afternoon we took the kids to the pool in the hotel. They had a blast. Even Elise seemed to like the water. She was in for just a bit and then we laid her down and she went to sleep by the deck tables (we were the only ones in the pool room). Wednesday evening we went out to IKEA to run an errand and had some pizza before getting ready for another night of sleep in the hotel.
The kids did SO SO well at night. We had not had a 'regular' hotel room in years. We have always gotten a suite so that we could put at least one kid in the other room. We decided to try a regular room and it went better than we could have ever thought. Vinny slept with Daddy in one bed and Elise and I had the other and Addie had her own pack and play next to Elise and I. We turned out the lights and really never heard anything from anyone. Not counting the neighbors who must have had a very wild night out and were having some after bar celebrations for at least an hour from 3- 4am! Luckily, they did not wake the kids, they just woke Dave and I.
Thursday was our last day on our little 3 day tour and we were off to the fair. We packed up in late morning after a little swim time in the pool. We headed out to the Minnesota State Fair. It just happened to be the first day of the fair so we decided to fit it in to our adventure.
We had a good time. We parked in a park and ride so the kids got to ride the bus. They always like when we get to take some sort of public transit. We had hoped to take advantage of the light-rail line, but we ran out of time. Maybe next time! At the fair, we saw the animals, took in the people watching, had a little fair food and the kids got to check out the kidway. Vinny got a bit traumatized by the ride he picked out. It had a big pirate on the front, but was just a spooky ride with a lot of dark and loud noises - both of which he wants nothing to do with!!!!! We let him do another mild ride after that to try to get his mind off the scary one! He spent much time that day and Friday planning out how a really good ride should be and of course it involves Spiderman!
We hit the road for our drive home after the fair. It was a good trip. Great weather, kids did wonderfully! We could not have asked for more.
