A short while ago, Southwest Airlines ran a great deal with $39 one-way fares to Minneapolis. All of us had never been to Minnesota and thinking that they may have poor weather, the Mall of America was our big destination. As it turned out, the weather was beautiful. Temps in the mid 60's and clear skies each of the days we were in town. It was almost too bad that we spent so much time indoors, but hey, what are ya gonna do?
So we started out early and headed to the airport. The boys were quite excited to see our jet pull into the gate.
Once on the ground we headed to a tiny, tiny, but relatively popular pizza place called Fat Lorenzos....even at 130PM we had about a 20 minute wait, but it was pretty good. The boys ate great!
The boys loved coloring on the table (even if one had his pah-pah)!
Daddy and Ethan and Mommy and Aidan eating homemade Passion Fruit Gelato!
The boys (especially Daddy) loved our hotel room at the Hilton!
Full view of jets!!
It was then onto our big destination!
Inside the mall is a huge theme park called the Nickelodeon Universe. So shopping was put aside and it was time to ride some rides!
Aid's first ride was the Big Rigs!
Next the train with Mommy and Ethan!
And then the awesome dragon at the carousel!
Here's just a small glimpse of this massive place.
Our next big event was heading to St. Paul to the Minnesota Children's Museum. We had heard that it was a really great musuem with accolades saying that it was #1 in the country. Sooo......well, it was OK. A little small, some of the stuff was not really relavent to the guys, but fun was definitely had!
First stop was the water area...
and then bubbles...
even Mommy got her bubble on!
It was pretty busy there, but the grocery store was a lot of fun for Aidan.
Ethan LOVES blocks...
Kinda hard to see here, but Aid's driving and Mommy and E are in the back!
Ethan found a tunnel, his favorite!
And Aidan is a turtle!
On the way out we had to stop at Candyland...they had fresh popped popcorn that you could smell all the way down the street. Yum!
We then had lunch and Ethan took some time to review the menu.
After lunch it was onto another relatively obscure St. Paul landmark, Choo Choo Bob's Train Store. Apparently Choo Choo Bob has some sort of Public Access TV show, but we just went to play with the train tables and see some model trains. The boys had a ton of fun and the Thomas stuff was on sale! ;)
Train boys....
Ethan's really getting into the trains as well....
Now dinner was kind of a debaucle that night. We had planned to stop and watch the jets a little bit at this great observing spot by the airport, but unfortunately the planes weren't flying much at that time. So that put us a little bit behind heading to dinner at a place, Broder's Pasta Bowl, which had about 40 seats in the place. As the situation would have it we forgot to call ahead for seating and were stuck waiting for a good 40 minutes. In the mean time, I had to change Ethan (in the truck because we got a Chevy Impala rental car) and subsequently locked the keys in the trunk. Fortunately we have AAA (best money we've ever spent) and they had the keys out in less than 20 minutes. Mommy was not pleased (either was I, but hey, things happen).
Dinner was good, Mommy's was caprice salad great, and my homemade lobster, truffle and squash pasta was great too. Mommy and Ethan shared some ice cream...Ethan LOVES ice cream!
Dinner was good, Mommy's was caprice salad great, and my homemade lobster, truffle and squash pasta was great too. Mommy and Ethan shared some ice cream...Ethan LOVES ice cream!
So our final day was all spent at the Mall of America and really had a good time. Daddy wanted to get in the action so I tried out the high ropes course. This course was pretty extreme with the highest level at least 50 feet high!
At the highest level, there was a plank that extended out over the park. It was intense.
Aid loved the Big Rigs!
Next was Diego's Bus...it rotated up and around about 20 feet in the air and a balloon ride.
Next up was Blue's Skidoo! Fun!
Next up was the race cars...Daddy and Mommy got to ride with Aidan. Here's Mommy, getting a little surprised by the speed!
Listen to Mommy! Loving it!
Now...Aidan needed a little coaxing on some of the rides. We walked by a few and he really gave us a resounding "NOOOO!!!!". Well fortunately, Daddy knows someone who was like Aidan when he was small, well that would be me. So, we convinced him that all would be well, and he bought it. Example Number 1....The Wonderpets Flyboat!
Loaded up...
....heading to the top!
almost there...
...bouncing and loving it....I TOLD YOU AIDAN!!!
Going up with Tuck the Turtle!
Here's a video of the first run...you can see that Aidan was a little scared until he realized that all the kids next to him were laughing and having fun...then he loosened up and started laughing too!
So the best moment of the trip, after he finished the first ride, he bolted out the exit after this picture and headed right back to the entrence to ride again...we didn't even get a chance to ask him if it was fun!
So after the flyboat, we bumped it up a notch...to the giant flying swings!
Aidan fought it pretty hard, but in the end, he loved it...and we were so proud at what a brave and couragous little boy he was!
After a bit of shopping (we really didn't do as much as we thought, in fact, almost all the stores there, we have here in St. Louis, so it wasn't the blow out shopping experience that many have), we headed back to the airport.
At MSP, they have a cool little play area that the boys played on. Here's Aid driving the TUG.
Driving Ethan around...
So all in all, a great visit to the land up north...
Thanks for sharing our experience...have a great night.
Ty, Emmy, Aidan and Ethan
Ty, Emmy, Aidan and Ethan
