A little trip north

Paul had the last week of January off and we really wanted to go do something fun and get out of town.  So we decided to leave our frigid, snowy weather and head north to even colder snowy weather.   I'm sure going to Minneapolis in the  middle of the winter doesn't sound like much fun but we really had a blast.  I found a hotel that had an awesome water playland for the kids and I knew if all we did was spend our time at the pool it would be a fun vacation.

The drive was pretty quick and easy, all  the kids took naps and watched a movie.  We made it to Minneapolis in the late afternoon, checked into and hotel and then wandered around the Mall of America.  We grabbed dinner at the mall, checked out the amusement park, visited the American doll store, Disney store and the Lego store.  Then headed back to the hotel for a little swimming.

Leila was checking out the American doll of the year Saige

Asher in a tunnel at the Disney store

Leila and Greydon having a conversation with the magical mirror

The pool was so much fun and we had it completely to ourselves when we first got there.  Later on a few more kids showed up but it still felt so empty.  Leila and Greydon jumped right in and played for about two hours until they were completely exhausted.  It took Asher a little bit to warm up and it didn't help that he tripped a couple times at the beginning and got a mouth full of water. But by the end he was loving it.  He climbed the stairs to the slide, got down on his tummy and went feet first down it.  I would catch him at the bottom and help him walk to the edge of the pool, he would climb out and walk to the stairs and repeat the process all over.  He did this for a solid 30 minutes before he was worn out.  We went back to the room and got ready for bed.  The kids were asleep within minutes.  Unfortunately nobody slept well, Greydon occasionally wakes up screaming in the night and it takes us a few minutes to get him to wake up, stop screaming and then go back to sleep.  This happened multiple times and then around midnight one of his screaming episodes woke Asher up who was then up for over two hours.  If I tried laying him down he screamed and since we were in a hotel I couldn't just let him cry it out.  Finally I got him to sleep and Greydon stopped screaming and we were able to get a little bit of sleep  

  

On Tuesday Morning we slowly got ready and had breakfast.  At the Mall of America they have toddler Tuesday and have a couple events for kids plus discounts on rides and food.  We went to the craft and play they put on and then bought the kids a pass to ride the rides at Nickelodeon studios.  

We let them go on the rides for a couple hours and then had lunch and then we did a little shopping.  The mall is huge and has every store you can think of in it.  We wore the kids out walking around the entire thing.  Before leaving we hit up a couple more rides and then headed back to the hotel for a little more swimming.  

The pool was so fun and the best part was having it completely to ourselves.  Grey was constantly on the move it was hard to get a picture of him, most of them are blurry because he wouldn't hold still.  Leila was bouncing back and forth between the kids play land and the big pool.  It was easy to keep on eye on everyone because there were not other children getting in the way.  

That night we went to dinner at Mickey's diner in St. Paul.  I'm pretty sure I've seen in on Diner, Drive-ins and Dives and it's been on several other food network shows.  It's a tiny street car diner with delicious food.  My cheeseburger did not disappoint and Paul's hash browns were amazing.  By the time we got back to the hotel the kids were exhausted and went right to sleep and slept the entire night.  The next morning I took the kids swimming one last time before we checked out.  Then we had to visit Ikea since we don't have one in Des Moines.  Leila and Greydon played in the kids land while Paul, Asher and I did a little shopping.  After lunch at Ikea we headed on home.  While we were in Minneapolis, Des Moines got a big snow storm and school was canceled.  Luckily our drive home was clear except for the blowing snow.  

I think the trip wore the kids out, they were exhausted