Minnesota fun

Sorry for the lapse in blogs, it gets very busy around here and time to sit and blog is hard to find. Anyway we got back from a quick weekend trip to Minnesota and I thought I'd share a few details.

The loving husband is an avid target shooter. I say this because he was the reason for the MN trip. He found a 1 day match in St. Francis that sounded like fun (to him) so he decided that maybe we could make a family trip out of it. We had been wanting to take the kids up to the aquarium at the Mall of America for some time so that was going to be the "family" part of this vacation.

We left Friday morning for the adventure with three kids and a new DVD player to keep them amused. It is one thing to drive across the state of SD without the digital babysitter ( I mean if you need to stop and let the kids out to run you can pick a small town or rest area) but quite another to have fighting and boredom in the middle of a traffic jam or during a time when the map reader is trying to figure out which exit to take. That being said, our purchase was well worth the money. We decided to stop in Mankato for lunch. I was hoping to see my uncle or cousin at the KFC but they were out but lunch was still good. Unfortunately, we hit the cities at about the wrong time in the afternoon. It's been quite a few years since I have driven up there so my memory of how to get to places is a little fuzzy. I of course was the navigator so was in charge of reading the map and plotting the route was my job. Take the blue road to the red road and turn on the dotted yellow line road...oh wait what are these numbers for??? The traffic was of course bumper to bumper to bumper. Oh yeah, this is why I like to live in smaller towns. It took awhile but we managed to make it to the Mall of America. Thankfully I had been there several times before so I knew what to look for when it came time to exit off the freeway and navigate the parking areas. We totally lucked out and got a great spot on the East side of the mall near Sears. I say great spot because it was the side of the mall that the aquarium entrance was located on. For those who have never experienced MOA....it is HUGE. The aquarium is located in the basement level and is hands down one of the best I have ever been to. The kids were a little on the tired side but really enjoyed themselves.

When we finished we went back upstairs and explored the rest of the place. Once again for those who don't know MOA, there are 4 levels to this mall and hundreds of stores to visit. We managed to get past the Build a Bear store and Carolyn has no idea what American Girl is so no worries about visiting that store. Matthew wanted to do the Nickelodeon Amusement Park or whatever it is called but the rides were a little too big (and expensive) for him to go on. Side note...last time I was there the park was called Camp Snoopy There is a LEGO store on the first floor that not only sells everything LEGO but has bins of LEGO'S for kids to play with free of charge. During this time Andrew sacked out on Daddy for a quick nap and Carolyn also joined in. After everyone woke up we wandered back out to the car and set out to locate the hotel.

Our hotel was about an hour or so north of the Cities (Princeton) so we had to drive through the get out of town traffic. As usual we hit the bumper to bumper to bumper stuff and I was sure that once we turned north and west towards St. Cloud it would thin out..NOT!! I'm not sure why but I think everyone in the Twin Cities takes that route out of town on Friday afternoons. Anyway we did manage to find both the rifle range (that was a little tricky) and our hotel (very easy) and walked over to Pizza Hut for supper followed up by a refreshing swim in the pool.

The next morning we were up and out the door pretty early to get Jim over to the range in time for his match. After dropping hubby off me and the kids headed back to the hotel for breakfast and relaxation. I decided against swimming, opting instead to let the kids watch TV and shower. After checking out I took the kids and we went to the local farmer's market and we bought some yummy blueberry syrup and baked goods. It was quite rainy so we didn't get to do the park like I wanted to but the kids did manage to get some outdoor time in. Later that afternoon we picked hubby up. He shot very well and took 3rd place overall. We had decided to not stay another night and just drive back to SD so we headed back towards the Cities and MOA for one more aquarium trip.

Traffic was much better this time around and we totally lucked out and got a primo megga super duper parking spot about 100 feet from the entrance of the Sears merchandise pick-up door. Hubby had bought a family membership to the aquarium the day before so all we had to do was give our names and walk right in. The kids were once again thrilled and had even more fun than the day before. I got some nice photos of the fish and kids too. When we finished we walked back upstairs and this time I let the kids go into the Build a Bear store. Matthew and Carolyn had fun making a new best friend for themselves. Andrew wasn't too interested so he got a cool glitter ball with fish in it instead. Done with shopping we went back to the van and headed on home. Long ride but totally worth the trip. I thought about buying lottery tickets but decided we had used our good luck up in the fact we made it through the Cities twice without any traffic accidents or getting lost and got awesome parking at the MOA.