We took a weekend trip to visit the Mall of America. Before we went to the mall, we conquered some other activities while we were there.
Thursday July 7th: driving, driving, driving.
Friday July 8th:
Minnehaha Falls located in Minnehaha Park.
Really nice park. Lots of shade, trails, bike rentals, park, splash park, and cool scenery.
hard to see, but Aubry & Bryan are on the bridge
We rented this "single surrey" to ride a trail around the park. It was weird that I had a steering wheel that didn't do any steering what-so-ever.
It was a beautiful night for a ballgame... Saint Paul Saints (Twins were in Chicago - go figure)
Aubry went to her first baseball game. We told her in the car about it and she said over and over and over "I want to see baseball". The entire walk to our seats (and hour wait until the game started) we heard that lovely phrase.
She wanted to play this kid game so badly! The worker actually made her pay. Daddy helped her first 2 tries, but she actually hit it the 3rd time on her own (and when I say hit, I mean made contact with the ball.. it barely went anywhere - but she MADE CONTACT WITH THE BALL!!!)
The game was extremely slow, and pretty brutal, and with Miss Ants in her Pants asking to leave since the 6th inning, we talked her in to staying for the fireworks show (since we missed them on the 4th). She thought they were bright and loud so she put her sunglasses on and covered her ears. Not sure why, it's not like she was scared, because she would still say "wow" and "lights" and point out the colors she saw.
Saturday July 9th: (Happy Birthday Aunt Les!!)
The Mall!!
We actually went to the mall for a few hours on Friday in between the park and baseball game to scope it out.
We stopped at Old Navy, and for those of you that know about Aubry's mannequin pose at our local Old Navy, she struck again:
The first thing we did when we arrived Saturday morning was went to the aquarium. It was called Minnesota Sea Life, and it just opened in March. To be honest, it was pretty amazing. The jellyfish exhibit and sharks were a lot better than the Shedd - and it didn't even cost extra to see them!!
We walked through an enormous tunnel that went through the aquarium of "big fish". The sharks, turtles, and fish were swimming all around us - it was amazing!
Aubry wanted to "touch" one.
Play time in the mall~
The Microsoft Store was a lot of fun. I opened up 'Paint' on a touchscreen computer and Aubry colored for a good 20 minutes.
Then we went to the Lego store. Somebody made Woody entirely out of Lego's - so cool! Aubry happens to LOVE Woody and watches his movies all the time, so she gave him a great big hug when she saw him.
Fun rides~
In the middle of the mall is an entire theme park loaded with rides and roller coasters. Aubry was big enough to go on 4 rides.
The park's theme was Nickelodeon, so here is Magenta, from Blue's Clues.
"The Big Rigs" - she got to ride all by herself - no adult chaperone!!
By far her favorite ride, called Barnyard Hayride, is not slow like an actual hayride. I would say that this was an actual roller coaster - her first! It was just an oval, but had a small downhill portion, and went really fast around one curve. She LOVED putting her hands in the air and giggled, but would drop them to hold on tight when she felt the curves coming. She was too cute. I would have taken her on this ride over and over again, but we only bought a certain amount of points.
This was how fast the ride was going!
Oh yes - at the Aquarium, we did end up finding Nemo...
...and Dory
We ended the evening with dinner at an Island theme restaurant
Sunday July 10th:
Back at mall for one last hoora. We found a snack stand that made crepes, so we ate there for breakfast. They were phenomenal - I want to go back for more crepes. =) Aubry was excited we bought some cookies for the roadtrip home, from the Nestle Tollhouse counter.
She snuck a taste before we got on the road.
Aubry picked out her souvenir from the Lego store... a small Duplo campsite with canoe and fish, and a Duplo "buzz, woody, jesse train". She couldn't wait to open and start building as soon as we got home.
2 comments:
Thanks for all of the updates! Looks like you guys had a great trip. I forgot how much there was to do there. Aubry is soooo cute! Love the picture on the roller coaster with her arms up! The sunglasses for the fireworks cracked me up, too!
Glad you all had a great time...and Loved the picture on the roller coaster!!
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