Day Four-Minneapolis

Today was literally: water park, shopping, water park.  No, really.

We woke up and everyone put on their swimsuits and went downstairs to the largest indoor water park in America. It's in the Radisson hotel and pretty much looks like Great Wolf Lodge only bigger. Oh and did I mention cheaper. Pretty sure what we paid for two nights here plus the 3 tanks of gas and two other hotel rooms to get here from Texas, is STILL cheaper than what we would have paid for GWL in Grapevine,TX. Plus the air filtration is better here and I didn't get a chlorine smell headache within 30 seconds of walking in the door.  Can you tell I'm not a fan of GWL?!

This place however has been great fun.  This morning Thomas and Mandy checked out every water slide and attraction in the place.  Grace was really too distracted by the fact that the largest mall in America was just down the road to really have much fun this morning.  About noon everyone was ready for a break and some lunch so we got dressed and headed to the Mall of America.

Before we could even eat though, we had to check out the theme park that's in the middle of the mall!  You can purchase and all day pass, but there are a lot of little kid rides that didn't much interest our people, so we only bought enough "points" to ride the big roller coaster.  Which we all did and had a blast.

The theme park is Nickelodeon.  We passed Dora and Diego and immediately decided that we needed a picture for our favorite 2 year old twins...

Looking down into the Lego store.  Open and looks just like the
whole store is built out of Legos.

Mandy could hardly eat her lunch because of the giant, and I mean GIANT Lego sculptures and store hovering  over us!  Of course that was our first stop after we finished eating!  We spent over an hour there.  We ALL played Legos! Mandy filled a bucket with Lego pieces and we all made our own Lego people. Lots of purchases were made!

Mandy made these. It's her,  Haylee and Sarah!

Chef Clay and Papaw!

Thomas was "Flamin' Hot" on the
Hot Tamale thermometer!

Then, we did "real" shopping and of course Grace had to find Delia's.  She's a great bargain hunter.  She found a new shop called Lola's and bought a scarf and shirt for $11.59!  (She gets that from my mother.)

Cheese Heads!

There was a Peeps store!  I LOVE Peeps!

Then, we found the As Seen On TV store.  Yes, all those products advertised on cable and late night tv ALL in one store.  I thought they were all going to stroke out!  We have GOT to put a stiffer limit on the amount of tv being watched in our home.  My kids knew all these products. It was like they'd been brainwashed, you should have heard the begging.

Mandy and Grace and already gotten a souvenir for the day so they were told they had to use their own money to buy whatever it was they wanted.  Thomas had gotten nothing yet so he was told he could get one thing.  Oh my word, you'd have thought he was choosing a college the way each item was so intently weighed in the decision-making process! First it was rubber sealant in a spray can. Really?! I was afraid to ask what for.  Then it was the clapper, yes, the clapper.  But, the final choice was the amazing, mystical Fushigi ball.  I'm not even sure what the thing even does or how much it cost, I was just glad  he finally came to a decision before I grew any older.  The girls both wanted the same thing but when told they had to pay for them they decided that they could share one (some pillow you put your iPad/kindle fire in)  and split the cost...always amazes me how easy it is to share when they have to pay for it themselves.

Clap on, Clap off!

While the kids ran excitedly from one piece of crap product to another, Scott and I just wandered around cracking up over some of the more interesting products.  These two were our favorites...

Pretty certain this has to be bad for you.

And...the Booty Pop.  For that perfect "baby got back" look!

After that exhausting experience we decided it was time to go.  As soon as we got to the hotel Scott laid down on the bed and went to sleep. So that left me to return to the water park.  Scott did come down long enough for us to climb 5 flights of stairs so that we could do the family raft water slide all together.   (Side note: At 40 it has now become beyond embarrassing to haul one's tankini clad mom body into a large life raft/inner tube in front of the poor teenage boy who is valiantly trying to hold it steady while you decide the best way to flop yourself in without scaring him for life.)

We ordered pizza and after we ate Scott went back upstairs to "work."  The kids closed the park down.  Mandy asked if we could live here.  They are going to sleep like rocks tonight.

I have to say I didn't mind hanging out at the park with them today.  They had a great time playing with each other, which when we are home and everyone is going in 30 different directions, doesn't happen very often anymore.  Also, I think this is the first year at a water park that I didn't spend the entire day in 6 inches of water watching a small person go down the kiddie slide 502 times.  My babies are growing up. *tear*

We are rolling out of here pretty early in the morning.  Heading to Fargo, North Dakota.  Pretty sure this is our last night in civilization for a while.

Blessings from Minneapolis,
Leslie