Our Tag-Along Trip

 

Matt had a conference he was working in Bloomington, MN. The kids and I had no plans so we were able to tag-along and had a great time. Here we are just leaving on the 5 hour drive. Calvin had already asked "are we there yet" about 30 times. 

 As soon as we check in the kids were ready to go swimming... except for Hazel who just wanted to cuddle Daddy. 

 Finally off to the pool.

These two might have swam all night.

On our first day there I had bought tickets for us to go to the aquarium at the Mall of America. This was our favorite part of the trip. It was beautiful and we enjoyed it so much.

The kids at the hands on area. They got to tough all kids of sea-life including starfish. Lilly was in heaven.

I don't know what these were called but they popped up from little holes in the sand. I took the picture because I wanted to creep Matt out.

They had a wall of the actual size of a bunch of crabs. Here the kids are with the biggest one.

This was our favorite part. A long tunnel aquarium, everything swam right over us. I got some pretty cool video too.

 After the aquarium we ended up hanging out at the mall for the afternoon. Our first stop was lunch at McDonalds while we watched the ride at the theme park.


Lilly's not really into dolls but we had fun looking around the American Girl store. I probably enjoyed it more than she did because I grew up with my Samantha doll under my arm and reading all the books.

 

 Then we found the Lego Store. The kids had a great time looking around at all the huge Lego creations. We even ran into some friends from church right in the middle of the store.

Back at the hotel: We sent Daddy a picture to tell him how much fun we had.

Then it was time for pajamas and pizza!

   

Lilly got to stay up late after the little kids went to bed and play bananagrams with me. She's pretty smart! ;)

Once Daddy got back from the conference Lilly was more than ready to cuddle.

And now for my favorite part... Matt finally gave into my begging and agreed to stop at IKEA on the way out of town. We put the big kids in the free child care they offer and blew through the store in 45 minutes with a sleeping Hazel.