Minneapolis & St. Paul

We drove out to the Twin Cities the first weekend in January for the wedding of my good friend (from BYU) Melanie and her husband Reuben. I went to their sealing while Scott stayed with the kids, then we each did a session. I'm so thankful that the weather cooperated for us that weekend, it was wonderful to be there and even got to catch-up with Melanie a bit. We're also grateful we could take advantage of being close to the temple.

We decided to spend a couple extra days to do some sight-seeing. This is a picture from the Legoland in the Mall of America. We didn't even go inside the store, but they had some fun building stations right outside where kids could build and race lego cars or build lego castles. Notice the huge bandage on Andrew's head- he had a rough weekend. First he knocked his head while the kids were running around, then he slipped and went underwater for a few seconds at the pool, and that night he got sick (I think his tummy had too much water in it). To top it all off, he and Eden decided to try and hide in the dresser drawers while Scott and I were getting packed up for our big day out and pulled the dresser (and TV) over on themselves. The TV landed right on Andrew's head! He was OK (not bleeding like you might think because of the huge bandage), but he got a huge lump and had a couple of sort-of-black-eyes.

We went to the Como Zoo, which was really cheap (they ask for donations $2 for adults and $1 for kids). A lot of the exhibits are indoors. They had some baby tamarins and a baby orangutan. But, Eden was most excited to see the giraffes and zebras. We also got to see a special discussion on their polar bear exhibit.

Also at Mall of America we went to the aquarium. It was pretty good, but a little over-priced ($16 for adults and $10 for kids). One nice thing was that the pass is good all day, so went back after dinner. They also give you a schedule of different feedings they do throughout the day. The kids really loved the touch pool, and even got to help feed the stingrays (their 'stingers' were removed). We also went on a few rides with the kids at the amusement park in the middle of the mall. Nothing special, but the kids had a great time and it wasn't super expensive. We also heard the Children's Museum there is great (and reasonably priced) but it wasn't open on Monday, so didn't get to go.

Sorry it has taken so long to post about the rest of our trip. I wanted to get all the pictures together first (we had some on a cell phone, some on a disposable camera, and some on our digital camera (once I got batteries for it). All in all it was a great little family vacation for us.