***Warning, this is a really, really long post*** :)
It's been a LONG time since we spent some time away from home enjoying our little family. I think the last time was August when we spent a week at Clear Lake. So last weekend we left Friday early afternoon and drove up to Minneapolis to spend the weekend.
The boys did a good job in the car - Isaiah fell asleep but Levi managed to stay awake the entire drive! With just a couple "are we there yet?"s from Isaiah about 10 minutes after we left, we made it without any complications!! We stopped at our hotel first to drop off our stuff...
Then went out for dinner at the restaurant right outside our hotel. It was fun to try something new and they gave each of the kids a little ball of dough to play with along with crayons and coloring pages. They thought that was pretty neat!
And then we went to...
We were so overwelmed and excited by all that we saw at IKEA that we could have stayed there for 3 days straight! But, the daycare for Isaiah was only an hour long (can you believe they offer daycare for any potty trained kid!?) and after a few hours the boys had had enough...and the Panthers were playing in the Sweet 16, so back to the hotel we went!! Levi went to bed (remember no nap in the car!) and Mark watched the game, while Isaiah and I went to check out the pool (remember he DID nap in the car!). We had a great time swimming and Isaiah had so much fun jumping into my arms over and over!
We managed to get up Saturday morning at our normal time and be up and ready to go...or at least Levi was, he got his shoes and coat and climbed in the stroller by 8:15. The only thing open was...
so we shopped at Target for about an hour before we went and found this...
and then this...
Isaiah and Levi were both amazed with all of the Legos. So of course we stopped to play.
But they couldn't miss all the excitement going on at the Nickelodeon Universe, so we moved on...We ended up buying Isaiah a wrist band for unlimited rides (we had a coupon so it wasn't too expensive and a chaperone could ride most of the rides with him for free!).
Mark took him on his first ride, The Log Chute. Isaiah got pretty nervous on the ride! Mark asked him if he wanted to do it again and he said, "maybe I'll do it again when I'm bigger."
We went on several other rides, Mark and I taking turns going with him and a few he went on all by himself!
Azul, Azul!! This is the train in one of our Dora books! Isaiah was VERY excited to see this ride.
Bumper Cars - Isaiah drove the car all by himself! At first he kept going in a circle, but then he figured it out and actually bumped into lots of other cars. When I asked him what his favorite ride was that night, he answered this one (but he also said he liked the Swiper ride the best too -- and that was the only ride he rode twice).
Levi was very patient throughout the day. He had fun watching the rides and all of the people.
Mark decided to climb high on the ropes course. He was so close to the ceiling!!
Somehow through all of this Mark managed to get Levi to fall asleep! He slept for about an hour in the stroller in the midst of a crazy amusement park and a wild mall!!
Isaiah kept asking, "do we get to see the REAL Dora and Diego?" and guess what, we did!!
After all of the excitement of the mall, we decided to walk back to the hotel and go SWIMMING!
Like usual, Levi wasn't so sure about the pool at first, he decided to stay back and watch.
and then watch from the chairs.
He eventually got in and was fearless in the water, jumping in just like his brother, and didn't mind getting his face all the way in. Isaiah was so much more comfortable in the water than he's been in the past. He was jumping in from such a long way out, he was letting me hardly catch him so he was so deep in the water. I was so proud of him.
We decided to walk back over to the mall to get something to eat, let Isaiah ride a few more rides, and say goodbye to the "big mall."
We also needed to stop and play the games we passed by several times during the day. Mark loves to play carnival games. Whenever we are somewhere with them, we have to stop and play at least one :) So of course he and Isaiah played a few...and look what Isaiah did!!
Finally we got strawberry smoothies for a bedtime snack. YUMMY.
Since we were at the hotel, we decided to let the kids enjoy their treat in bed :)
We woke up Sunday morning and headed back to IKEA to actually buy some things that we came for...and then realized just how tired we all were so we headed home after lunch.
What a great get-a-way as our little family!
Then went out for dinner at the restaurant right outside our hotel. It was fun to try something new and they gave each of the kids a little ball of dough to play with along with crayons and coloring pages. They thought that was pretty neat!
And then we went to...
We were so overwelmed and excited by all that we saw at IKEA that we could have stayed there for 3 days straight! But, the daycare for Isaiah was only an hour long (can you believe they offer daycare for any potty trained kid!?) and after a few hours the boys had had enough...and the Panthers were playing in the Sweet 16, so back to the hotel we went!! Levi went to bed (remember no nap in the car!) and Mark watched the game, while Isaiah and I went to check out the pool (remember he DID nap in the car!). We had a great time swimming and Isaiah had so much fun jumping into my arms over and over!We managed to get up Saturday morning at our normal time and be up and ready to go...or at least Levi was, he got his shoes and coat and climbed in the stroller by 8:15. The only thing open was...
so we shopped at Target for about an hour before we went and found this...
and then this...
Isaiah and Levi were both amazed with all of the Legos. So of course we stopped to play.
But they couldn't miss all the excitement going on at the Nickelodeon Universe, so we moved on...We ended up buying Isaiah a wrist band for unlimited rides (we had a coupon so it wasn't too expensive and a chaperone could ride most of the rides with him for free!).Mark took him on his first ride, The Log Chute. Isaiah got pretty nervous on the ride! Mark asked him if he wanted to do it again and he said, "maybe I'll do it again when I'm bigger."
We went on several other rides, Mark and I taking turns going with him and a few he went on all by himself!Swiper no swiping!
(Swiper is a character from the Diego books and shows)
(Swiper is a character from the Diego books and shows)
Azul, Azul!! This is the train in one of our Dora books! Isaiah was VERY excited to see this ride.
Bumper Cars - Isaiah drove the car all by himself! At first he kept going in a circle, but then he figured it out and actually bumped into lots of other cars. When I asked him what his favorite ride was that night, he answered this one (but he also said he liked the Swiper ride the best too -- and that was the only ride he rode twice).
Levi was very patient throughout the day. He had fun watching the rides and all of the people.
Mark decided to climb high on the ropes course. He was so close to the ceiling!!
Somehow through all of this Mark managed to get Levi to fall asleep! He slept for about an hour in the stroller in the midst of a crazy amusement park and a wild mall!!
Isaiah kept asking, "do we get to see the REAL Dora and Diego?" and guess what, we did!!
After all of the excitement of the mall, we decided to walk back to the hotel and go SWIMMING!
Like usual, Levi wasn't so sure about the pool at first, he decided to stay back and watch.
and then watch from the chairs.
He eventually got in and was fearless in the water, jumping in just like his brother, and didn't mind getting his face all the way in. Isaiah was so much more comfortable in the water than he's been in the past. He was jumping in from such a long way out, he was letting me hardly catch him so he was so deep in the water. I was so proud of him.
We decided to walk back over to the mall to get something to eat, let Isaiah ride a few more rides, and say goodbye to the "big mall."We also needed to stop and play the games we passed by several times during the day. Mark loves to play carnival games. Whenever we are somewhere with them, we have to stop and play at least one :) So of course he and Isaiah played a few...and look what Isaiah did!!
Finally we got strawberry smoothies for a bedtime snack. YUMMY.
Since we were at the hotel, we decided to let the kids enjoy their treat in bed :)
We woke up Sunday morning and headed back to IKEA to actually buy some things that we came for...and then realized just how tired we all were so we headed home after lunch.What a great get-a-way as our little family!
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