Getting Caught Up

We had a great trip to Minnesota - a little "whirlwind-ish" for me, but we made it through just fine. Five nights in a different location each night! Whew! I was worried about how the kids would handle it, but they did awesome and had a lot of fun. We first stopped in Willmar for a couple days to visit the Roisum clan, and were amazed at the remodeling that took place at Mark's parents house over the past couple months. WOW, what fun to see such a big change! It looks awesome you guys! Hope you enjoy it immensely. (Here's a photo of the boys "dressing up" Mark's Uncle Marty - he's a VERY patient man!!) :)

After the Vikings game last Sunday, we headed to Minneapolis, and stayed with my aunt and uncle the first night. They have been blessed with an enormous house and we got a kick out of Jack and Noah's awe-inspired comments - "This looks like a hotel" - "What if I get up in the middle of the night and can't find you?" - "Which stairs do we go down, there are so many?" They had been there several times before the age of 3, but not since then, so they didn't remember it. They had a total blast and didn't want to leave in the morning. I told my aunt I was going to send them to her this summer (they are recent empty-nesters), and she said "SURE!" So watch out, Ben and Ann, we may just take you up on it! :)

We then spent the day at the Mall of America - the kids have been asking for over a year to visit Legoland, so that was top priority, and it didn't disappoint. They were very impressed. We had lunch with Mark's brother and his family, and then headed off to do some rides in the former Camp Snoopy (not sure what they call it now). Then we hit the Build-a-Bear workshop where the boys each made their own dog - they LOVED it. At the end of the day, we went to the Cheesecake Factory and then crashed at our hotel.

Mark's training for work started early the next morning, so the boys and I slept in and then headed to the zoo, which was a much bigger hit with Jack and Noah than I thought it would be! They were enthralled with the dolphin show and the tank where they could pet stingrays and little sharks. I wasn't sure they would do it, but Jack had his arms in that tank up to his shoulders within seconds. Noah took a little coaxing, but after a while he got into it too. They stayed at that tank for an hour! We also hit a 3D Imax movie - their first 3D experience - and that was a riot. We had a great day together.

Mark, his brother, and their boys at LegoLand:

Noah stuffing his dog at Build-a-Bear

Jack operating the stuffing machine . . .

On a ride at the Mall of America:

At the zoo:

Sporting the 3D glasses:

Jack getting ready to "pounce"
Wednesday we headed home! I then spent Thursday and Friday just trying to get caught up - my goodness, four people can create a lot of laundry in 6 days!!! We had a nice quiet weekend at home - Saturday we did some major cleaning/reorganizing in the playroom/family room area, which felt really good. We had to make room for Mark's Mall of America purchase - a LoveSac. If you aren't familiar, they are fancy adult-size "bean bags" except they aren't made of beans, they are full of foam. He wanted the biggest - an 8-footer - but it was almost impossible to move, so we settled on the next size down - the 6-footer. We love it - it's VERY comfy!!
Here's what it looked like right out of the bag:

And after a lot of work by the four of us, kneading and fluffing:

Now we're off to a normal week, looking forward to my sister and her family coming on Saturday!! They'll be here through Thanksgiving weekend - partly at our house, and partly at my mom and dad's in Spearfish. Can you stand it - Thanksgiving is already almost here? Amazing!