We took a road trip to Bloomington, Minnesota on Friday May 2nd. Our goals were to see the Mall of America and maybe some sights around Minneapolis. In the end, we only had energy and time for the Mall of America area, but it was a lot of fun for all.
We arrived Friday evening and went straight to the Rainforest Cafe in the MOA. Peter and Natalie were excited about all the animals in the restaurant. Peter seemed to really like the alligator (or was it a crocodile) in the front of the gift shop.
Natalie was more interested in the 'nicer' animals of the rainforest, like this butterfly.
Cha-cha, the frog, was making visits around people waiting for a table (like us). It almost felt like we were at an amusement park!
By the time we got our table, it was past the kids' normal bedtime (8pm). The inside of the restaurant was even more stimluating with the occasional flashing lights to simulate a thunderstorm, gorillas on the walls coming to life, and the constant announcement when some table ordered their special molten lava dessert - "Volcano!". Overall, I think it was a nice experience yet a little overwhelming for all of us.
The next morning, we got to the mall to the meet & greet with Dora and Diego.
As always, I think I was more excited than the kids to meet Dora and Diego. Hey, I got to give Dora a hug - how cool is that?! Peter thought it was cool that he got to look at Diego's watch!
Next, Peter and Natalie got to ride their first amusement park ride - the Balloon Race. Sam ended up taking each Natalie and Peter on the ride. With me being 32 weeks pregnant, I was not going to go around in circles in the air. It was just as fun to watch their reactions to the ride.
Getting to go first, Natalie wasn't sure what to expect, but she soon realized the fun she's about to have. She seemed like such a big girl, getting into the hot air balloon basket with Daddy, sitting patiently while getting buckled in, and anxiously waiting for the ride to start. I wish I could have captured her little squeals of joy while they twirled around.
Having waited very patiently himself, Peter was so excited when it was his turn to go on the ride. Natalie was not so patient waiting after her ride was over, but she did pretty well. As you can tell, Peter had a great time on the ride:
Next ride was Adventura de Azul (Blue train ride from Dora the Explorer).
This ride was pretty calm and low key compared to the balloon ride - so much that they even let me ride too. However, we soon realized the space inside the caboose (Peter and Natatlie's choice of where to sit) was not made for someone who is 8 months pregnant. It was nice to have shared the train ride with the kids, but I swear I couldn't feel my legs for a while after we got out.
By the time we'd met Dora and Diego and rode just two rides, it was already past noon and the kids were tired. You know the energy level is low when you find Natalie pinching her neck and sucking her tongue, and Peter finds that laying flat on the floor appealing. So, we decided to take a break from the mall and headed back to the hotel with some Boston Market chicken (yum-o) for lunch. After a brief post-lunch nap (only the adults napped), we took the kids to the promised land - the pool. Oh, how the energy popped right back into these kids! The mere mention of going to the pool and having to take a bath afterwards sent them into hysterical excitement. They obviously love the water!
The indoor pool temperature was not as warm as we'd hoped but neither Peter nor Natalie seemed to mind. Natalie yelled several times through her chattering teeth "I'm swimming!" as she kicked her feet in the water. I had hoped the pool would have lifted some of the pregnancy weight off, but I didn't notice anything significant. I also never got to check if I could really float at this stage. I'm sure I would have just looked like a whale bobbing in the pool.
Sam and Peter had a good time in the water. Peter really wanted to swim, so Sam helped teach him how to start swimming. First thing was to teach him to keep his mouth closed as to not swallow all that water! That was a hard lesson to learn since Peter was so happy to be swimming, he was smiling so big yet trying to keep a closed mouth. He got the hang of it. Eventually, he just kept getting out of the pool at the shallow end, walking over to the deep end's ladder, and stepping down to Sam and peddling back to the shallow end. He's a brave little man! I'm just glad he hasn't acquired my fear of deep waters!
We ended the day back at the Mall of America with a short stop at the Lego's store and then a dinner at Kokomo's Cafe. I was pretty impressed by the Lego's display. Peter and Natalie seemed more interested in playing at the Lego's tables, but I took notice of all the figurines mad entirely out of Legos. Most impressive to me were the dinsosaurs. They were way taller than me (not that 5ft is really tall). Surprisingly, Peter wasn't as impressed. Again, just like with Dora and Diego, I seemed more excited about them. The kids just wanted to play - what else can you expect! I guess they just missed their Legos at home!
Finally, we returned to the hotel in time for a semi-normal bedtime for all.
It was a fast yet fun weekend. For the kids, it was exciting just to go on a trip to a hotel. Destination was of very little importance to them. I cherish how the simple things excite Peter and Natalie. I'm sure in 10-12 years time, it all will be very different. We didn't really get around to doing much, but what we did do, we had lots of fun doing it. Obviously, everyone was exhausted on the 5 hour drive home:
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