mall of america

 We thought it would be a super fun treat to take the kids to Nickelodeon Universe, and it was fun to take them somewhere special. 

What we did not realize though, was that this is President's Day weekend, a three day weekend, and the place was mobbed.  It was hard to find parking because the van doesn't fit in the ramp. But we did, and it was close enough to a door that we could leave the coats behind and just brave the cold coat-less for a few minutes.

Inside it was warm and bright.  And so crowded.  The lines were so long.  We did not buy wristbands at $35 each, which we were so glad about because they couldn't get on rides--waiting 45 minutes to an hour for each ride, forget it!  We bought two swipe tickets--one the little kids could use and one the bigger kids could use, and they don't expire.   They can be used up on another day.

They were in line 45 minutes for this ride.  But they're good. They were happy.

 He wanted the little bumper cars, so cute.  That line was about half an hour.

 And the little sister wanted the Bubble Guppies, so we headed there next.

 She's thinking about something and not interested in smiling.  But pretty soon they went nuts spinning the car by use of a wheel in the middle, and that cheered her up.

But it made us all a little dizzy.   When the ride was finally underway, and we were way up in the air, the little guy looked like he might cry.  I asked him what's wrong?  He said he was going to throw up.

!!!!

I looked around, and I got nuthin'.  He pukes--we didn't bring changes of clothing, not even wipes.  This is not good.

Then I spotted an extra disposable diaper in my purse and handed it to him, "Just puke in the diaper if you have to.  That will catch everything."

He said, "It's okay. I just swallowed it."

Good Lord.

 So after that we moved on from rides.   This game was a hit.  (That print dress she's wearing is something I bought at Target as a gift for someone, and for some reason ended up giving them something else.  I ran across it in the file cabinet last week.  I asked her if she wanted it, and she did.  It's cute.  It was even cuter after it was washed because in the dryer the ruffle on the collar turned smaller and more uniform.)

 He wanted that thing with the horn, and he had a correct name for it.  What they'd actually won was one of those little round emoji things, which I found in my purse a little while ago.

 They were hungry, and we were not finding any easily available food, but I spotted the bakery case inside Caribou coffee, so we went in there.  (The bigger kids were in line for a roller coaster.  Jay was going back and forth between us all.)

The little boy picked out an apple fritter the size of his head.  The little girl chose a cherry-chocolate doughnut sprinkled with coconut.  And I bought a bottle of water and asked for two cups. We found a spot to sit on a little ledge while they ate.

At first she set about picking off every single bit of coconut.  Whee.

Finally I mentioned the sprinkles are actually tasty. Delicious, in fact, and I broke off a bite to demonstrate.  Then she ate the whole thing.

After this we met up with the older kids and found out that p.j. herself had HATED the roller coaster and cried on Julia in fear and dread the whole time.  She threw herself into my arms, all tear-stained and overwhelmed.

After this we all agreed to check out Legoland.

And then there was a discussion of further rides, further standing in lines, and it had become so crowded it was actually hard to even walk around.

We decided to go home.  Dan's kids were staying with Alicia's parents and they were coming for supper, and maybe we'd just save those tickets and come back again on a weekday when it's easier.

You kids were so sweet and such amazing good sports.  Even though it was a bit disappointing, nothing about spending the afternoon with you guys was disappointing at all.  You were all great.

Love, Grandma and Grandpa