Mall of America

Imagine 9 kids between the ages of 17 months and nearly 13 years old at Mall of America. Welcome to our exciting day!! Fortunately, we had 8 adults to manage these kids!

One of the first things on kid's agenda were RIDES! While the older kids went on some big rides, the littler kids went on the carousel.

Amaya and me on a horse which she named: Rosie.

Arwen and Miles

Steve and Hope watching the action.

Obviously, Amaya LOVES the Carousel and is one of her FAVORITE rides.

Next up... the Diego Bus. It goes around in a circle frontwards and backwards. It goes up pretty high in the air, but it didn't scare Amaya or Miles!

Lead the way to the Train!

Then the Swiper Sweeper... reminds me a little bit of the Scrambler except that it just goes around in a circle.

It's a pretty tame ride... right, Arwen?

Both of us were pretty surprised at how fast it was! I got the giggles so bad because Arwen was screaming so much! Even when Grandma went on the ride, she was laughing so hard!

The kiddos were still wanting to go on more rides... so right next door was a Hot Air Balloon Ride. Here we are waiting for the passengers to get out.

Arwen and Miles

Grandma and Amaya

Now it was time for the grown-ups to get some rides in. This is one of my Mom's FAVORITE rides that we call "The Platform."

We were on the one side and the boys were on the other side.

What we like best about Mall of America is that there is a variety of things for everyone to do. After a few rides, we ate lunch at the food court and then broke up into groups for free time.

The girls took their American Girl Dolls and headed to.... the American Girl Store!

They went to the bistro and had desserts and a fondue party with their dolls.

I can't wait until I can start buying American Girl dolls for Amaya.

The boys went off to Lego Land to spend their mad money.


Steve, Amaya, and I headed to Barnes and Noble for Amaya to pick out some books with her money where she bought this bear and a couple of books about preschool.

Then, we went on a few more kiddie rides and she saw Dora and Diego in REAL LIFE!! We didn't get a picture because she thought Diego was a little scary.

During free time... some fell asleep


Some resisted sleep.... because of too much excitement


And let the rides continue! Lydia is absolutely FEARLESS! If it weren't for her height, she'd be going on every scary ride there!


Amaya's first Roller Coaster ride!

Speaking of fearless, Joshua decided to go on the ropes course.

WOW! WOW! WOW!

Dan and Hope on the carousel! Hope's first carousel ride!

The log ride! Amaya wanted to go on this ride, and even though she was tall enough, we thought we'd wait until next year.

Being 36 inches tall is the greatest! Now Amaya can go on some of the rides by herself. I'm actually surprised that she was okay going by herself and LOVED it!

Just one more ride?!?

An absolutely awesome day! Great rides, great food, great company, and a whole lot of laughs and memories! (Thank you Dad for treating the kids to the rides, giving them spending money and for sharing the pictures with us!)

Oxbow Park

We're missing the Springer's already... My sister and her family left on Saturday to spend a week camping up north with my brother and his family. When we went over to my parent's house earlier this week, Amaya was pretty sad that there were no cousins for her to play with.

Last Tuesday, we rounded up the kids and took them to Oxbow Park Zoo to see the animals. It was hot, hot, hot!

Annika lifting up Amaya to see the bear.

Aww... Grandma with Annika, Hannah, Lydia, and Amaya cooling in the shade.

Jordan, Joshua, and Ben (pretending to be cool!)

Amaya

Hope LOVED feeding the goats! Such a brave and curious girl!

She even convinced Amaya and Miles to feed the goats too!

Moooo!

Aren't they cute?!?

I've always loved this old house... wouldn't want to live there today with no air conditioning though.

Grandma and Amaya

Me and the girls: Amaya, Hannah, and Lydia

Best Buddies walking through the meadow.

Beautiful day, beautiful coneflowers

LaCrosse Children's Museum

Steve and I discovered the LaCrosse Children's Museum on a random trip across the border last year and boy was it worth it! By far, it's a lot better than the Children's Museum in the Cities. It's less crowded, more space, more variety, and overall more fun! Two weeks ago, we invited Grandma Ruth Ann to come along with us and share in the adventure.

Here is Grandma and Amaya at the "Pin Wall."

Steve decided to make a very special and unique impression on the Pin Wall.

There was a nice fire engine exhibit and fire gear for the kids to dress up in.

Amaya and Grandma to the rescue!

This exhibit was by far, one of our favorites.

There were two places where you could insert balls and scarves into a vacuum and the balls and scarves "Whooshed" through the tubes and shot out onto the floor.

We started shoving as many balls and scarves we could find and have someone try to catch all of them when they shot out of the tubes! (Next time we'll bring a video camera!)

Upstairs, there was a HUGE teeth exhibit. Amaya liked it last year, but this year was a little scared by it. Maybe she thought she was going to be gobbled up?

Steve and Ruth Ann took their turns being newscasters.

And then realized that they were on camera!

Amaya, the weathergirl. No thunder or lightning in the forecast for today.

One of the things I like the best is that they have a kid-size replica of Kwik-Trip. Amaya always enjoys pushing and putting things in the shopping cart.

Time to check out! Will that be cash or credit?

Trains, trains, and more trains!

Even Grandma wanted to play with the trains!

Another one of Amaya's favorite exhibits: a "River Table" to launch boats.

We're not sure who had more fun on this trip: Amaya or Grandma.

Amaya trying to play, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" with a flip flop and large pipes.

Row, row, row your boat.

We also had a great time going through a maze, playing a very active game with various lights that you had to turn off, watching older kids climb up the 3 story rock wall, playing a couple games of Connect 4. Overall, a great day and look forward to go back again soon!

Transportation Fair

Our church has sponsored a couple of fun events after the Saturday night worship service this summer. The first one was an Old Car, New Car, Truck/Transportation Fair. We invited our friends the Hulls since we knew a certain 2 year old in their family loves cars and trucks! Dinner was provided by the Ye Olde Butcher Shoppe and there was cotton candy, popcorn, bouncy houses and slides.

Cooper, Tessa, and Amaya in front of one of the old cars.

Cooper in the fire truck! (I think his favorite thing at the fair!)

Amaya and Cooper both in the fire truck.

Steve and Tess

There was a small pony hooked up to a wagon and I convinced Steve to take all three kiddos for a ride.

Hang on tight!

Steve and Tess - I think she made a new friend!

Much to our surprise... one of the fireman brought out a hose... and started spraying water EVERYWHERE!

And naturally, our kids needed to explore and get soaked!

"Come on Daddy! Let's get wet!" says Cooper!


Can you tell they had a blast?!?