This is the third year that she's come up and spent time with us, then at my brother's house, then with my mom (for a week, total). It's so much fun and Caleb, especially, looks forward to Kara's visit all year. This year, we have four days with her before she heads up to my brother's house and since she's seen most of the Twin Cities' sights, we are trying to find even more fun things to do. :)
Monday: As it turns out, Kara doesn't ever remember going to Como Zoo. Since Monday wasn't going to be too terribly hot outside, we decided to make that the "zoo" day. I was raving about the carousel, Sparky the seal and the Butterfly House (it's an enclosed butterfly garden where you can hold and touch butterflies). Wouldn't you know, the carousel AND the Sparky show were both closed on Mondays (just my luck!) and the line for the Butterfly House was super long, so we decided not to wait. SO, we walked around most of the zoo and also went on a few of the kiddie rides at "Como Town". Here are a few pictures from our visit there:
On the train ride:
Kara is such a big help when she's here:
Kara and Caleb touching a real lion's paw:
Do you think I'm crazy for getting the kids blue and pink cotton candy???
I also forgot to mention that I didn't bring the double stroller with us because I figured Caleb could walk most of the way. I was forgetting that our spoiled little son is used to hitching a ride on Daddy's shoulders whenever he gets tired of walking, but Daddy didn't come with us to the zoo. What to do? Oh, yes! How about ride on Kara's back...for HALF THE TIME we were walking around the zoo! That's just what he did. Kara's poor back.... She was a good sport about it. :)
After the zoo, we brought Kara to my kids' favorite restaurant: Noodles & Company. She loved it and so did the rest of us, but we made the trip short since we were all super tired from all the walking around the zoo. Hannah took a nap as soon as we got home, but Caleb refused to rest. "Kara! Kara! Kara! Kara! Kara!" was about all I heard come out of his mouth while Hannah was sleeping. If Kara thought she was going to get a nap, Caleb was going to make sure she didn't! He did however fall asleep later in the afternoon when we ran a few errands, and in true "Caleb fashion", slept all through the evening until about 7am the next morning. (Nice for Mommy!) :)
Tuesday: We got out the door at a decent time, even though Kara is technically "on vacation". To wear-out the kids, we took Kara with us to "Little Kids Big City"---one of our favorite indoor play areas. We pretty much had the place to ourselves for most of the morning. I had a few special errands in mind for after our playing, so we cut that short to get our shopping done. I brought Kara to a local girls' clothing store and we ended up finding an adorable outfit for her. Both Chris and I really wanted to get her something since she is such a BIG help with the kids when she's here. She's "on duty" all the time and the kids are having such a great time with her. She starts school a few weeks before the Minnesota kids do, so we thought a school outfit would be nice. She ended up picking out something really cute!! Then, we decided to have lunch at Pei Wei, which is another favorite of ours. Kara loves Chinese food, so we thought it would be a great idea. Turns out, we were pushing the limit on both Caleb and Hannah's patience: they both started having melt-downs while we were eating. Once again, we had to cut the meal short to get Hannah home for a nap. Caleb was SUCH a crab on the way home that I ended up convincing him to take a nap, too, so at one point in the afternoon, we were ALL napping at the same time! It was pretty awesome and much needed since we were worn out.
After our naps, our energy was renewed, so as soon as Chris came home from work, we went to the Water Park of America. This place is HANDS-DOWN the best water park for our family. It's right by Mall of America, and while it's full of water slides and so many other things that are too old for my kids, they also have a really huge zero-depth area with more age-appropriate water slides. The lazy river is also one of our favorites so we had to go around that a bunch of times. This water park also lets people use life jackets for FREE with admission, so both Caleb and Hannah wore life jackets around the lazy river and Caleb had to wear it when he went down the huge family raft ride with Daddy and Kara. Hannah was having such a fabulous time once she warmed up to the water (and it WAS warm, which was a relief). I didn't get any pictures because I was in the water with everyone but just imagine all of us have a great time for hours. :) We had a bite to eat at the water park, but thought that we had better cap the night off with a trip to Dairy Queen. Hannah finally found some sort of "ah-beam" (ice cream) that she likes: Daddy's grape-flavored Mister Misty Freeze.
Here is a great picture to end with. Chris winding down with the kids:
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