Which some of you (ahem, Aaron), may think is about time.
Anyway, we went to Minneapolis last week. Thursday and Friday Aaron was at a work convention, so the kids and I got to play. Friday evening through Tuesday morning we were at my brother David's new house in a suburb with all of my sibs & in-laws. Then Adam got sick, and I packed us up at 6am. We got home around noon and then spent 2 hours at the clinic & medical supply store, buying a nebulizer. That night, friends emailed to ask if they could stay over Thursday night.
That's the thumbnail version.
In more detail (probably waaay too much, now that I think of it):
Wednesday: Was Aaron's birthday. Because he was insistent that birthdays be celebrated on the ACTUAL DAY OF BIRTH, I decorated the van with a couple of hanging doo-hickeys and some mylar balloons. And of course, a healthy stack of party hats.
The drive was less than festive, however. After dealing with fussy, restless kids, I began to see the sense in Aaron's stance that three is enough kids for us. Thankfully, we were still able to make it to our destination in downtown Minneapolis before rush hour traffic started. Aaron picked our dinner location, a Thai restaurant within walking distance from the hotel.
Personally, I'm still in awe that we stepped foot into a Thai place with our less-than-adventurous eaters. Of course, Leah and Ben ate what amounted to chicken, rice & a salad, all in their own neat sections of the plate. But they DID try bean sprouts and pronounced them "yummy!" so I count it a complete success.
Later, Aaron took the kids to Baskin Robbins while I put Adam to bed. Poor kid was wiped out. And then we learned that putting Leah & Ben in the same bed while both are awake is a good way to spend an hour or so "shushing". We spent that hour perched on the side of the tub and the toilet seat while watching the first half of "Julie & Julia" on the laptop.
Thursday: Aaron went off to his conference nice and early and got a lovely fresh breakfast, while the kids and I noshed (ha! That's the first time I've used that word!) on grapes, Pop Tarts & juice boxes. Adam looooves Pop Tarts.
Then we packed up and headed out to meet my good friend Christina & her two boys at REI to let the kids run around for a while. And then we went to the Mall of America and Legoland and let them run around some more...on a slightly smaller scale. I did lose track of Ben entirely for about 2 minutes in the food court, but he was actually only a few feet away.
Also, just in case you were wondering, the food court at the great MoA is rather busy at noon. AND, the Sbarro line happened to be the longest of any restaurant...and of course that's the option the kids chose. AND they didn't give me any napkins. Christina swiped some off a deserted table: "They look clean!" I didn't argue. That pizza was greasy.
OH NO, we weren't done for the day, not even close! After that whole deal (and getting to, parking, getting to a location, getting to a second location, and finding your car again is definitely a "whole deal") we took a jaunt (ie, Christina almost getting hit while taking her right-of-way at an intersection) across the street to Ikea, where an incident took place which actually might diminish my fanatic patronage of the Swedish store. It didn't, however, stop me from picking up several items and a bottle of sparkling juice, chocolate & Swedish fish from the food store.
My niece Meghan & her baby girl Lyrah met us at Ikea as Christina headed home. Then I headed back to the hotel with the kids to pick up Aaron (managing to get through downtown at 4:30 in less than 20 minutes!) and turned around to head to Meghan's for dinner. So nice of them to have us over, AND there was a great bakery down the street (along with a bike/coffee shop and a bar...which pretty much describes every street in the area, we were told later) where I picked up a fantastic chocolate bread pudding. That bread pudding was my dessert that night, and the OTHER half was a treat for me plus 3 others later on in the week!
That night we put the kids to bed separately, and moved Ben over when we were ready to hit the hay. I have to say, having all 3 kids in a hotel room was really one of my nightmare scenarios, but it went super well. All the kids slept until at least 6:30, and Ben of course was the early riser. He was kept quiet with Sesame Street on the laptop in the bathroom, and the other two slept until 7:30! In fact, on the whole trip, we never got woken up in the middle of the night.
The Ikea juice, chocolate & fish were demolished during the second half of our movie date. This one was considerably more comfortable, since I trekked to the parking garage not once, but TWICE to retrieve first the kids' headphones and then the splitter. Skyways are lovely, especially at 10pm.
Tomorrow: More adventures! More cute photos! Ya'll come back now, ya hear?
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1 comment:
This sounds a bit frenetic to be called a vacation, especially to an introvert like me.
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