Saturday, December 28, 2013

Minneapolis Day 1

On Saturday morning, our family visited Choo Choo Bob's Train Store in St. Paul. It was kind of cool to see a non-interstate/MOA side of the Cities and the boys loves playing with the train tables and seeing the different setups. They used some of their Christmas money to buy some more Thomas tracks so we can make bigger and more complicated setups. I would recommend a visit if you have little train-lovers in your family.


We headed to the MOA and met up with some Sibley friends who were waiting for a table at Rainforest Cafe. We helped them wait out some of the 70 minutes that the wait list was, then headed upstairs for Taco Bell. Hey, if your kid just wants a taco, it doesn't make sense to pay for some fancy Portobello mushroom fake burger, especially when he was terrified of the alligator and probably would have freaked out on the rainstorm.





After lunch, Emily and Lincoln arrived and we all went mini-golfing. 

 I use the term "golfing" very loosely as we were a very novice 7-some with rules such as "if it bounces back at your twice, just pick it up and toss it where it should go" and "If a ball is rolling back down a hill toward you, FOR THE LOVE, just stop it with your shoe!"  Cohen slept through most of it and I don't think anyone actually kept score all the way through. I do know that Emily and Ryan both got hole-in-ones, but I suspect it was Ryan's 2nd or 3rd "tee-off".  It was a long 18 holes, but it was also a lot of fun.


Saylor, Abbie, Wade and my parents were waiting for us at the hotel when we got back and most of us braved the chilly pool water to swim for a bit. Cohen was content to sit on my lap wrapped in a towel after a few minutes, so we let the dads deal with the teeth-chattering kids. Again, they had a blast and we were the only ones in the pool.
The kids played in the hotel rooms for a while and then we overtook a part of the breakfast dining area to eat pizza and snacks together. I'd give pretty high marks to the Hampton Inn (Bloomington, by airport), for this accommodation alone. The king rooms with fold-out-couch (which we call the TRANSFORMER couch to get Ryan excited about sleeping on a hide-a-bed) were also perfect for our family.

What a fun first night!

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