Minneapolis Day 2

At the last minute, Adam, Wade and my Dad decided to go to the Vikings game to see the last game played in the Metrodome. They had very high seats, but had a good time anyway and the Vikes won!

The rest of us headed to the mall late morning. These two were ready to go!

After scoping out the rides, Ryan and Lincoln first decided on the train.

 Then, Saylor and Ryan went on the carousel. Ryan picked out a blue dragon and Saylor loved her cat with a fish in it's mouth. She kept yelling "MEOW! MEOW!"

My mom graciously agreed to go on the log ride with Emily and we all patiently waited to watch them come down the last chute.

Here they come!

Way to use Emily to block the water, Mom!

Lincoln introduced us to his favorite attraction, the remote-controlled boats! Ryan enjoyed this one as well.

After a very hectic lunch at Chipotle (very hungry and crabby one-year-old, a double stroller, and mega-lines), the Lorenzens headed to American Girl where Emily picked out her very own doll which she had been saving up to buy for a very long time. I'm proud of her--not may 7-year-olds can say they saved up that much money and had that much patience! Then they had to take off for home, so Saylor and Ryan just went on a truck ride and then Ryan chose Blue's Clues while Saylor had another go-around on the Meow Cat to use up the last of their tickets.

We finished up by checking out the displays inside the Lego Store and met up with Adam who had just arrived back at the MOA tram station.

Then, it was time to load 'em up and head 'em out! It was -17 degrees on our van's temp. readout on the way home and we had to bundle the kids all the way up just to run into McDonald's. Cohen was pretty sick of the carseat by the time we got home at 9:15pm and it was a little hard to go into work the next day, but we had such a fun weekend...we can't wait to do it again!

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!

Mol Christmas

Great Grandpa and Grandma Mol

On Friday night, we went to the Mol family Christmas for a few hours before heading to Minneapolis for the night. Here are a few snapshots of our night.

In the toybox (honestly safer than wandering underfoot)

Zebra and zebra blanket from Great Aunt Stacy and Jackie. Ryan LOVES his "lizardy" too.

Step us, I'm a stair...

...sit down, I'm a chair! (Made by Great Grandpa)

Ethan joins the toybox

Comforting Adlyr after she got rug-burn on her stomach from sliding down the stairs :)

Danielle, sour puss, Adlyr (tummy still hurts)

Chillin' with Jared

Reading "Are you my Mother?" from Great Grandpa and Grandma

Mol Cousins

On Thursday night, the boys got to play with Adam's cousins' kids...with 10 kids age 1-6 in one room, it was not for the faint of heart, but they had a great time playing together.

Teaching Adlyr (from Georgia) how to load hay bales on the conveyor.

Ethan, Ryan, Malachi vs. Caleb

"What is going on here?"

Adam giving "bucking bronco" rides to Ryan, Anna, and Adlyr.

Levi, Elisa, Jeremiah, Ethan, and Malachi ready to receive Caleb's quick-action ball-throwing game.

How many kids does it take to load a wagon?

This looks like trouble.

Cohen, "Um, you guys gonna do something about this?"

Sarah, Anna, and Adlyr playing the calmest activity of the night.

The Mol Farm

We drove up to Adam's grandparent's house the day after Christmas. The boys had fun playing with their farm toys and Ryan even got to go see the cows in the Kubota with Great-Grandpa. He also loved the new marble-run Great-Grandpa has been working on.

Cohen insisted on crawling inside the fence.

Christmas Cookies 2013

This year we frosted our annual Christmas cookies on Christmas day so everyone could help.  We decided on neon colors this year and it was a fun change. Ryan enjoyed frosting 3 of his own (with his own designated bowl of frosting and knife since he tends to sneak licks of frosting from the knife). He was the official sprinkler as well.

Unfortunately, my box of cookies must have shifted during our ride home and when I opened the lift gate, it fell out onto the garage floor upside down, breaking most of them and messing up all the frosting. So, we didn't get to share many this year and have slowly been eating them at home, one gingerbread appendage at a time.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day!

 After opening presents (and an epic meltdown by Cohen right as we were about to leave), we headed to Adam's parents for the day.  Ryan enjoyed handing out the gifts and Cohen started getting the hang of opening them.

Happy boy loving Grandpa and Grandma's rocking chair.

With Aunt Kim and Uncle Andy

Opening presents

After lunch, Cohen took a nap and Ryan and I put together his ocean floor puzzle and Lego firetruck. When Cohen woke up, he was more interested in crawling in and out of a cardboard box with Andy than his new toys. He became Captain Destructo when we set up his new Vtech tracks, but I'm sure they'll have fun with all of their new toys!