The trip went well and getting to see my husband was so exciting, I actually had butterflies of excitement/nervousness! We got in right in time for breakfast at the hotel so we unloaded the car, ate some breakfast, got showered and ready for the day, and then headed over to the Mall of America. It was the Bug's fifth birthday so we allowed for some spoiling. I backed away from them both because Husband has been gone for a few weeks, I think it was good to let them hang out. Which turned out convenient because Ignacio was too little for all the rides and I don't do any rides that make me nauseas which was pretty much all of them, lol. I had big plans for lunch or dinner at the best restaurant ever, Bubba Gump's, but Hannah chose The Rainforest Cafe instead which turned out to be pretty amazing too. I love the atmosphere which has tanks of fish everywhere, monkeys that yell and go crazy, and thunderstorms as you are eating. Tons of fun! And the food was amazing and came on plates the size of my son pretty much. My sister-in-law ordered my daughter the biggest dessert they had, complete with sparklers, and had the staff sing happy birthday to her. It was awesome that's for sure.
From there we went directly to Build-A-Bear. My nephew's birthday is coming up at the end of this month, Bean's birthday just passed and being as it was Bug's birthday, we decided to let the kids pick out an animal, an outfit and let them build them all for their birthdays. Bug got a kitty, a cute fairy costume and shoes, and then picked out a stroller because God forbid she have to carry the thing everywhere, lol. Beanie picked out a monkey (of course *sigh*) and was drawn to Cars pajamas and slippers for his, and my nephew picked out an adorable puppy and a cute race car t-shirt and jeans for it. We stuffed sound chips in them, and a heartbeat maker in Bug's so that every time she hugs it, she can feel it's heart beating. And then they got to step on the pedals and control how much stuffing went in to them. You get to create the birth certificate and register them. If you ever find an animal that was made at a Build-A-Bear, take it in to the nearest shop, there is always a tag put inside the animal when it is being stuffed that they scan and can find out who the owner is and mail it back to them. Best part ever. And you know, the price of the stuff there is not bad at all, I was expecting to spent a ton of money but it was pretty inexpensive. We might have to make it a birthday tradition, lol.
Then from there we did more rides in the Nickelodeon park, which is smack dab right in the center of the mall. I remember when it used to be Camp Snoopy : ( Bug got to meet Spongebob and Patrick and get a few souvenirs and my son somehow won a prize from the carnies when I was unable to. The whole "toss the plastic ball into the plastic hole" thing is deceiving just so everyone knows...After about two hours in there we decided to call it quits and walk around the mall. Which was fun until the tiredness kicked in. Being up for 36 hours at this point, I felt old, off balance, and tired beyond tired. Made me wish I was a teen again, I could have been up for two days and still never felt a thing...
So as we were leaving, my sister-in-law and her boyfriend invited us over to his house for dinner. And off we went! I felt awful because it was pretty last minute and I didn't want his family to go through any trouble cooking for us but I have to say, I am now in love with the food! His family is Laotian. We got to eat Khao poon (a spicy soup made with chicken, noodles, chilies and other ingredients I don't remember, but it's very good), som tam (a spicy papaya salad type dish, not made with lettuce or the kind of salad you are thinking of), sticky rice ( my favorite!) and a dish made with fish. It was so good and hard to stop eating. They eat on a little table on the floor with chopsticks and it was so fun! The language is beautiful and they treated us like family. The only thing that made me nervous is that they lived in the ghetto. Which is weird because I never knew Minneapolis even had a ghetto part. But it was so familiar feeling because it made us feel like we were back in California. I miss the multicultural backgrounds everywhere and I became extremely envious when two blocks down, we passed a synagogue!
So by the time we got back last night and into bed, it was a total of 40 hours of straight awakeness. I don't even remember my head hitting the pillow, that's how fast I went out. Waking up at 7 this morning was a bit disappointing but refreshing and convenient since breakfast was downstairs. The kidlets ate twice! And then we got to go swimming for a bit. My son hates the pool and loves the hot tub. Very fearless and on the crazy side. Bug loves swimming and jumping in over and over again. It was such a workout that I laid Ignacio down and put on his clothes only to find he had fallen asleep on me! LoL. Poor guy.
So after naptime, we plan on heading out and discovering the town we are in, which is 20 miles away from Minneapolis. Not far at all but far enough so that it's smaller and quieter. We like that. Today is just going to be chill. It'll be time to leave tomorrow and so much to do when we get home that I can't repeat the up for 40 hour thing again. I'll be glad when next weekend hits, Husband will be home finally. He gets OJT (on-the-job-training) for the next 6 months, and then after that he comes back here for one week, takes the big test and if he passes, he will be an engineer :D
Now I'm closing this down and going to take a nap too. It's what all the cool kids are doing right now, might as well join 'em :)
Have a wonderful weekend!
* Beckie *
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