Sunday, March 22, 2009

MOA 2009

The whole gang left from Iowa around 2pm after a wonderful waterfall hike. So after a short car ride, we arrived at the vast Parthenon of the MOA- Mall of America. I saw IKEA beckoning me from afar but it was not meant to be.

We entered the enormous parking ramp and settles on the Florida or as the kids called it the alligator section. A few of the kids did not have tights or pants or socks on due to mud (see prior post) so we had to get them all dressed. We were so excited to see what awaited us ahead.

As we entered the building, Ella and Alice were aghast when they viewed the Nickelodeon Universe. We told them it would be our activity for later. Then we set out to find at look at the Hannah Anderssen store. The kids all measured themselves as we window shopped. Maddie called us to say she would join us with Greta soon. So we worked our way towards the North food court and spied Beatnik Bead Store where Nora got the kids all a bead and made them necklaces.

Greta soon joined our crew and it was clear she had missed mommy and her friends very much. We all sat down for a bite to eat and no sooner than a few minutes we were joined by another Iowa family, the Keplingers! Lars was blown away by this! We all then decided to wander downstairs to try out some of the rides.

Melanie & Miranda, Karin's daughters bravely took my children on many rides. We explored Diego's Bus RIde Adventure, then Swiper's Car Ride and the kids all screamed their little hearts out! Lars and Greta then went on the Azule Train ride, to which Lars thought went tool slow! Nora and I took Alice and Ella on the Backyardigan's swings. We found out they were actually tall enough to go by themselves- which we found hard to believe. The ride goes up pretty high but both girls loved it even though Nora and I felt a little green towards the end. Lars finished with a one on one balloon ride with Karin and when I informed him we were going home I had some serious protests by him. He did not want to leave the Universe and certainly did not want to leave Karin. Our night was getting late and we still had to unpack the car and get to Nora's home about 20 minutes away.

We bid all farewell and toured the American Girl store on our way out. Ella really did not understand why she could not get a "girl". We discussed how these were very special dolls and were for a special reasons, possibly like if you stop sucking your thumb. Ella was excited to this possibility. She did remind me about this in the morning when she woke up as she informed me that she did not suck her thumb and would like to get a girl. I giggled at her memory and told her that it would need to be along time of no sucking before that would happen. I guess it was worth trying.

I might be doing these out of order, but picturetrail is not cooperating with me!



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