Slide 001:
a gumball machine at Mall of America. My family loves it when I carry around my big-ass camera and take pictures of things like gumball machines.
Slide 002:Did you know there's an entire theme park inside the Mall of America? There are roller coasters, a water ride, all the usual theme park rides. BUT INDOORS. And that's why I love it: No heat, no mosquitos. And no heat. It's not hot in there. Other than that, I'm SO over Mall of America, but the kids love it, so we go every single time we're in Minnesota. We eat at the Rainforest Cafe (yech!) and ride the rides and sometimes we visit the aquarium. There's also mini-golf, a wedding chapel (my mom used to own it but recently sold it and now owns a prom-gown shop in the mall), and a college, among other things. All in Bloomington, Minnesota!
By the way, I used to work in the mall. At multiple locations, actually. But not at the same time.Slide 003:
Some lollipops
Slide 004:Off to the beach. Last year, we went to the same beach on the same weekend before the 4th of July and they had the same sandcastle-building contest. Except last year, we built sand castles just for fun and left before the contest. The following week, we saw a picture in the local paper of the contest winners, who had merely added on to the castle we had left behind. My kids still talk about it.
We didn't let it happen again this year: We totally destroyed the whole thing before we left the beach.
Sweet, I know.
Slide 005:I took Olivia for a mani and pedi:
Slide 006:We celebrated Olivia's 7th and Jackie's 5th birthdays. They designed their own cakes. Olivia wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and sunflowers and her name in pink cursive.
Jackie wanted an orange cake with reptiles on it that said, not 'happy birthday' or 'Jackie', but rather, "I'm NICE" -so that's exactly what they got:
Slide 007:Some croquet. I felt so...snooty. It was fun!
Slide 008:We so absolutely exhausted this boy that he fell asleep just like this:
Slide 009:I did some antiquing in a cute little town with my mom:
Slide 010:And I did some embroidery:
Slide 011:We took the kids to see a dinosaur exhibit in Rice Park in St. Paul (kind of like the famed Cows on Parade in Chicago, only...you know, Dinosaurs. In Minnesota):
Slie 012:But the kids had to find grandma's dinosaur. I say that because my mom actually sponsored a dinosaur and it will go live in her backyard when the installation is complete. The artist added a little caterpillar on its back in remembrance of our little guy.
And of course, there's more. I took 400 pictures over the week. But you look antsy, so let's adjourn to the wet bar; I'll make you an amaretto stone sour and we can listen to some LP's.
xoxo
