Mall of America

On the first day of our trip to Minnesota, we woke up earlier than most of our friends. After a leisurely breakfast and a trip to Target, we drove to our friends, the Larsons, house. We ate some lunch, played and caught up with one another. And then we headed off to the Mall of America to visit Underwater Adventures. It is an aquarium that features a walk through tank so the sharks and such can swim all around you.

Like everything in the Mall of America, it was bigger and more colorful than anything you could imagine (I would also like to take this time to say that the Mall of America is a very loud place. Especially in the amusement park area where you basically need to be yelling the whole time to be heard).

Evie and Erik pose in front of the beaver lodge. Erik is 5 and Underwater Adventures is one of his favorite places to visit. The kids were so excited that they practically ran through the entire exhibit.

Probably the best picture I took all of vacation. I love the reflection as Evie sees the turtle. Annalise seems to care less.

We also spent a good amount of time examining shark teeth and fish parts. As you see, you need to look very closely.

Erin and Peder play on top of the pirate ship in the play area. Thanks for being such a great host Erin!

A treasure greater than gold.

Ditto.

After Underwater Adventure, we headed over to the Lego store/exhibit. The girls had a great time playing and building stuff while I visited the Apple store just around the corner to get help with my ipod.

Peder stacks up blocks with great concentration.

Erik worked very hard on his creation and had to have a picture taken of his building before we could leave the Lego area.

Annalise build, what else, a farm.

evie raced her vehicle down the track. It completed its journey smoothly.

We finished our shopping and got a few things to bring home. Then we went over to the giant blue store across the street.

I never thought the day would come where I could use "Smalland" inside of Ikea to take care of the kids while I shopped, but it came! We had a nice shopping trip and the girls got to stay in the cage and throw balls at the birdhouses on the wall. Thanks Erin, Erik, Peder, and Kym for accompanying us on this fun trip!