Spring Break 2014 - Mall of America

The day started REALLY late this morning. The plan was to meet Uncle Bryce and Loudon at the Mall of America (MOA) at 10:00 to do rides and other fun stuff. When 9:00 rolled around and we were still having difficulty getting Quin out of bed, we knew we were going to have to delay a bit. It seems that vacation finally caught up to the 6 year old, who went to bed at midnight the night previous and hadn’t slept much to date. He sure made up for it last night!

After a shower and a quick breakfast in the atrium (our hotel is pretty nice), we headed out of the room to travel to the mall. Not before we stopped in the lobby for some Starbucks, a vacation staple. While Jenny was procuring the sweet caffeinated beverages for us, the boys and I sat at leather chairs in the lobby having a quick business meeting where I insulted, fired, rehired, and ultimately praised them for their parts in our bunny business. It was a weird morning.

We got to the mall a few minutes early, so Ethan shopped for and purchased a new Jerry Garcia tie (he’s obsessed), then the four of us hung out at the Microsoft store and played some XBox ONE. The hope was that we would ultimately convince Jenny that it was time to buy one of our own. Not to spoil the surprise, but we still do not own one…

At 10:30 we met up with Bryce and Loudon and took in the rides at Nickelodeon World. Loudon is a natural and loves rides, and it turns out Quin is as well! He’s now tall enough (50 inches) to go on all the rides himself. Ethan was a very good big brother and older cousin today and went on all of the rides with his younger proteges.

A bit of lunch and more rides later, we were thinking of leaving. The kids convinced us that it was a good idea to go on the log ride one more time. We had gone on earlier and Quin and I had gotten REALLY wet - well, Quin got completely soaked, and I got really wet. Since I had gotten so wet the last time, I gave my phone to Jenny to watch while I rode this time around, which was good since we went on it twice in a row (it was a very slow day at the park). Jenny took some video of us on the ride, and once we were done, I found that my phone had completely discharged again. Luckily there was an Apple store only about 100 feet away, so I went there to find out what was wrong with my phone, only to find that I needed a new battery (I really need a new phone, the iPhone 5 is NOT one of Apple’s best products, unfortunately).

After dropping off my phone, we took Loudon back to the hotel with us to take in some swimming, then we headed back to uncle Blaine’s house for some home-made supper made by Grandma and Grandpa, who we haven’t seen for quite some time (a correction from yesterday, we have seen them since November, in fact we saw them in January at Vince’s baptism). It was quite a nice dinner and good to see the grandparents and Araceli again.

So, how here we sit again. A pretty low key evening. Quin’s still up at 10:00, probably because he got 12 hours of sleep the night prior. Ethan and I are watching Friends while Jenny is watching something while “encouraging” Quin to sleep in the other room. Tomorrow is the last day in MN for us - we will be heading back home to WI for the final days of our vacation. Friday will be a vacation day despite the fact that we’ll be home.