Minneapolis Visit

Last weekend the Malarsky family made a road trip up to Minneapolis to visit Pete and Kelly. We had a great time! We were a little nervous about the long car ride, given Kaitlin's general dislike for the car. But, overall, she did great and Nate didn't wake her up too many times with his singing (I think we might have heard the ABC's 15 times in a row).

We started off leaving very early on Thursday, 10/20 (around 5AM Eastern time). We made it up to West Lafayette before we had to stop and feed Kaitlin and then hit the road again. Thankfully the kids got some good sleep in the car. We made it up to Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells around noon, just as the resort was opening up (they had been closed for a couple of days before our trip for general clean-up). They actually upgraded our room to a 3 room condo with a loft, so we had plenty of room to spread out. After a quick nap, we went and hung out at the water park until it was time for bedtime stories (in the lobby with Violet the wolf). It was a long day and everyone was ready for bed!

Friday morning we decided to just take our time. We went to breakfast and then decided to leave early for Minneapolis so we could take Nate to the Mall of America to ride some rides. Nate had a fabulous time. He got to ride on a Blues Clues ride that went up and down, a truck, a roller coaster with Daddy, and a Bus with Mommy. Pete came up and met us at the mall and then we all went over and checked in at the hotel before going and picking up Kelly for dinner.

On Saturday, we met up with Kiki's friend Jill at the hotel in the morning and then Pete and Kelly met us around 10 for breakfast. After breakfast, we made our way over to a really fun pumpkin patch. Nate got to ride on a train, get his face painted, feed goats and sheep, and go down a huge slide. He was definitely tired after that and took a great afternoon nap and was ready for some awesome pizza at Pizza Luce that night.

On Sunday, Pete and Kelly made us Cars shaped chocolate pancakes (yummy!) and then took us over to the Como Zoo. We, of course, all had to ride the carousel too (including Kaitlin - it was her first carousel ride)! That evening, they took us for a ride on the Light Rail (Nate LOVED the train; Kaitlin was ambivalent) and then for some awesome bbq before heading back to our hotel for a quick swim.

We had a great (and busy!) trip - it was so much fun to hang out with Pete and Kelly. :)