Family Vacation to Minnesota and Wisconsin
March 30-April 2, 2015
We drove to Minneapolis for Spring Break 2015.
The boys and I thought it was great to see all the windmills driving through Iowa.
We arrived Monday evening at our hotel, which was home to the largest indoor water park in the United States. We had some pool time and did all the water slides, then we headed back to the room and the boys played Xbox.
On Tuesday morning, we headed back to the waterpark for awhile, then we went to Como Zoo and Observatory in the afternoon. The McGuffin's were also in Minneapolis and met us at the zoo. So, Jax and Cole had Brett and Brea to enjoy the zoo with. After the zoo, we headed to Minnehaha Falls-a 50-foot waterfall in St. Paul, Minnesota. On the way there, Cole fell asleep in the car, so Jax and I went down to the falls without TJ and Cole. We ended up jumping a fence, and going behind the falls (we were not the only people to do this, but you could definitely tell it was not what was intended). Since it was late March, the falls were still mostly frozen, so going behind them and seeing it from underneath was really cool. We ate lunch on the University of Minnesota campus (first college visit other than Mizzou), and then headed back to the Mall of America. We checked out all the rides at Nickelodeon Universe and then ate dinner at Benihana-a Hibachi style restaurant.
On Wednesday, we spent our morning at The Waterpark of America-more water slides, boy do these little boys love water slides. At about noon, we headed to the Mall of America and spent our entire day riding roller coasters and other fun rides and eating junk food at Nickelodeon Universe. We even played miniature golf indoors. Cole's favorite ride was the Splat-O-Sphere (a detonator-like ride), and Jackson's favorite was the Orange Streak (a roller coaster-fairly tame). Dippin' Dots and some arcade time back at the hotel rounded out our day.
Thursday, we got up and headed back to the water park, and finally got to ride the big family water slide!! Then we packed up and headed over to Wisconsin to tour Crystal Cave in Spring Valley. After a cave tour, the boys sluiced for gems and minerals. Then it was time to head back toward home. On the way home, we stopped in Des Moines, and finished off our Spring break vacation with a trip to Skyzone (a trampoline park)! After dinner at Pizza Ranch, we continued the drive home. After a full day of spelunking and jumping and driving, the boys finally fell asleep between Cameron and Stewartsville.
Best one-liner of the week: TJ and I were playing with Cole in the pool and watching Jax, talking about what our plans were for the next day, when out of the blue, Cole, very excitedly, turns to us and says "Did you say CAKE?!?!?!" No, no we didn't, kid. But I like where your head is.
