Mini-Vacay

It was a long summer that went by too quickly. Hard to believe my shoulder surgery was three months ago, and all the rehab I've gone through to get back to normal. While that was going on the boys were enrolled in summer camp three days a week for the whole ten weeks it was available and made thirteen trips to Jump Zone. We set up the pool, slip 'n slide, and ball pit in the yard multiple times to combat the extreme heat and visited playgrounds on dozens of occasions. Still, I felt like we needed to get away, and with school quickly approaching, decided to head to the Mall of America near Minneapolis for a four-day getaway. We spent two full days at Nickelodeon Universe. 

We discovered that Jason had grown enough to ride some of the bigger rides, like the Splat-O-Sphere pictured above. This ride takes you straight up a tall column and repeatedly drops you down and pulls you back up. I can only manage to ride it once or twice before getting woozy. The boys can ride it over and over. And over.

So, even though he can ride most of the big boy rides now, he still managed to have fun on the little guy rides (once I had separated him from his older brother for a while). Meanwhile, Jack and Dennis took a spin on the ride below (the name eludes me right now), which is like a big boat that goes around like a very fast ferris wheel. Thankfully I was with Jason on the other side of the amusement park when they got stuck on the ride, at the very top, for THREE WHOLE MINUTES. I think I would have panicked.  Dennis managed to joke around and kept people at ease. Jack thought it was awesome fun. And, for their troubles, they were given two free passes to come to the park on another day, so of course this was the ride Jack wanted to ride over and over so that he could hopefully score more free tickets. While I can appreciate his sense of thrift, I never could muster the nerve to get on this ride.

On a break, we found the Microsoft store and were lured into trying out a dance game on the X-box Kinect system. Over the course of several HOURS Jack, Jason, and I took turns playing this game and having an absolute blast. Boy, am I grateful for all those years of dance classes. At one point, we finished up a song to find about 15 people gathered around the window watching us. Hopefully admiring our mad dance skills and not making fun. Well, if they post us on YouTube it will go viral one way or another, right? There is something to be said for having the gumption to get groovy in a storefront in front of onlookers! Right?!

Another ride for the little 'uns. Jack even got in on it. Well, we kind of made him but he did have fun once it got started.

We just loved Nickelodeon Universe and of course will be going back, especially now that we scored two free tickets.

We also played a couple rounds of miniature golf at the MOA. It should be noted that Jason scored a hole-in-one on the final hole and got a ticket for a free game! We also visited the Sea Life Aquarium in the mall and the Como Zoo, which we had visited on our first trip with the boys to Minneapolis back in October 2010. On that trip we took a picture at this very turtle statue -- check it out! The boys are so much bigger, especially Jason (aka Super Buddy), so much so that they are actually wearing the same-sized shirts in the picture below.