Minnesota

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Minneapolis, Minnesota in the dead of Winter...isn't that on everyone's to do list??? The good news is there is plenty of indoor fun to be had in this city :) I remember being impressed with Mall of America as a kid and was so excited to take my own kids there. At first I got "why is a mall so cool", "shopping is lame, who cares about a mall" and various other responses from my boys. Well throw a bone to Mom cause once again I managed to knock the socks off these kids! We walked in and their faces froze, eyes huge as they exclaimed "there is seriously 3 roller coasters in the middle of the mall?!?!" We had so much fun we actually spent 2 full days at the mall! The first day we got passes for the Nickelodeon Theme Park. The boys had a blast enjoying all of the rides, smack in the middle of the day with no one else there but a few toddlers! They literally had entire rides to themselves. Day 2 was spent using my Groupons. (I literally need to be an advertisement for them at this point..."how to travel America using Groupons" could be my show!) I had bought tickets for the Maze of Mirrors which entertained them for a good long while, along with unlimited video game cards at the sports bar (think Dave & Busters or Gameworks). Four, yes four boys, each with an unlimited video game card was like Christmas all over! I happily spent 4 hours shopping all four floors of the most massive mall in America while my people happily played till their eyes were blurry ;)

Another fun find in the middle of Winter was the indoor water park, conveniently right across the street from the mall. They are home to the tallest indoor family raft ride and big surprise my people wouldn't let me miss that fun ;)  The extra fun part of this day came when I became the Mom kids (not just my own) were impressed by. This water park was home to a flow-rider (a surfing machine). My crew is big fans of these, having spent lots of time on them at Schlitterbahn and on cruises we have been on. Imagine my surprise and horror when Luke begged Sweetie Pie to to try it too. Brian and Matt burst out laughing at the thought so that was all motivation I needed! I threw on some shorts, tucked my swimsuit into them (no need to show the innocent people of Minnesota what is lurking under that!) and waddled my way (like the penguin I now resembled!) to the line. After watching multiple people wipe out and go flying, I was seriously reconsidering this plan but my guys were now fully invested in having their Mom try this death trap! I took my turn like a champ...I had water spraying down my top and up my butt, could barely see anything but my wonderful husband laughing and videotaping me, but I managed to actually stay on my board and impress my kids...WIN for Mom!