Winter Mini-Vacay with Sam & Noah

Life has been busy, to say the least.  I'm in the depths of finishing my dissertation while working full-time and between all of that and our family, there never seems to be a dull moment.  Michael and I decided a couple of months ago that we needed to spend some quality time with the kids, but perhaps the quality would increase if we could go away with them two at a time.  So, we decided to take Sam and Noah to the Mall of America, we knew they were at the age that they would be overly impressed with Lego Land and Nickelodeon Universe...and we were right :-)  We used our Marriott Rewards points for two free nights at the Spring Hill Suites next to the Mall and spent the weekend going to Lego Land, riding rides, eating at the Rainforest Cafe', mini-golf, and going to the Mall's neat aquarium (though I did have to convince Noah that it wasn't a race between us and the other aquarium patrons, that really, we could take our time actually looking at the fish....).

The weekend was marked with little stress...other than a barf-fest in our Prius on the way to the Cities (starring Noah).  We cleaned out the car in a southern suburb of Minneapolis in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  (I am thankful that there is no People of Walmart's Parking Lot website....), and we were quickly on our way.  Thankfully Noah was much better in the morning and we had about 48 hours until Michael got sick at home on Sunday night.  I'm glad we had that window of opportunity to enjoy ourselves :-)

On the way home I was feeling sentimental that someday we wouldn't be taking two little boys on a weekend getaway.  I was thinking about ways that I could hold onto their childhood, so I asked Noah, "Noah, when you go to college, can I have your brown kitty?" (The stuffed kitty he's slept with since he was a baby.)  His response?  "No, Mom.  You'll be dead."  Well, there you have it.  :-)

Below are some highlights of the trip....