During our visit last month to Minneapolis, we spent the day at the Mall of America. I've been to the Mall of Georgia, it's just another Mall. This is no Mall of Georgia, or even a Mall of Minnesota. It's called the Mall of America for one reason, the Mall of America is an experience all its own. It's three levels of shops, restaurants and other fun spots, with about 3 dozen Caribou Coffee shops mixed in, and all surrounding a full scale amusement park.
This is where Drew and Ollie had their first real amusement park ride. It was Blue's Skidoo, followed by the semi-trucks. Drew and Ollie just stared in awe at the rides while Elizabeth went to buy us all a few tickets. Drew, Ollie and I, along with Gretchen and Jakey quickly got in line once Elizabeth returned with tickets. When it was finally our turn to ride, Drew, Ollie and I crowded into one Blue, and we fit just fine, but we got kicked out by the snot-nosed zit-covered punk running the ride, only two per blue. Because Ollie was the youngest, he made Drew ride alone. This absolutely crushed Drew's excitement for the ride. He was on the verge of tears, when Elizabeth spotted the trauma, and quickly jumped the fence to ride with him. He was happier, but the trauma already took its toll. Next up was the semi-trucks, and the same situation, Drew had to ride alone. He later admitted to Elizabeth that the only reason he didn't like riding the tucks was because he had to ride alone. The pictures below just break my heart seeing at the sadness in his eys:( I just hope this experience doesn't permanently spoil all rides for Drew. Ollie appeared to enjoy both rides, but especially liked pushing the buttons on Blue and honking the horn on the truck. Jakey was screaming when he got off of Blue, not because it scared him, but because the ride was over and he wanted to keep going. 
On another day excursion, during our time in Minneapolis, we took all the kids to a wonderful children's museum. The museum consisted of several themed rooms. I think everyones favorite was the water room, with water tables, a bubble table, and the kids first boat regatta race. It reminded me of the boat regatta races we had in the cub scouts. My boat never won. Both Drew and Ollie really loved racing their boats, and did it over and over again. Drew chose a boat with a pointed front end that was especially suited to cutting through the water. He's a sharp one that kid. Ollie just loved grabbing the boats and splashing in the water. He was actually very infatuated with the bubble table. That boy, Ollie, is in LOVE with bubbles. 
After all the holiday trips were complete, and we actually got to spend a weekend home, just the four of us. We thought it would be fun to go see the Dinosaurs again at Fernbank. I think Drew is slowly starting to realize that dinosaurs are long extinct, and all we have left are cartoon dinosaurs and bones, that is as far as he can grasp the concept of "extinct". He was very sad, when we got to Fernbank that there were no real dinosaurs. He did finally get into the amazement of the giant creatures, even though the were just bones, and even enjoyed the dinosaur statues outside in front of the building. Ollie really liked looking at all the mounted animals, particularly a pair of bald eagles on loan from the US government. The fun part of Fernbank though is NatureQuest, the kids play area on the upper floor, of course they enjoyed that. But, the real reason for going to Fernbank that day was for the kids to have their first movie theater experience. We went to see the IMAX presentation of "Born to be Wild", a heart warming story about orphaned elephants and orangutans, raised in sanctuaries and released back into the wild. We thought it would be a good choice for their first movie experience because it is about cute animals, and has a 40 minute run time, which is already maxing out Ollie's attention span. Drew really loved the experience from the start, and sat amazed at the images the whole time. Ollie was a bit scared of the giant IMAX screen, and flying sequences at first, but after hiding his face in my chest for a little while, and after realizing that it was a pretty good story, he did finally get into the experience and enjoyed the movie just as much.
Of course, a lot more happened to us during these three adventures, which I can't detail in full right here, but take a look at some of the additional pictures below, and you'll get the gist about just how much fun we had.
Other fun we had at the Mall of America included our first ride, the coin operated merry-go-round, a mirror maze (also a first for me as well as the kids), lego building, and just having fun running around the mall hallways.
Other fun we had at the children's museum include bubbles, making paper snowflakes, cooking, planting a garden, and just general running, being silly, and having a ball. 
Our fun at Fernbank included touching fossils, petting an alligator, kissing a turtle, swimming with the fish, steering a submarine, and eating fruit snacks (everyone's favorite).
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