We started off with a 10 hour overnight drive to Minnesota. We expected to start at 2 am and arrive in the afternoon to meet up with some fellow adoptive families but we couldn't wait to get on the road and left at around 9 pm Thursday night and arrived in MN at 7am. We let the kids play at McDonald's while Torrey worked on his final for his class. Then off to the Minnesota Zoo.
The kids didn't really care about seeing any of the animals (as usual) but wore themselves out playing and walking...and walking...and walking....seriously the zoo is HUGE!
We didn't make it to the 2 pm dolphin show meet up and headed to the park but Wubitu fell asleep in the stoller and the boys couldn't walk anymore. I was so sad to have to miss meeting up with everyone but we literally had to drag out tired bodies to the car.
Next we checked in the dorms at Northwestern College and played with some new friends.
Our ET travel buddies T & N met us after some swim time so Wubitu and B could visit for a little while.
Saturday was picnic for our adoption agency CHSFS. It was great to meet some of our blog friends in person! Wubitu was SOOOOO very excited to see her friend N. Here is Wuby goofing off to make N laugh.
She is such a goof!!!! The kids had a blast jumping on the jumpy things and sampling Ethiopian food.
Next off to Legoland at the Mall of America with our friends T & N. The boys LOVED Legoland! They have huge lego creations and a track where kids can make thier own lego cars to race. They played until the employees had to clean up for the night.
Torrey loved it too and and scored some ulitmate geek wear. A Darth Vader Lego Starwars shirt. Sadly it only comes in Adult sizes.
Here is the GIANT tower Wuby made! (and another goofy face)
The next morning we had a farewell breakfast with N. The boys really enjoyed meeting N too!
After breakfast Torrey & I decided to replace our trip to Kings Island scheduled for later this summer with a trip to Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America. It was cheaper actually since Torrey & I didn't have to pay for admission like at King's Island (plus no parking, gas, or additional hotel). Wuby was an animal!! She is so fearless!! It is great to have her since the boys are scardy cats about everything, but how can they be scared if thier "baby" sister is giggling hystarically? So they rode the mini roller coaster a million times.
And Wonderpets bouncer... (this baby ride really scared the boys at first but Wuby helped them along)
Torrey took them on the raft ride and Noah LOVED it...so began our bribbery to get him to try a calm roller coaster. It took $5 and an hour of coaxing but he took the last ride of the night with Torrey and liked it alot!!! (He spent his money on a Spongebob projector pen for his little brother.....where did we get this kid?)
Noah was Wuby's "chaperone" for most of the rides because she was too small for the bigger rides. Aren't they sweet?
So after an action packed day we headed off on our 20 hour car ride to Texas to visit Torrey's family.
The kids had a great time at the Children's Museum in the mall. Noah took his cashier position very seriously and checked the prices to every item. Then he sat idly on his stool like a bored teenager until his next customer arrived.
Here is Wuby giving Carter a shot at the dentist.
Queen Wuby and King Farmer Tan. (It took 6 shots to get this kind of smile like face from Wuby...she was tired of mom paparazi already)
While the boys played chess, I buried Wubitu in the rubber tire pit.
Again, real animals are of no interest.
We pricelined a sweet deal at the Houston Marriott. Noah thought it was a mansion! They had fun swimming with Daddy, Grandma Jenny, and Aunt Miriam in the pool (no pictures because I was taking a wonderful hot bath ALL ALONE in our room...I think it was my favorite part of the vacation!)
The next day we headed to the Gulf of a Mexico (as Carter calls it) at Galveston. We had a marvelous time. We all enjoyed wave chasing and playing in the sand. However we all came home with horrible sunburns. We reapplied our SPF 50 3 times during our 4 hours stay but it didn't help. Torrey had a swollen foot from the sun burns.
After all of the craziness of trying to cram everything into our vacation we just rested at Grandma Jenny's recooperating from our sunburns and enjoying some wonderful home cooking, some Red Box DVD's, some fire ant bites, and visiting with lots of family!
The kids didn't really care about seeing any of the animals (as usual) but wore themselves out playing and walking...and walking...and walking....seriously the zoo is HUGE!
We didn't make it to the 2 pm dolphin show meet up and headed to the park but Wubitu fell asleep in the stoller and the boys couldn't walk anymore. I was so sad to have to miss meeting up with everyone but we literally had to drag out tired bodies to the car.
Next we checked in the dorms at Northwestern College and played with some new friends.
Our ET travel buddies T & N met us after some swim time so Wubitu and B could visit for a little while.
Saturday was picnic for our adoption agency CHSFS. It was great to meet some of our blog friends in person! Wubitu was SOOOOO very excited to see her friend N. Here is Wuby goofing off to make N laugh.
She is such a goof!!!! The kids had a blast jumping on the jumpy things and sampling Ethiopian food.
Next was an awesome presentation of Ethiopian dancing that brought back so many awesome memories of being in Ethiopia! Later the kids were called on the stage to dance. (Hopefully I can post a video of it later) Wubitu and N with thier very dominate personalities stood in the front with thier backs to the stage like they were the instructors most of the time. Wubitu had a BLAST!!! She keeps saying she wants to do it again.
Next off to Legoland at the Mall of America with our friends T & N. The boys LOVED Legoland! They have huge lego creations and a track where kids can make thier own lego cars to race. They played until the employees had to clean up for the night.
Torrey loved it too and and scored some ulitmate geek wear. A Darth Vader Lego Starwars shirt. Sadly it only comes in Adult sizes.
Here is the GIANT tower Wuby made! (and another goofy face)
The next morning we had a farewell breakfast with N. The boys really enjoyed meeting N too!
After breakfast Torrey & I decided to replace our trip to Kings Island scheduled for later this summer with a trip to Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America. It was cheaper actually since Torrey & I didn't have to pay for admission like at King's Island (plus no parking, gas, or additional hotel). Wuby was an animal!! She is so fearless!! It is great to have her since the boys are scardy cats about everything, but how can they be scared if thier "baby" sister is giggling hystarically? So they rode the mini roller coaster a million times.
And Wonderpets bouncer... (this baby ride really scared the boys at first but Wuby helped them along)
Torrey took them on the raft ride and Noah LOVED it...so began our bribbery to get him to try a calm roller coaster. It took $5 and an hour of coaxing but he took the last ride of the night with Torrey and liked it alot!!! (He spent his money on a Spongebob projector pen for his little brother.....where did we get this kid?)
Noah was Wuby's "chaperone" for most of the rides because she was too small for the bigger rides. Aren't they sweet?
So after an action packed day we headed off on our 20 hour car ride to Texas to visit Torrey's family.
The kids had a great time at the Children's Museum in the mall. Noah took his cashier position very seriously and checked the prices to every item. Then he sat idly on his stool like a bored teenager until his next customer arrived.
Here is Wuby giving Carter a shot at the dentist.
Queen Wuby and King Farmer Tan. (It took 6 shots to get this kind of smile like face from Wuby...she was tired of mom paparazi already)
While the boys played chess, I buried Wubitu in the rubber tire pit.
Then the next day we were off on another mini-vacation on our vacation to Houston. Our zoo trip only lasted about 1 hour because it started to thunder and lightening but it was good to see Torrey's cousin Shaun and his wife Kia.
Again, real animals are of no interest.
We pricelined a sweet deal at the Houston Marriott. Noah thought it was a mansion! They had fun swimming with Daddy, Grandma Jenny, and Aunt Miriam in the pool (no pictures because I was taking a wonderful hot bath ALL ALONE in our room...I think it was my favorite part of the vacation!)
The next day we headed to the Gulf of a Mexico (as Carter calls it) at Galveston. We had a marvelous time. We all enjoyed wave chasing and playing in the sand. However we all came home with horrible sunburns. We reapplied our SPF 50 3 times during our 4 hours stay but it didn't help. Torrey had a swollen foot from the sun burns.
After all of the craziness of trying to cram everything into our vacation we just rested at Grandma Jenny's recooperating from our sunburns and enjoying some wonderful home cooking, some Red Box DVD's, some fire ant bites, and visiting with lots of family!
We really had a wonderful, relaxing time!!! It is so good to be home though!
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