Minneapolis

This past week was my Spring Break. The first few days I worked, then we decided to take the last few days and head to the Mall of America. We packed up the car at 5:30 on Wednesday night, put Brode in his pajamas, and headed out for the weekend.Brode lasted a while in the car, then cried out of frustration and tiredness. After an hour he finally fell asleep like this, blocking the sun:

We stopped to get dinner around 7:30 and Brode woke up and wanted OUT of the car. We took a break for a couple minutes then got right back on the road. Brode didn't sleep the last stretch from 7:30 until 10:00 but now that it was dark he sat contently resting and whispering. He tried as hard as he could to fall asleep, not even Tigger or his blanket could help:
We got to our hotel late Wednesday night and headed right to bed. Thursday morning we woke up, had breakfast and went right to the mall. Brode has lunch and naps around 11 so we didn't have much time. We walked a few laps, played in the theme park, and checked out Lego Land.

Brode was wishing that he could have been bigger and rode on the big rides!
He had to ride the little quarter ones. Can you believe I had to peel his hands off the steering wheel as he screamed to get him out of here?
Because Brode's schedule was so messed up from the night before he napped for 3 hours! My mom sat at the hotel with him while my dad and I went back to the mall and ran in some stores. When the little guy woke up we headed right back to the mall and actually did some shopping this time around. I got in touch with my friend Alix who lives in the cities and she met us for dinner at Rainforest Cafe!
Brode loved all the things to look at, but wasn't too sure about the large fake snake in the ceiling. He got very into his coloring and flirted with Alix the whole meal.
Brode hasn't been eating the greatest lately. It is very obvious he is not in his growth spirt. He eats a few bites and drinks a LOT of milk but he hasn't been cleaning his plate like usual. Most of his kids meals didn't get finished this week, but he did like these carrot sticks:
After dinner we sat outside the restaurant and let Brode run out some energy! He did so well for sitting all day long in the stroller, but he was ready to laugh and have fun. Gramps took him for a ride on the escalator!
While packing and getting ready for a long weekend or trip with a young child you always need to figure out how to improvise. You need to figure out the most important things to remember, think of his few favorite toys, and never forget the blanket! We had a suite so it was very easy with Brode this weekend, but he had a tough time not getting time to play, run and sit with toys. Friday morning after breakfast he did get a little bit of time to play with some toys that got mixed in:
After we had our breakfast on Friday morning we all finished getting ready then headed out for my favorite store: IKEA!
It doesn't matter what you are there for, you always come home with more! We had to walk around the whole store and picked up quite a few purchases. My main goal of IKEA this weekend was to find things for Brode's room when he needs to move to a toddler bed. He tested everything out for us, and it was determined as he jumped and rolled that he still need a crib!

Yes, we came home with one of these egg chairs. The canopy fold all the way down to make a full, round egg and Brode just loved playing in it so he got one for his room:


I think Brode enjoyed IKEA just as much as I always do!
After IKEA we still had some time until lunch and nap so we headed out to another mall fairly close to our hotel. They had some different stores we wanted to check out. We ended up walking around here a bit and got some lunch before heading back:
Back at the hotel Brode napped for another 2 and 1/2 hours. My mom sat with him again and my dad and I ran back to the mall and did 2 more laps and went through different stores. We came back when Brode woke up and we all packed up and went back to the mall AGAIN. (I feel like the whole weekend was sleeping and traveling back and forth to the mall and the hotel)! Because Brode napped so long it was already dinner time. We headed to Bubba Gump Shrimp Company to get some seafood because it was Friday and it seemed like the perfect opportunity! This was another fun restaurant to bring Brode to because there were so many things to look at! We all had a great dinner and had fun doing trivia!
We got fun lemonades that came in light-up glasses we got to keep. Brode enjoyed them very much!
When we were finished with dinner we headed to the theme park. The first time I went there was I was 7? 8? 9? ish my dad and I got our picture from the large log chute ride they have. We then went back when I was in my mid-teens? i think, and got another one. So yet again we had to ride the log chute, get soaked, and get our picture. We had some tickets left over so Brode got to ride some rides with a chaperone! We rode the trucks first and oh boy did he love steering and honking the horn:
We rode the Blues Clues ride next. I didn't know how Brode would react because they go up and down in the air but he loved it!
We had a few tickets left so we rode the trucks, again. He threw a fit every time our turn was over!
We headed to Lego Land to pick something out for Brode - what I called his 1 and 1/2 year old birthday present because our little boy turned 18 months on Friday! He once again wished he was bigger to play with the kids.

Saturday morning we were checking out and heading back so we took our time getting ready. We had breakfast then Brode and I hit the pool. He had to miss swimming lessons so I thought we could brush up on his skills. He loved it!
We packed up the car and headed out around 11:00. After a stop we were home at 4:00 and had to find a place for all of our purchases. Overall we had a very "relaxing" weekend. We walked a lot, but we got some time to do some fun things and had lots of time with Brode! I think Brode would agree that he felt pretty relaxed as well: