Minnesota Zoo and Twins Game

After we came home from the cabin, we had a busy few weeks during the middle to end of July.  A week and a half later we had a garage sale with our neighbors.  That by itself took up a good week to prepare for!  Then the week after the garage sale, Kyler started swimming lessons!  I had signed him up at The Falls through the Rec Center and it worked out well.  He was in the beginning class for his age group, which meant I had to get in with him, but I think he came a long ways in the two and a half weeks we participated, we will definitely do it again next year!  I don't have any pictures from swimming lessons, but wanted to remember we did it. :)  Kyler did great, he was a little apprehensive at first, like he is with everything new, but after the first few times, he had fun and was getting more and more comfortable in the water.

The very end of July, during swimming lessons, we took a quick two day trip up to Minneapolis.  We left on a Tuesday afternoon and headed up to The Cities.  We arrived about 6:00 and the first thing we did was get some dinner.  A high school friend of mine lives in Minneapolis, so when we knew we were coming, we tried to make plans to meet up with her.  It worked out that we could meet for dinner on Tuesday night, so we enjoyed a yummy supper with her and her mom (who was also in town helping her get ready for her wedding that was a week and a half later).  My (Ashley's) parents also were able to come down (as they were still at their cabin) and join us for the two days too.  After dinner we headed to our hotel and then to bed for the night.

Wednesday morning we got up, found some breakfast and then we headed to the Minneapolis Zoo with my mom!  The kids were so excited to head to the zoo and see all the animals.  Norah's favorite animal was the giraffes because we were able to get so close to them and see them.  I'm not sure what was Kyler's favorite, but I think he liked the bears the best because he asked to go back and see them again. :)  Here are some pictures from our trip to the zoo!

Norah checking out the 

Swimming around

The bears...they were huge!

Cheetah

Tiger

Kyler checking out the tiger

Norah and Grandma

Don't remember what this was.... :)

Next to the giraffe :)

The giraffe!

We laughed because it looks like the giraffe "photo bombed" our picture :)

Moose

Penguins

On a turtle statue

Flamingos

Time to head out! :)

After the zoo, we headed back to our hotel for naps.  My mom and I did a little shopping while the kids were sleeping, and then we all went out for dinner that night.  Thursday morning we got up and got everything packed up to check out of our hotel.  After checking out, we went and got breakfast and then headed to Target Field for the Twins baseball game that started at noon.  Erik wanted to get there by 10:30 for batting practice, and we made it by about 10:45, but all we saw were the Royals warming up as the Twins were done. :(  So, we wandered around the stadium for a bit, found our seats, and then went to the gift store where Kyler was able to pick out a new Twins hat. :)  Here are some pictures from the game.

The Royals warming up

Grandma and Norah before the game

The field

Waiting for the game to start in our seats

Scoreboard

After the game

After the game we took my mom back to our hotel as my dad was staying another night for business.  After we dropped her off, we began the trek home.  Norah was so tired that she was asleep about 5 min after we got in the van after the game. :)  On the way home we made a quick stop at the outlet mall, and picked up dinner too.  We arrived home later that evening.  We had a great time even though it was just for a couple of days, we have already started talking about what kind of "little trip" we would like to do next summer. :)