Minneapolis with the Bradbeers

We took a fun trip up to Minneapolis and squeezed as much as we could in to a very long, very fun day.  Unfortunately Lily started feeling really sick around 4pm and was pretty miserable for the rest of the day, but we managed to make it work.  Here are the highlights!

 

The Como Zoo

The Como Zoo is a FREE zoo up in the cities.  It is really great, and though it was HOT, we all had a great time!

 Kate's favorite was the polar bears, she really, really loves them!

 The two monkeys below were fighting/wrestling/playing King of the Hill.  There was a huge crowd watching them and they were very funny/entertaining.  The kids especially loved it.

 Poor Kate must've brushed against something because she had a horrible reaction to something.  Everywhere on her arms and legs that was exposed broke out in a red rash/hives/welts.  Luckily I happened to have children's Benadryl on me, so we gave her some, and gave her a baby wipe bath.  After a few hours they went away.  It was pretty bizarre, and we didn't think to take a picture.  I still have no idea what caused the reaction.

 Blowing dandelions, waiting for the shuttle

 Some of the animals

After the Zoo, we headed over to the Science Center, which is a really cool place!  Here are the highlights!

 

The Science Museum of Minnesota

We had a GREAT time at the Science Museum.  It was really wonderful.  Unfortunately about halfway through Lily crashed hard.  Shivers/aches/exhaustion, the whole nine years.  We ended up putting her in Kate's stroller where she laid comatose for the last hour, poor thing.  If it'd just been our family, we definitely would have left and taken her home to bed, but since it was the Bradbeer's one day in Minneapolis, she was a trooper and hung out.  I felt pretty bad for her, but we gave her meds and let her fade in and out in the stroller and she was a total champ.  It just came out of nowhere and hit her hard.

 

The kids got to weight themselves on a scale that showed them how heavy they were compared to different fish in the Mississippi river

 View of the Mississippi from the Museum windows

 Seeing just how heavy and hard to reel in those 60 pound fish are

 This picture was just minutes before Lily crashed.

Kate was so funny about this baby dear.  There was a little baby deer in this interactive kids section and she sat on the ground next to it and hugged if fiercely for probably 15-20 minutes.  She couldn't be pulled away from it.

 

After the Museum, we went to IKEA for dinner, because we needed a few things.  The Bradbeer's ate with us then walked next door to do the Nickelodeon Universe theme park in the Mall of America while we did our Ikea shopping.  We finished a little before them, but by then it was well past our kid's bedtime, so we just sat in the car, in the blessed air conditioning, for a few minutes and all rested after the LONG, hot, busy day.  The Bradbeers came out, all thoroughly invigorated with big smiles after having a blast riding rides. 

 

Then we made the hour and 15 minute drive home!