More Summer Vacation!

Well, we managed to make it to Sauk Rapids on Wednesday afternoon.  Our main reason for making the trek to Minnesota this year was to help Mark's mom get set up in her new apartment.  She moved to Sauk Rapids a week or so before we got there and there was LOTS of unpacking and sorting to do.  Mark's job was to clear the storage unit and help Maxine go through her things and make her new home a comfortable place to live.  We got straight to work as soon as we arrived on Wednesday and spent all day as well as Thursday working, along with Mark's sister, Karen.  Karen was such a sport and took Emma and Samantha with her most days so Mark and I could work at the apartment and get errands done.  However, on Friday, we took a day off and drove to Minneapolis to the Mall of America!  We had promised the girls that the next time we went to Minnesota we would take them to the American Girl store at the mall.  Emma and Samantha are American Girl enthusiasts and both have their own doll.  They were so thrilled to be there!  This is a picture of them standing outside the store getting ready to enter.  Such anticipation!

The store was huge! It was very crowded with little girls and their parents looking at the fun merchandise and displays.  One thing Emma said to me was, "It's like my dreams have come true!"  They were just so happy to be there and their smiles were huge!  It doesn't get better than that!

There was a bistro on the second floor that we made lunch reservations at.  It was adorable.  The girls could bring their dolls and have lunch with them while the dolls sat in little high chairs.  It was very pink and very girly and Mark felt a little bit out of his element.  But he was such a sport and made sure his girls had a great time.  Lunch was yummy and then there was more looking around to do.

They each were able to find something to buy so this is a picture of them after making their purchases.  Sam bought some accessories for her Molly doll and Emma bought a mini doll of Felicity to match her full sized doll.

Of course, since we were at the mall we decided to look around a bit after leaving the American Girl store.  The mall has an indoor amusement park so we let the girls pick a ride.  They decided on the carousel.

Clara and I watched while the girls rode their horses.

We came home on Friday evening and Karen made a delicious dinner for us while Uncle Dan made a fire in the backyard for s'mores.  The girls ate their s'mores and jumped on the trampoline and had a wonderful time.  We worked hard on Saturday at the apartment and Karen and I took the kids to a splash park in Sauk Rapids while Mark did some things for his mom.  The girls had a blast playing with Amber in the water.  On Sunday after church we drove to Browerville to Mark's other sister's home.  Teresa was a great host with her family and we had a nice dinner with them.  Then we drove to the cemetery to visit Bob's grave.  Mark was the only one who from our family who was able to attend the funeral so this was the first time the girls and I had been able to visit.  We took a nice picture with everyone and read a couple of cowboy poems that Bob would have really appreciated.

On Monday we did some more work and then took a break to take all the kids to the Bounce Depot.  The girls jumped their little hearts out and as you can see, got hot and sweaty!  They had a blast but we needed to cool off so we went to Dairy Queen for some ice cream.

Before we knew it, it was Tuesday morning and time to say good-bye.  We spent a little time with Maxine and had a tearful farewell.  The girls love being with Gramma so we were sad to leave.  But we got a lot accomplished and it was wonderful to visit with family that we don't see very often.

Next we are heading to Iowa......