Tkach Family: Minnesota

We had a busy and eventful week in Minnesota last week. I took over 500 pictures so it will be hard to select a few to post here. The drive took 14 hours with many stops to let the kids get out and run around. The DVD players were a lifesaver and the kids actually napped for a couple of hours which always helps the time go by a little quicker. Lauren kept asking where we were and then she'd say "When are we ever going to get out of Wisconsin?!" She did much better with her car sickness too and only had one incident. We were prepared with a bucket so the clean up was much easier. On the way out we stopped to see our friends the Jones Family. It's always nice to see them and we wish we could get together more often. We rented a house for the week in Minneosta which was so nice because we could put the kids down to sleep in a room and still have time to visit with family. The house was in a community that had three outdoor, heated swimming pools which we took full advantage of. The kids were swimming like fish and loved every minute of it! We went to the Minnesota Zoo. Our friend Terah trains the dolphins there so we got to watch a special training session which the kids really enjoyed. We also went to Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America which is a neat aquarium that you walk through a tunnel with sharks and sting rays all around you. The kids loved the aquarium that had all the different fish from Finding Nemo. There was also a jelly fish exhibit that was really neat. Then we did the rides at Nickelodeon Universe inside the Mall of America. Of course the kids cannot get enough of riding rides and had so much fun. The rest of the week was spent relaxing, shopping, eating out at great restaurants and visiting with family. The kids especially enjoyed eating at Rainforest Cafe with the thunderstorms going on while we ate! We stopped at the Mackinac Bridge overlook on the way home for some pictures too. It was an overall wonderful vacation.