For Cashel's birthday this year, we decided to forego a big party (especially with as junky as the weather has been lately - I doubt anyone would be able to even make it!) and have a fun weekend as a family in Minneapolis.
We headed out after work on Friday, made a short stop at Applebee's for supper in Mankato, then made our way up to our hotel and got settled in for the night.
The weather was less than desirable, but aside from seeing 8 cars in the ditch, we made it unscathed! We stayed at the Hilton on American Boulevard, which was a nice place! We settled in easily, but Cashel was WIRED! He was SOOOOOOO excited about the hotel! lol
The next morning, we were up early (as usual) and enjoyed some breakfast at the Original Pancake House (oh my WORD was it delicious!) before making our way over to the Zoo for the morning.
This was the third Zoo we had taken Cashel to in his short 2 year life. His first zoo was the
Panewa'a Zoo in Hilo, Hawaii at the end of March, then we also took him to the
Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls back in April on a nice day, but we think he was a tad too young for it both times back then. This time, he LOVED it!
We started out by visiting the Tropical Encounters area, and boy did it ever feel good to be stripped out of our winter coats, sweatshirts, hats and gloves, and actually on the verge of SWEATING! Kendrick LOVED it, and Cashel was thrilled too :)
It took a little while (and multiple times cleaning my lens) for the camera to adjust from the raw, bitter cold to the warm, humid tropical atmosphere, and I had a few pictures that looked a bit like this :) I just love how Kendrick is always watching me - it's so adorable :)
Cashel was so fascinated by the ants, of all things. I'm pretty sure we can deliver some pretty fascinating ants in our backyard this spring, so he should be entertained lol
What I know is that I was SO thrilled to see GREEN with how awful and bitter cold it has been this winter! And I think we all felt the same way :)
After Tropical Encounters, we made our way over to the Gorilla Forest, where they had all kinds of Gorillas and monkeys and the like - a really cool enclosure for them too!
Our next stop was the African Hoofed Stock area with the Zebras and Giraffes. Boy was it ever stinky! It was sad to see them all penned up, but with it being below zero outside, I suppose there isn't much else to do for them. It looked like their outdoor setup was NICE, and we will definitely be returning this spring or summer to visit again when we don't have to be bundled up so tightly to race across the park.
We made a quick run across to the Large Cats area, where we saw the (sleeping) Lions, Tigers and a Leopard.
This was pretty much where I stopped taking pictures as much, but really - the Como Zoo was pretty neat! We really enjoyed our visit, even if it was in sub zero temps. I never would have thought about going to the Zoo in the winter, really, but I would go back in a heartbeat! It was nice to break up the monotonous winter around here!
We planned to stop somewhere for lunch on our way back, but the boys were out just a few minutes after putting them in their carseats, so we just made our way through the drive thru at Chick-Fil-A (our first experience there), then headed back to the hotel to let them get a good, long nap in. It worked! They stirred a bit getting inside (who wouldn't it was COLD!!), but then fell back asleep. Mark and I dug into our yummy chicken sandwiches and watched a little rugby (COOL looking sport!), and then I ran a few errands while they napped.
After the boys woke up from their naps, we got the boys some lunch, then got ready and headed down to the pool!
It was Kendrick's first time in a pool, and I think it's safe to say he LOVED it! Both boys stayed in for about an hour without fussing. We invited Mark's cousin, who is also a Mark, and his family to join us for the pool time and supper out. We hadn't seen them since Christmas TWO years ago!
We had initially planned on going to Rainforest Cafe for supper, but I stupidly didn't make reservations earlier, and the earliest they could get us in was 9pm, so we had to scramble (while en-route to the Mall of America) to decide on somewhere else. I called a few places and they were all at least an hour wait, and with the boys' bedtime fast approaching, we decided to head to the food court and settled on Johnny Rockets!
Mark corralled the boys while I put in the order. I have a feeling we will definitely be back to the Mall of America in the future with Cashel being so enamored by Nickelodeon Universe!
I have a feeling these guys will be buddies down the road at family functions on this side of the family! It was hard to really see them interact much given the rushed circumstances, but by Easter
This, sadly, was the best picture we got of our group altogether - sorry for it being so super fuzzy! I guess not everyone is as skilled at taking no-flash photos on a smartphone as I am :)
On our way back to the car, we stopped for about 5 minutes to check out the cool light show they had in Nickelodeon Universe: Cashel was completely mesmerized.
All in all, it was a great day! It was nice to have a change from the boring monotony of hanging around the house for days on end :)
We were on edge the night before thinking about the impending blizzard coming and were only partially grateful for Kendrick waking us all up at 4:20am, so we got our things packed while the boys continued their sleeping and got on the road by 6:30am so we could beat the storm. The boys slept the WHOLE time until we reached St. James. We stopped there for some birthday doughnuts and coffee:)
Then, we hit the road again, and were SO THANKFUL that this was about as bad as it got!
We made it home around 9:20 after a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up supplies for the big party! (I'll post about the party soon!)
We had such a fun weekend together as a family :) And we're so glad we decided to forego the big party this year, because quite frankly, no one would have been able to make it anyway!
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