Mall Of America

Our trip ended with a special treat for Megan - a girls day out.... a trip to the Mall of America in Minneapolis. She spent the beginning of our time there in shock - an amusement park in a mall.... whoa!
But then she saw an old buddy....It was Pablo - one of the Backyardigans! And suddenly the reality set in - hey- an indoor play place. Awesome! We got a pass and had some fun!

Auntie Dawn was a trooper and even rode the big rigs with Megan. She was a crazy driver - but everyone got off safely.

Nicole was too little to ride anything - but she took in the sites. There was a lot to look at - so add in some munchies and she was good!

Megan and I hit the big swings. I was worried that once it started, Megan would be scared and want off.... Silly me! She's a little daredevil and loved every minute of it!

I tried to get a picture of the center of the mall... this totally does not do it justice. It is enormous. I'm not sure how many stories it is - but imagine a roller coaster (several actually) inside the middle of a mall. And then add in that blue thing that goes upside down (there are several of those types), a huge ferris wheel, a bunch of kids rides - the swings we were on is on the other side, you can't even see them in this picture. It's amazing. The mall also has an aquarium in it. Once Nicole is old enough to ride some rides - we are going back and getting full passes and we'll do it all!

Here is comes....

See the roller coaster coming down from the top left...

Megan so did not want to leave. I was prepared for a huge battle... but thankfully we saw Blue and that distracted Megan enough that we were able to get out without a huge scene.

But, that's not all the mall had to offer!!!!!

Megan has reached the age of Build A Bear. They have a huge store there - so Megan picked out a special friend to love on!

She had a blast stuffing her bear and filling him with love!

And Nicole could not be left out of all this fun. BAB now has "hypoallergenic" bears that are "baby friendly." Basically that means, the eyes and nose are embroidered on - no nose to bite off as a choking hazard.

She loved on that bear - he was pretty wet by the time we got to the stuffing station.

Megan made sure to love on her new friend (BeBe) as well as her old one (snowball) on the way home.

Of course, Megan also picked out a few outfits for both the bears... here they are - "sister bears" as Megan calls them.

Thanks Auntie Dawn for our fun girls day out! We all loved it!

Now Megan has had her introduction to the fun of an amusement park... she's all ready for a trip to Disney!!!!!!