Mall Of America and Sandcastles

My little brother Jonah and my sister Leah are here right now and Jonah had all these huge plans for the week. He wanted to go to the State Fair and to the Science museum and to the bodies exhibit at the MOA. We decided that we would go to MOA because all of the other places are so expensive and we are really watching what we spend any money on. The idea was just Joel and Jonah would do the bodies exhibit while Leah and I and the girls walked around. We got there and it was 23.00 a person. It is crazy how much they charge for things. So, noone ended up going and instead we just walked around the mall.


We ran into a shark out and about and Abby loved to go up and hug all the stuffed things.

This was the only thing Emily felt comfortable getting close too. She was exactly like I was when I was a little girl. Whenever anything in a costume would come by she would just cling to whoever was holding her really tight and say, "no, no, no, I don't like that." My parents have many stories of my fears of people in costume too. This was as close as she would get to the frog and that was after seeing him for over an hour.

Our family at the rainforest cafe-- What an experience. The girls loved it. It actually thunders and lightnings while you are in there and rain drips down the sides. There was also an ape show that the girls were so delighted with. Whenever they would quit Emily would tell them to come back.


We celebrated Jonah's birthday while there since Leah would be gone for his real birthday. You can tell Jonah soaked in the singing. He is one to love attention!

Abby going for another froggy hug

Emily would cover her ears everytime the thunder would start

We have a park behind our home that just put in volleyball nets with awesome, beach sand. The girls love it and we randomly can be seen pulling a wagon filled with sand toys through the field out to the park. Here is one such occasion...




This is actually the girls stomping on the sand castle we made.

Here they are showing off the sandcastle
They wanted their feet to be buried in a hole
They could sit and play out there for hours. It is a nice, fun thing to do on a lovely summer evening.