Minnesota Fun!

The weekend of November 5-7 was our trip to Minnesota to visit our friends, Tony & Maren and their kiddos.  This was Maddie's second trip to Minnesota and Nathan's first trip across the state line!  :)

We got to their house around 5ish on Friday night.  We had dinner and bummed around the house.  Mads tried out Esther's violin.  She's definitely going to need more practice!  :)

 Mads was so excited when she saw where she was going to be sleeping.  She got her own little cot and the best part was that Lily wanted to sleep with her!!  Lily slept with Maddie both nights!

On Saturday morning we went to the Minnesota Children's Museum in downtown St. Paul.  It was a VERY awesome place!  We started out in the Habitot where the kids can climb, slide, crawl, and play on everything in the area.  Mads loved ice fishing!  I think she better consider shoes if she decides to do some actual ice fishing!  :)

 Standing in the window overhang that looks down onto the streets below.  I believe the Habitot was on the 3rd floor.

 Nathan is excited about the museum!

 Mads helping the frog hop around the pond

 Nathan takes a breather on a lily pad

After the Habitot we moved on to the Japan exhibit.  Mads and Esther tried on some kidlet sized kimonos.

 Then they moved on to the big drum!

 This was absolutely the cutest thing to watch!  The girls worked together and each picked up a side in order to move the carrier across the room and back.

 They moved it pretty far! 

 A hug afterwards in honor of their great teamwork!

We then moved on to Earth World.  They had an area that had all kinds of tunnels, simulating an ant hill.  Mads had a blast going through all the small spaces on her own and figuring out which tunnels went where.  She took Andrew and I both in, separately since Nathan's stroller couldn't go in, and I forgot the camera when it was my turn.  She had an absolute blast, though.
After the ant hill we went up to the learning deck and Mads touched a turtle.  She wasn't grossed out, which kind of surprised me, and she said that the shell felt hard.

Our next stop was Our World.  This was my favorite, by far!  It was a whole area dedicated to making the things that kids see every day small and at their level for them to explore.  There was a bus, supermarket, restaurant, post office, clinic, culture gallery, and recording studio.
Here Mads, Nathan and Dad take a ride on the bus.

 Look out!  Mads is at the wheel!

 Shopping in the supermarket with Esther:

 Esther rings up Maddie's purchases first:  (Notice that Mads bought CHEESE!)

 Then the girls switched and Mads was Esther's cashier.  (Esther picked up a banana to go along with the cheese)

 Mads tried on a fireman's outfit in the Uniform Shop

 She cooked up a couple meals at the restaurant:

 And she was a rock star!  (Can you see that the kids were making a music video on the TV above them?)

 She loved singing!!

 Mads dropped off some mail...

 and then headed to work at the clinic, checking out some X-Rays.

After Our World we stopped into one of the galleries where the kids were able to do black light art.  The room was dark except for black light that the paint and markers reacted to.  It was very neat.  Mads made a couple picture and had fun seeing the bright paint. 
We had a fantastic time at the Minnesota Children's Museum!!

Later on Saturday afternoon, after naps, we took a walk to the neighborhood park.  The little kids, and the big kids, had fun playing at this sweet park!!

Sunday morning we hit up another museum.  This time we went to the Science Museum of Minnesota, also in downtown St. Paul.  The very first exhibit when we walked in was the news anchor desk.  Mads wanted to go try it out right away!  Too bad she can't read yet, otherwise we would've had quite a show!

Two stinkin' cute news anchors!

 Pressing the teleprompter buttons:

We also went through the dinosaur exhibits, saw the mummy, the science area, and the human body area. 
How adorable is this picture?!!!

We stayed at the Science Museum for about two hours and then headed back for lunch.  After lunch we had to head back home since we had a five hour drive ahead of us.  We had a fantastic weekend and wish that we could see Tony, Maren and their family more often!!