Missed Minnesota

 Well, Minnesota.  I owe you an apology!  We feel like we MISSED most of it.  Due to class scheduling and lack of open RV spots, we had to drop in low, rather then starting North and working our way down, like we had hoped, and giving it a good go.  

 Good news?  We WILL be back!!!!  :)

  The morning of Paxton's birthday was a travel day, so he opened his gift on the road...PERFECT, 8 hours of a NEW Adventures in Odyssey, just what the kids ordered for a travel day!

     
  As we passed through the area, we decided to make a stop at the Mall of America!  Why not? we were right there! It was bigger then we could have imagined!

  Birthday boy picked to go see the Lego store and eat some PIZZA while we were there.

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  The coolest part of the Lego store, HAS to be the HUGE lego sculptures towering above you on the ceiling beams........

 Fun facts:
  The lego creations seen below, took 160 people, 3 months to make them.  The robot took 8 months, and got shipped in in 2 pieces, then assembled in store.  It weights 11 TONS and took over 2.9 million pieces!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

  Its hard to capture size on camera, so pay attention to the people below the lego sculptures for size idea, as well as my family standing on the balcony to see the robot.

  The attention to detail is amazing. My favorite was Christopher Columbus and all the things in his "office"......

    When we walked by the American Doll store, the birthday boy graciously agreed to sit ouside with daddy and Ty and let the girls go explore the TWO story store. We don't own any American Girl stuff, but it sure was fun to look and dream.  
  They still have Samantha! The AG doll I BEGGED for forever!  Too expensive then, too expensive now.  ;)

  After a few more hours of wandering and riding the glass elevator and all the escalators a few times, it was time to hit the road again, we had several hours to go.

  We found a beautiful forest rv front RV park to stay at. It was very stormy and rainy alot of the time, so we laid low, played games.
  We also got a chance to see a matinee, The Life of Pets, which was DARLING and later went into Cabella's for Paxton to pick out a present he wanted and use his birthday money from Aunt Kasey.  
 He found a camo vest, toy hunting knife, compass, that came together in a play set.  We try to limit "stuff" and focus on experiences for birthdays and holidays now, thus the movie, but at his age, STUFF is still pretty cool too! :)   We've already seen hours of Ninja, hunter, super hero play.  Good thing too, with all the rain.  

  By the time we got back to the RV and made dinner, it was getting late, we were able to throw this little beauty together in about 20 minutes!

EZ Beef Gryos:

*1 pound beef flank steak, thinly sliced and seasoned well with Greek seasoning, salt, garlic, pepper and dill

*olive oil

*1 cup each diced tomatoes and diced cucumbers

*1 cup feta cheese

*1 cup homemade dill ranch

*"Flat Out" soft pita style bread

Slice steak, toss with seasonings. Heat oil in skillet and fry up meat until cooked through but still tender.
Remove from heat.
Cube tomatoes and cucs and assemble....
On flat out bread, layer dilled ranch dressing, meat, cucs and tomatoes, feta cheese and more dressing drizzled on top. Enjoy!

  Paxton got to pick our dessert, so ice cream it was.  We found a cute little local place on Trip Advisor and headed the short trip into the tiny town we were staying in. No indoor seating, so we sat in the dark and sang happy birthday to him out there,
  Check out the "SMALL" cone.....it was like $1.50.  Dale got a mocha twist, medium for like a dollar more.

   We all agreed my Dole Whip Yogurt was the best of the night!

​  So delicious in fact, that we decided we needed to go back one more time before we left town. Priorities!

  This time, for fun, Dale and I got a large to share.  Have you ever seen such a thing?  Yes, we split it. Yes, they provided a cup.  And YES, it was just as DELICIOUS as the first!!!!

 Well, that's it for this trip.

  See why we owe Minnesota another go at it?  We will be back and we can try try again.  :)
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​Hugs, T