This was Thomas's idea and a great one I will admit! He has wanted to take us all camping for a while and this past weekend, we decided to make it happen. Because I am 7 months pregnant, we decided to divide the trip into one night of camping and one night in a nice comfortable king size bed (at a hotel)! Last Thursday we drove up to Minneapolis and stayed at Lake Blyssby campsite for a night and the next day headed a bit farther north to an awesome hotel! The hotel was only a few minutes away from the Mall of America, which the boys were pretty excited to go see. The campgrounds were located around the lake and the boys spent a good portion of their time throwing rocks into the water from the beach. They LOVED doing this and it was hard to get them to come and eat their dinner. Thomas set up the 4 person tent in record time and we ate Mac and Cheese and roasted some marshmallows for smores. It was so much fun and despite a somewhat restless night for us all, we had a fantastic time! We ate pancakes in the morning and headed off around noon (it had then started to drizzle). We checked into the hotel, rest for a bit, and then headed to the mall. We rode all kinds of rides. Ethan rode his first big roller coaster! Thomas and I aren't sure that he even met the height requirement, but needless to say, he did ride it and had a blast! Simon road a mini roller coaster and he didn't like it so much. He did however like the big rigs that they all rode together. Both boys had so much fun and Thomas and I just enjoyed watching the looks on their faces! The next day we spent playing at the hotel's large indoor playground. This thing was absolutely amazing standing three stories tall and I think there were probably more than 20 different slides to go down. They were fast too! Simon was a bit intimidated at first so he and I stayed low to the ground but by then end of the time, he went all the way to the top with Thomas and Ethan. They all had so much fun...all 3 of them :)
It was such a fun trip and the kids are already talking about our next camping trip! We'll have to make it an annual tradition now. Now we're back in Ames and experiencing some hot weather! The boys played outside in the pool for the first time this year today and had a water fight with dad. I worked in the garden some and can now say that I have just about planted everything and will now need to just wait. It has been a slow start this year because of the cool temps, but I think everything will take off now that it's getting much warmer. I took a couple of pics of the garden thus far.
Here is a picture of the plantar box. Finished and filled with my herbs, kale, and lettuce. It's been growing wonderfully and I love that it's so close to my back door. We've enjoyed some fresh herbs already this year!
