The older boys stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Potts while Caden got to have his special trip with Mom and Dad. Win-Win!
Day 1-Friday: traveling. This was Caden's first plane ride and he did pretty great. It was a bit difficult to get him to sleep on the plane (red eye flight) but once we got him to sleep he slept well! Got an upgraded rental car for free (no economy cars left) and didn't arrive to Tiff and Adam's house until 2:45am MN time. Tiff had a cute sign on the door and our bed decorated with a sign and treats for us!
Day 2-Saturday: Caught up on sleep and relaxed at their beautiful home. Attempted to plan out our trip and what we wanted to do. Then went to ELM CREEK RESERVOIR. They had an incredible playground we played on, then we drive around, explored some woods and the reservoir with white swans in it. Came back for dinner which was delicious! We had bacon wrapped pork, brats, and Cesar salad. Then to conclude we watched EXODOUS -wouldn't recommend it.
Day 3-Sunday: went to church, visited Tiff at her work (she's a realtor for Lunar homes-beautiful homes!), back for naps (felt great), dinner, movie, nails and facials with Tiff, and another movie with Darrin.
Day 4-Monday: Played with Maddie and grace and Caden while Tiff and Adam did half days at work. Then we left for Lutsen- a 4 Hour drive. We stopped at a hole in the wall looking place for dinner and it was sooooo good. There I experienced a juicy lucy-a route of burger that Minnesota is famous for where they cook a big ball of cheese inside the burger part which makes it extra delicious and juicy :). We arrived at the resort-it was beautiful with the back patio of the townhouse backing right up to lake Superior! The rental was really nice with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms with jetted tubs, a full kitchen and fireplace. We played rummy cube with Tiff and Adam, and headed to bed. And then the fire alarm went off for no reason at all at midnight. This was the loudest fire alarm I've heard. Went off for 15 minutes or so until we figured out how to disarm it. They kept calling asking if everything was OK and saying they'd come fix it but never did. I was shocked that caden slept through the alarm! Then the phone rang after we disarmed it and he woke up from that :)
Day 5-Tuesday: They had free bikes, bike tailors and baby hiking backpacks all to rent. Free! It was really chilli and even snowing, but we didn't care-we wanted to explore! So, first we biked on a trail Temperence River which was really cool. Then we made lunch back at the house. After lunch we did a 1 mile hike to Caribou Falls which were about 40 feet tall. Then we met up with the Checketts to drive to the town of Grand Maria's. Most things were closed but we skipped beautiful smooth flat rocks on lake Superior, touched the lake (sooo cold!), went to Ben Franklin general store (Sam Walton's first store he worked at), then ate dinner at a really nice cute restaurant called Harbor House. After dinner we drove the 30 minutes back to the rental and went swimming. Darrin and I did a bunch of laps which was fun. Then we played games with Tiff and Adam when the fire alarm went off a bunch more times for no reason. So we got a free nights stay comped and a $50 gift card! Sweet!
Day 6-Wednesday: We went to breakfast at Bluefin Bay with our gift card, packed up, went to split Rock lighthouse (some gorgeous overlooks of the lake but unfortunately the lighthouse was closed), then onto Gooseberry State Park. Here we saw incredible waterfalls right up close. Amazing views from the top and bottom of their five waterfalls. Then we drove to Duluth where we went to their Lake Superior Railroad Museum. We thought it'd be free but turns out it was $12/person. Reluctantly we did it and at first thought it was quite possibly the worst waste of money ever but it turned out to have been a really neat museum! Then we went and saw the lift bridge which we didn't see go up and got subway for dinner and drive back the extra 2.5 hours home. Then we watched a movie with Tiff and Adam
Day 7-Thursday: Mall of America/Nickelodeon universal theme park. We spent all day long here. 10-9:30. We had so much fun doing an all day theme park pass and shopping in between. I was astounded with how huge the mall actually was! Wowsers! And the rides were great! They had some OK ones but quite a few really great ones! We got ride on just about every ride and ride them each several times. We also rode all the kids ones with Caden. He didn't really show any reaction :).But it was a lot of fun!
Day 8-Friday: Science museum of Minnesota. We were here from 11am-7pm. It was huge with several floors all packed with different stations of science experiments. It was very hands on. After being here we came home and had dinner with the Checketts. Then we watched a movie.
Day 9-Saturday: Como zoo, Minehaha falls, Mississippi river, Stoney arch bridge, Minneapolis sculptures, BBQ, movie. Today was so much fun! Tiffany took the day off work so we all went to Como zoo which was a great zoo and best of all it was free! We were able to be so close to zebras, giraffes, a sloth, monkey's, penguins and more! Then we headed to Minehaha falls. The falls were cool but nothing spectacular. So we did a mile hike/walk to the Mississippi River. It was beautiful the whole way and once we got there! There was even this bright yellow cave there by the river which was cool. Then tiff and Adam headed home while we went to see stony arch bridge and the Minneapolis sculpture park. Then we went home for Thai food, outlet malls with Tiff, and then we put Caden to bed and went to see the movie Insurgent since we just finished listening to the book on this trip. It was really good.
Day 10-Sunday: church with the Checketts, naps, the park next to the Mississippi river where we played and skipped rocks, dinner and ticket to ride.
Day 11-Monday: packed up, goodbye's, Mall of America shopping until our fligh, flew home. Caden took a while to get to sleep like last time but then slept and did really well. It was so good to see Parker and Spencer when we woke them up at 12:15am. They couldn't wait for the surprises we brought them!
It was SO SO wonderful to get to spend time with the Checketts! It was really strange to be a Mom to only one baby and have Darrin's help all the time! Vacation indeed! And my other boys had such a great time with my parents. Thank you again Mom and Dad for watching them! They still talk about all the things they did with Grandma and Grandpa-they just loved their "10 day date with Grandma and Grandpa"!
