A Week at Papa & Nana's - 3

The kids have discovered Chuck E Cheese!  There is a new one in Woodbury, so there is almost no avoiding it!  Its surprisingly clean and open feeling - not dark and claustrophobic like I remember from my childhood!  We took the kids for pizza around 4pm one day and then played games for a while.  It was really fun!

The boys enjoyed it all!

Eden mostly just rode this blue pony over and over again.  When we left she said, "I wanna buy that blue pony!"  I took them all straight to the bath when we got home :)

A Week at Papa & Nana's - 2

Another fun outing was to Tamarack Nature Center in White Bear Township.  I had heard of it through a friend and I was happy I remembered!  It was so much fun!  There is a little nature center we explored...

Bennett's tortoise shell

Giant moose antler!

Funny cockatoo...he was playing and chatting with us!

Then off to Discovery Hollow

Eden fell asleep for a much needed nap, so Nana stayed in the van with her while I took the boys to check it out.  They were in heaven!  Some rock climbing...

Exploring the river

And then we found the little cove with building materials from nature.  They boys immediately knew they wanted to build a beaver dam.

Good teamwork!

It started to warm up so before long we had our shoes off and toes in the water.  I wasn't sure if that was ok...until people started showing up with swimsuits on their kids!

Sure enough, you could play in the water and the sand - what a perfect activity!

Eden woke up and was ready for some fun!

But she didn't want to walk anywhere without holding the boys hands.

She wasn't too sure....

You can make the water run by tapping on these sensors...it was such a neat place!

Eden was pretty excited when she realized there was some climbing to do!

What a fun day!  And for free!  It was awesome!

Bennett and I snuck in a movie date - our first 3D movie - while Logan was at Chidren's Farm


And Eden got to try out her new jammies: a nightgown!  So cute we had to send Daddy a photo

A Week at Papa & Nana's - 1

John headed out for a trip with students from Jacob's Well the morning after David and Katie's wedding, so I headed over to Stillwater to spend the week.  We had some commitments and wanted to do some fun Minnesota activities.  It was a busy, tiring, and long week.  Thanks to my parents for letting us stay so long while they are in the middle of a remodel.  A week is a long time to stay somewhere with three big kids.  Anyway, it was so nice for me to have some help and to get an evening with my sister and even some time to myself.  I felt like I had to say "Sorry, we are a crazy bunch" to my mom when we were leaving, but actually she just said, "I know what its like: I had three kids!"  So nice to have such helpful and understanding parents.

One of the special things about Papa and Nana's is special shows we never see at home.  We get to spend a good amount of time relaxing and it sure is fun!

We also try to do some of our other favorites when we are in town: like Teddy Bear Park!

We stopped from some snacks on the way!!!

Eden is rather brave…always ready for a challenge fit for a five year old. (reminder: she is TWO!)

"See Mom, I did it!"

And jumping in the hot tub at the end of the day is always a good idea!

And usually we stay busy so we get pretty tired out.  Sweet Bennett.