Destination Revealed-Valley Fair

Each year we take our kids on a "destination unknown".  One year we really had no idea where we were going and we ended up at the zoo...the trip where Emmitt fell on the lemur cage and got a huge goose egg on his forehead and where he half drowned himself doing the alligator roll in the pool...This year, we totally knew where we were going, but wouldn't tell the kids anything.  We left town on a Friday night and pulled into Bart and Cy's around midnight!  The boys didn't fall asleep until Pine City!  It was a long drive, full of bad drivers, construction and a broken iPod jack for the speakers.  Once we got into the very nice, very un-childproofed home, with 2 elderly cats (one whose one his 11th life and the other who doesn't like people) we crashed.  That was until I started getting texts from a drunk brother in law dancing his heart out on Pride Weekend.  And those two guys never even came home!  Once we finally saw the uncles in the morning we headed out for breakfast.  We hit up our old campuses and places we used to live.  Emmitt asked if daddy went to school at a zoo because of all the cages around the U of MN.  We ended up on Randolph down from St. Kates at the Copperdome for giant waffles and crepes...then it headed to our destination unknown.  Valley Fair.  The kids had no clue, and as you can see from the video, they thought it was a water park! We hit up all the rides in the Camp Snoopy area.  Which used to be at the Mall of America.  So it was nice to let the kids just ride and ride.  One of our first rides was the octopus/spider one and the boys were not sure if they were happy or totally freaked out by it.  Bear instantly got motion sick from the round and round and that basically did it for him.  But once Parker realized he was more scared than his baby brother he had to one up him.  He cleared the 48" mark with his hair and braved the white roller coaster with momma!  If I had only videotaped that one!  I have never seen so many emotions on a kids face...ever.  We ate and drank slushies and played games and rode rides. We hit the water park for a little bit and left about 6 that night.  We were totally wiped out.  But I was quick to let Emmitt and Parker know that they did great walking all day long.  This was our first trip without the stroller, leash, big camera and we all fit our stuff in one suitcase...we simply enjoyed it being that much easier.  We got back to Bart and Cyrus's and headed out for Sushi.  Bart found this little place that welcomed us in the back patio area, even though we were a table of 5 with no reservations (which included my two kids).  The kids got the coolest "pop" we have all ever seen. Bart ordered for us and we all ate until our hearts were content.  Bear, Bart and Sushi...a great combination.  Those two drank enough saki to get themselves a headache in the morning, while I sat and enjoyed watching my boys dazzle the waitress with their new Japanese Language skills.  It was a weekend full of memories...