The makings of a family

We had the best day on Saturday, the best!

It was going to be just an ordinary Saturday...I had all these plans for spring cleaning adventures and then later in the afternoon we were going to all go to Chucky Cheeses for supper in LaCrosse. Well, at about 9:30am someone mentioned the Mall of America and I said nonchalantly, "oh we should have gone there today." That's all it took.....Trevor and Vince both piped up "Let's go! Come on, why not? Let's do it!" And after a couple "yea buts" from me (we should have left earlier! we won't get home until midnight!) which were quickly thwarted by Vince's "so what! let's do it!", I sent everyone to the showers and in a little over an hour we were on the road.

It was awesome ~ we had such an incredibly fun time! We arrived at about 2pm and spent the next four hours in "Nickelodeon Universe" riding rides (the kids, not me....I don't do rides!)

Nick and Trev were far too cool to be smiling for pictures while they were waiting for the rollercoaster...

In line for the bumper cars...

Kyle & Hope even had a spin on a "junior" rollercoaster!

Then it was supper in the food court where everyone had their choice of wherever they wanted to eat. I of course chose my favorite restaurant at MOA...Johnny Rockets!! It's this 50's diner and they have the best burgers & malts ever!

Then we hit the stores for a couple of hours and each of the kids bought something.

Hope got a new Build-A-Bear...

Kyle got some Star Wars legos at Lego Land ~ Vinny & Kyle absolutely loved Lego Land!

Trev got a cool new wallet at his favorite store Zumiez, Nick got a cap spray painted with "Evans" (which is way too huge for him and looks somewhat like a trucker's hat, but don't tell him I said that) and Vinny, well, couldn't make up his mind so he still has some cash to spend here at home.

There was alot of silliness going on...

And the kids were absolutely fantastic! All day....not one squabble, no nit-picking. Trevor helped us corral watch out for his siblings, often without being asked...Nick took Hope and Kyle on rides....and we managed to not lose anyone of us all day!
But I think one of my favorite memories of the entire day ocurred before we even left. When we had embraced the idea to be spontaneous, to drop whatever we had planned for the day and just go...and as the kids scurried off to get ready Vince turned to me with tears in his eyes and said "See, this is what makes us a family."