We had a great vacation in Minnesota!! We left bright and early on Thursday morning - almost right on schedule! We checked into our hotel in Bloomington and then headed to the Minneapolis Zoo in Apple Valley. I think it was the nicest zoo that I've been to. I was a little disappointed that the monorail wasn't running, but it was a gorgeous day for walking. My favorite part was the bears in the new Russian Coast exhibit. They came right up to the glass in front of us, where they were playing in the water. It was awesome to see just how big their paws are. After the zoo we went to Scott and Mary's house for dinner. It was really nice to spend time with the Minnesota Wallers. We want to thank Scott and Mary for their hospitality, Dave and Dean for taking the time to join us, and Perry and Deb for driving an hour in rush hour traffic to be there. We don't get a whole lot of visiting time, so that was very important to us. Of course, we ended the evening by swimming in the hotel pool. The girls really love that. Elliott is fearless about jumping off the side with her floaty and paddling around the pool. Olivia and I worked on swimming underwater like mermaids.

Friday we went to the Nicolodeon theme park at the Mall of America. It was a lot of fun - a good variety of rides. Elliott and I agree that our favorite was the log ride. Of course, I did a lot more screaming than she did!! The ferris wheel was neat too, but we couldn't convince Olivia to join us.