Sibling Day At Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium

My kids like to spend one day during the summer doing something only with each other. My girls are always so busy with life, and when we're always up in Annandale, it's hard to bring all 4 kids together. This year, they decided to head to the Mall of America, and walk through the Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium. The kids were so excited when Sea Life agree to partner with me for my blog with a review!

For me, I know going to the MOA is about the experience. It's been quite a few years since I've been to Sea Life Aquarium myself, but what I remember about going is how magical it was. The kids were younger, and they loved it so much.

So from the youngest this is what he had to say about the aquarium. There was a mini aquarium when you first walk. He touched star fish and anemones. He also saw a fish called a guitar fish. They weren't able to touch the sting rays because they were having babies. He said there were mirrors by the jelly fish tubes, and he kept running into them. Awww to have seen that!

His favorite part was the tunnel. There were sharks (nurse & tiger), turtles, and a variety of fish.  After the tunnel there were alligators and poison dart frogs, and who doesn't love seeing those? He said there were cicadas, but they were so annoying. lol

Buddy's experience from his perspective was that he loved touching the anemones. They felt cool, and he'd always wanted to touch them. He also got to touch a star fish. Those were pretty hard to the touch. There was a cool tunnel where fish and sharks would swim above them. He really liked seeing the alligator and turtles. The alligator was in a tank. Apparently the sting rays were in mating season, not giving birth. lol

He also said as you walked around there were spots where you could learn about the creatures they were looking at. The aquarium isn't huge so you're able to see it with plenty of time to do other things at the mall. At one point he texted me that a shark had just swam over him. That was pretty noteworthy if he's texting me!

Here's what my oldest girl had to say about her time with her siblings and Sea Life:

My siblings and I had such a great time visiting Sea Life on our sibling date! I've been here before, but am always impressed each time I visit again. The jellyfish are my absolute favorite part. The tanks they are in beautifully change colors. I could watch it for hours:) 

We loved that the place is set up as if we were in the habitat of different sea life! We also enjoyed the tunnel where sharks, fish, and turtles swim not only next to us, but over us! What a neat experience!

And last we have my 2nd daughter's perspective on spending time at the Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium for sibling day. She's a young lady of very few words. HA!

The Sea Life aquarium is a fun place to go with family! My favorite part was the tunnel where we had all sorts of sea creatures swimming around us and even over us. We learned a lot, and it was fun to be so close to everything and get a new perspective.

It sounds like they all had a great time hanging out together doing something fun. It means the world to me when they have these experiences together.

As you can see, most of the photos are dark, but as you could imagine, that's what their atmosphere is like naturally. I know my oldest was using her phone, but the photos still turned out really nice!

Next time we have the opportunity to visit, I'm hoping to try one of their Experiences! They have a Behind the Scenes tour, Snorkel with the Fish, Overnights, and you could even propose or get married there! I think the Behind the Scenes tour would be fantastic. I bet the kids would love to snorkel!

Be sure to follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

What aquarium does your family love to visit?

Pete's Dragon Printable Activity Sheets

Less than two weeks and the movie I've been anticipating comes out! August 12th Pete's Dragon will be in theaters! I'm sure you're ask excited as I am! I'm excited to share some fun activity sheets your family can download.

Your kids will love these coloring sheets!

Then there's this cute maze:

Next there's a cute puzzle!

Your kids won't be able to pass up bookmarks!

How about door hangars? These come with instructions on making them.

If your kids are like mine, they love spotting the difference in pictures!

Who doesn't enjoy playing a matching game?

And last there's an activity packet that your family will thoroughly going through together! Here's a sample of the pages included in this Educational 12 page packet:

Be sure to click on the links, which take you to all of the activity pages!

You will also want to watch this hysterical video! Bryce Dallas Howard talks about what it was like to work with Elliot!

If you see Pete's Dragon when it comes out, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Be sure to let me know if you download the printables!

Like PETE’S DRAGON on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyPetesDragon

Follow PETE’S DRAGON on Twitter: https://twitter.com/disneypetes

Follow PETE’S DRAGON on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/disneypetesdragon/  

Visit Disney Animation on Tumblr: http://disneyanimation.tumblr.com/

Visit the official PETE’S DRAGON website here: http://movies.disney.com/petes-dragon-2016

U.S. Bank Stadium Tour

Last weekend before the boys and I drove home from Minnesota we got to tour the new Vikings Stadium, which is called the U.S. Bank Stadium. It's also where the Super Bowl LII will be held! My daughter, Sarah, got tickets for her boys and the three of us to go take a tour through the stadium! I was pretty excited. Now, when I heard, "Oh I got tickets for all of us! We're taking a tour!" my first thought was that we were going to get a tour in a small group.

Oh ho ho ho I couldn't have been more wrong. When we showed up, I'm pretty sure half of Minneapolis was there as well! hahahaha So very naive I was. Sarah and I just jumped in the throng of lines to get through the security check and get inside the stadium.

Once we got inside, it wasn't really a "tour." It was just everyone walking around taking selfies. We didn't learn anything about the stadium. We worked our way over to the escalators, and ended up like cattle going up about 3 floors only to have to walk around what felt like half the stadium to find the escalators to go down.

There wasn't anything to do. Sarah had thought there'd be activities for kids and fun stuff, but there wasn't anything. Don't get me wrong, it was cool to be in the brand new stadium since I have no idea if or when we'd ever get back there again. In the 15 yrs I'd lived in Minnesota, we only got to one Vikings game, it was pre-season, and it was in year 15 that the boys and I went. lol Games were just so outrageously expensive, a single mom can't afford to go to something like that. Well, I'm sure it's even less accessible now to those who don't have a money tree growing in their backyard.

We got back to the main level with the idea that we were just going to head out. That's when they opened the seats for everyone to be able to sit in. As soon as we sat down, I heard this crazy noise. I said to Sarah, "Listen...that's rain!" We were facing the windows and all you saw was gray. It was absolutely pouring outside. Definitely NOT what we needed because the boys and I were scheduled to head out of town right as the rain started. UGH!

Sarah had gotten the tickets for 10am, and I had actually hoped to leave around 8am to be on the road because with two stops ahead of us, the boys and I had a long day of driving to get to OH! I almost passed on the whole experience, but I'm glad we went. We all sat in the stadium seats for nearly half an hour before it seemed to be letting up a little bit. We could actually see buildings through the windows with the rain letting up.

The boys and I had to get on the road so we chanced heading out into the rain. It had actually let up considerably, and we weren't parked "too" far away. There's a really cool sail with the Vikings design on it in front of the stadium, but it was raining enough that we weren't able to get a photo with it. Hopefully next time.

As crazy as the experience was, we had fun, and it WAS an experience! lol One day I hope we get to a game. It'll have to be that "one day" when we've finally moved back.

What stadium do you love watching your favorite sport in?

A Day At Valleyfair

One of the things my kids look forward to every summer is Valleyfair! This summer is no different The one thing...ONE thing they asked to do was head down there at some point this summer. Our days are literally so full, I wasn't sure if we'd be able to make it there. This month, we had one day, a Sunday to get down there. When Valleyfair agreed to work with me, I knew we had to make it work!

Saturday night as I was going to bed, it was raining! I looked up the weather, and all I saw online was to expect thunderstorms on Sunday. Ugh! I even woke up thinking I heard it was raining. As we headed to church, I saw that there wasn't a cloud in the sky! I was thrilled...until we came out of church and it was completely overcast. lol We went back to the house to have lunch and decide if we still wanted to go or stay home. I convinced the boys to chance it!

The one thing I did before we headed down was print out prepaid parking, prepaid meal, and a prepaid cup that I purchased on the Valleyfair website. We saved a few bucks doing it that way! We headed down in the early afternoon! Took us about an hour to get there, and found pretty good parking.

I was shocked at how few people were at the park! I think most people thought the weather was going to bad, and decided not to go. Bummer for them, but score for us!! All Buddy wanted to do was get on the Wild Thing. That's his favorite ride. lol The youngest didn't seem to have a ride he absolutely had to do. He just wanted to ride. Me...I just wanted to go on the "mom" rides. hahaha Oh my gosh, I've SO become my mom.

I'm the mom who just wants to walk through the park watching my kids have a great time. That gives me so much joy. I love rides like the Monster, Scrambler, Tilter, and SuperCat. Now, I wanted to see if I could overcome my fear and ride the RipTide again. Well, I rode it. hahaha The youngest went with me, and he loved it. Not sure I'll be able to do it again on our next visit. lol If you watch my Instagram video of the ride, I'm on the back side all the way to the right. Everyone else's legs are flying around with the ride, mine are pinned to the ride, and I'm holding on for dear life. HA!

We spent the afternoon walking around the park going on ride after ride. It wasn't until a couple hours later that the boys ran into their first "line". I use the word "line" loosely since the line probably was 10-15 minutes. No complaining there! That was for the High Roller. My boys were in heaven with how easy the rides were to get onto. Literally it was get off the ride, get on the ride, get off the ride, get on the ride!

Dinner time came and we looked through our park map to find the Single Meal locations. We went to Planet Snoopy Grill since that's where we were. Buddy and I had cheeseburgers with fries, and the youngest had chicken strips with fries. The meals come with a drink. We had also filled up our 2016 Souvenir Bottle. If we had gotten there earlier in the day or had it been hotter, we probably would've used it constantly. Sunday was a perfect day and filled it up with one pop and one water.

Now, I have a habit that absolutely annoys the life out of my boys, but causes me a great deal of glee. I'm a screamer on rides, even when it's not necessary. mmmmm ESPECIALLY when it's not necessary. hahahaha Hearing my boys, "Mom! Stop yelling! Oh my gosh, mom, please stop! This ride isn't even scary!" Oh my word, I'm laughing so hard right now thinking about it. When my oldest daughter got there and we rode the Northern Lights, I maaaay have done a lot of screaming. She laughed hysterically, both boys kept yelling at me to stop screaming, and I just kept screaming. It. Was. The. Best. Ok, so I may have gotten on my own nerves with that ride. ;)

Let's just say, they all fought over NOT sitting with me when it came to going on the Corkscrew. heh heh heh Listen, if they're going to get me on something like a roller coaster, they have to suffer listening to me scream. Now, for some reason, the Corkscrew isn't one that scares me. Climbing, climbing, climbing, and then falling at an insane rate of speed scares the nonsense out of me.

I was so excited when my oldest was able to join us. She came after work and a meeting. We had a great time squishing the youngest in the Monster and spinning until we wanted to puke in the Tilter. Sometimes we were able to get those two to spin like crazy, but then the next time...no spinning. We couldn't figure it out. lol

We got a lot of walking in with this park, but never got to the Soak City Waterpark. I had the boys bathing suits in my bag just in case they wanted to go get wet! It was fun watching people going down the slides! Next time I plan on going early in the morning as soon as the park opens and staying until it closes. The 4 of us definitely closed the place down. Our mosquito bites are evidence of that!

I have a list of what you should absolutely bring to Valleyfair or any amusement park you might be visiting this summer. I remembered most things as I went through our day.

1. bandages

• Someone will end up needing one either because of all the walking you do and getting blisters, or from a boo boo

2. variety size of baggies

• These come in handy for the things you don't want to get wet. Stick your phone in one, your car keys, credit card(s), tickets you've printed ahead of time, and anything else you need to stay dry

3. rain poncho

• Check out the weather, and bring a poncho if any rain is in the forecast. They're also nice to have if you're going to do rides that get people wet, but you want to stay mostly dry

4. ibuprofen

• It's entirely possible someone will end up needing a pain reliever of some sort

5. dry socks & shoes and extra underwear

• You will thank me for this one. Even if it's just a pair of flip flops at the end of the day, you'll like having dry feet. I can't say enough about having dry underwear once the rest of your clothing dries

Be sure to follow Valleyfair on Facebook & Twitter to keep up with all the fun at their park!

Which amusement park did you visit last?

Munsinger & Clemens Gardens

In all of the years I lived in Central Minnesota, I had never visited the Gardens! I knew they were up in St. Cloud, and I love flowers, but just never found the time to check them out. Thankfully, Tara had mentioned how she was supposed to have gone with friends, but something happened and they weren't able to go. I suggested we go the next day!

When she got home from work, she mentioned that it was pretty cloudy out, and that it was going to rain. I looked outside, and somehow convinced her that if there was going to be rain, we'd totally beat it with a visit to the Gardens.

It was around 5 minutes from her house, and she hadn't been there before either! She had even gone to college up there! HA! I didn't feel so bad after hearing that. Oh, and she's lived in the area her whole life.

Going to Munsinger & Clemens Gardens in July had some beautiful flowers, but I think it was towards the end of the spring blooming flowers so we probably missed the best viewing of flowers. I would say mid spring would be a wonderful time to take a walk through the gardens.

We started out in the Formal Garden. This plant, which I don't know what it is, really caught my attention. The small leaves are a deep purple, as you can see and is more shiny. The mature leaves are a lighter purple and more matte in appearance. It grows on a thick single stalk. I wish there had been a label near it to know what it was.

Many of the perennials were past their bloom and didn't get to see many of those. I'm guessing this next one is an orchid of some sort, but again, not sure of which variety. I just loved how beautiful it was. I really want to go back and take more pictures of it.

I've never really walked through a botanical garden before, and this was just wonderful to walk and enjoy. Now, I think in most places like this, I'm one who can sort of glance at the things around me, and I keep walking. I suppose "thankfully" many of the flowers I would've wanted to take lots of pictures of were already past their prime, because it literally could've taken me a few hours to enjoy every plant here if it had been a month ago.

The small plants are what I found enjoyable. Many I'd never seen before, and have decided they MUST go in my garden. Now, I'm guessing some may be shade plants, and that simply means I get to have a shade garden. I can handle that. aren't the colors on these awesome?!

As Tara and I walked through the garden, all I could think of was how wonderful it would be to have an estate, and then create a garden like these, where people could walk along paths and enjoy all varieties of plants! Yes, I like my little garden, but it's got a long way to go before it's anything I can brag about.

When we got to the Virginia Clemens Rose Garden, I was so disappointed that m phone wasn't capturing the colors and designs of the blooms. I'm not a huge rose fan, but the colors, like the one above were fabulous. This bright reddish pink, with the white I loved, but my phone didn't get it very well.

The rose above reminded me of a peony. All of the petals as a big flower head. It didn't make me think rose, but it was in the rose garden, and you could tell in person that it was. I wish again that they'd have given us an idea of the variety. I should call and ask. Make them walk like I did naming off all of the plants. lol

This one I totally loved the color. It looked like someone had flicked paint on the petals. You know what I didn't do though? I didn't take time to smell them. I'm sure that's unforgivable in some places. Next time? And yes, I realize it's pink, and I don't do pink, but that was just a cool design.

Again, I simply loved the color of this flower. I also like how it was at the peak of it's bloom. There's something gentle about this rose that made me wish I could pluck it. Of course, I could never bring myself to do something like that. I don't think I could ever grow a cut garden because I just want to enjoy the blooms until they disappear outside. It's the same with the photo below. It's such a soft color, and the blossom is so perfect.

What's neat about visiting here is that the gardens are only separated by a road. On the opposite side of the second garden is the Mississippi River. You can take a break from your stroll by sitting on one of the benches.

Down here, we saw some beautiful shade plants, and there was even a little cactus garden. I don't think I'll ever get over the variety of plants that God has created. None of us will ever have seen all that He's made! Some of the cactus was so strange! I was fascinated by them.

Ok, so here's what I found SO incredibly neat about the above plant. The center piece on the bottom right is where all of the leaves "fall" from. I took a closeup of it and it's on the bottom left. I know, I know, it's a bit blurry, but what's amazing is that the center is so tight, you can feel the spikes if you run your hand over it, but they're smooth along that center piece. The spikes don't stab you. Now, when the leaves fall open what you see in the top picture of the collage, they'll totally stick you if you touch them.

As we got toward the bottom of Munsinger Gardens, Tara and I both heard the peacocks calling out. I thought they might be wandering the grounds, but it turned out they were in their coop. Come to think of it, I never saw anyone who works/volunteers at the Gardens. Not surprising the birds weren't out, but they sure were beautiful.

We finished out tour by winding our way back up to Clemens Gardens. There were a variety of fountains we stopped to check out as we were walking, and this one struck me as interesting. Below where the water is coming out, the fountain is surrounded by bull heads. lol Each of the heads is spitting out a stream of water.

We had a marvelous time, and the best part? It's free! As we walked around, we noticed so many spots where a couple could take their wedding photos. I mean, how could you resist, especially when the Gardens are in full bloom? They're open daily through the season until 10pm. There's a gift shop, but unfortunately (or Fred might be thinking "fortunately") it was closed. I'm sure I would've come away with some sort of keepsake! Next time.

Have you ever visited a garden like this? What is your favorite flower?