Minnesota Family Reunion 2012

Two weekends ago, we had our family reunion in Bloomington, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, Minnesota.  We had a very fun time and wish we could have stayed about one extra day to tie up all of the loose ends we wanted to see/eat/visit.

We decided to break up the trip and leave Thursday night for Clear Lake, Iowa, then woke up the next morning to drive the remaining two hours to Minnesota.

When we first got there, we decided to get to our room, which had an awesome view of the Water Park of America, they allowed us a VERY early check in, and we headed to the Mall of America for lunch and to walk around.  We passed by Nickelodeon Universe and took in the sites.  Nolan was getting quite tired, so we headed back to the hotel for a nap for all of us and then we got ready that evening to head to the Duffy Dome.  That is our family member's house that is shaped like a dome.  Pretty cool and they designed it themselves.  We had a lot of fun reuniting with everyone over good food and good drinks.

That next morning, Scott went golfing and Nolan and I went with my Dad to Ikea for the morning.  Scott had a lot of fun taking in the Minnesota views.  Nolan wasn't having Ikea as it was during his normal naptime, so my Dad graciously walked around with him and even took him to the cafeteria to get some french toast and eggs while I got to walk around.  Ikea is a wonderland.  I know it gets a bad rap sometimes, but it is an awesome place to go.  You walk in and there are places to eat, a cafeteria, many levels, and many rooms set up so you could envision the space in your home.  I found some of the neatest things for Nolan.  I didn't grab a cart on the way in cause I didn't know what I was doing, so all I had was this big Ikea bag I was putting things into.  You don't just grab everything and buy them, you have to write down or in my case take a picture of the location of the item you want and pick it up downstairs.  I started to collect everything, and if someone was watching me on a camera, they would have been pointing and laughing at me.  My Dad and Nolan were beyond the checkout line and I couldn't reach them, so I had to do it on my own without a cart.  Two chairs and a side table later, I was a sweaty freakin mess.  I did it though, and found a cart on the way out so I didn't have a heart attack.

When Scott was done golfing, we met him back at the hotel where Nolan went back to take a nap and we headed back to Mall of America for a little while.  Mall of America with a one year old on a Saturday is not for the faint of heart.  It was a complete 180 going from Friday where we got a parking spot right by the door and had plenty of room to roam around to having to go 4 levels in a parking garage and just squeezing by everyone.  We got back and got ready to go to the Glockenspiel.  It is a German restaurant that was really neat and everyone at the reunion was there.  We basically took up the majority of the restaurant.  Great food!

The next morning, we gave ourselves a whole hour to swim.  I know, not long enough.  This is what I wish we would have had more time to do.  Nolan had never swam before and he was having fun so it would have been nice not to have to rush out of there, but we had to check out at 11:00.  After checkout we went to the Minnesota Twins game and stayed for 4 innings and decided to get on the road.  Nolan did so well on the ride back, I couldn't have asked for him to be any better.

We had a really fun weekend and I love Minneapolis.  I would go every year if I could.  We had a few restaurants we wanted to go to, I had a whole level of Ikea I missed, and it would have been nice to swim longer.  But, we will go again someday and make up for it all!  Great reunion and I can't wait for the next one!