Skip to main content

G.G. and Grandpa Come to Minneapolis for Super Skating Surprise (We Went to Disney on Ice)

By
My parents are here, that means gifts for the kids.

The first surprise of the weekend. Excellent...

I was planning on making dinkel soup before our night out, but forgot to soak the spelt (yes, you can alternatively use farro). So we got fish from Macs Fish & Chips instead.

The main reason my parents came this weekend was to go to Disney on Ice. However, we didn't tell Meadow (and Theo) why they were coming. After dinner we were like, Let's go somewhere. Let's go to a brewery. Meadow said no that she wanted to go to a playground instead. We agreed.

After parking in the parking ramp we said we were going to an indoor playground. That's when Meadow noticed there were a lot of kids suddenly. We had to wait in line to scan our tickets and go to the metal detector. Meadow started to question why we had to do that.

Once we got through and saw all the souvenirs Meadow figured out what we were actually doing.

Meadow's already been to Disney on Ice twice! This was Theo and I's first show.

Theo sat slumped in his chair because he thought if he sat forward he would fall towards the ice. 

Theo and Meadow both got Mickey crowns, which came with a bag of cotton candy. Spoiled by their grandparents.



Frozen was OK, but Encanto really got the crowd going.

The aerial dancing was pretty cool.

Back at home a quick game of Battleship before bed.

I guess she got her Grandpa to play more games with her in the morning.

This weekend also happened to be the Buffalo Kite Festival. 

That's Kites on Ice if you're Googling it.

I had heard this one was bigger than the Lake Harriet Kite Festival in Minneapolis and had been wanting to go for years.

Unlike the one on Lake Harriet this one is all giant kites and few people bring their own kites.

Kitty kites for Meadow.

I'll admit it might actually be better than the Minneapolis version.

We flew our dragonfly kite.


G.G. went off on her own to get a closer look while we flew kites.

They also had kicksleds you could try too.

I dared Theo to touch the kitty.

I guess he wasn't brave enough.




It was so cool to see all the different kites.

Meadow was really excited to see the catsuya.

This crab was one of my favorites.

This spinning kite was pretty cool.




Flying pigs, astronauts and sea rays. A strange combo, for sure.



For lunch we stopped at the Choo Choo Restaurant in Loretta.


They had a full caboose inside the place.

We took a quick break at home before heading back into downtown. We had a dinner reservation at 8:45 and stopped at Fulton Brewing for pre dinner drinks.

Pretty sure we are also the only parents who take their kids downtown at night.

Do you people ever live a little after you have kids?

I have been wanting to take my parents to Bar La Grassa for years. Even with making a reservation 6 weeks ago the earliest we could get in was at 8:45pm.

Theo is getting bored of these fancy dinner places taking so long to get our food.

Oh man, their food is so good.

We ordered family style and it was good as we remembered. More than a decade in and it's still amazing.


Lemon poppyseed pancakes for breakfast the next morning.

We had hoped to go ice skating during their visit but the warm temps had all the ice rinks closed. Instead I said we should go to the American Swedish Institute.

I had taken my mom and grandma here years ago, but my dad had never been.

We took the tour while Scott and the kids played.

We had been here recently and figured the kids wanted to have fun.
 
They had been begging to go back.

Last time the play room was in the basement, but they're renovating the space right now.

Instead, all the dragon costumes and toys were up in the ballroom. I guess they change the kids room theme every so often. It's been viking themed in the past and dragons right now, but we're wondering what it will be next.


The kids made me eat at their dragon restaurant.

We spotted Brooke and G.G. on the tour.

A little while later they'd join us.
 
Then my dad disappeared for a long time exploring the mansion. 


Theo didn't want to go, but we had Super Bowl snacks to prep.

Then it was Super Bowl time. Of course we had to do a snack dinner. We may have overdone it.

Yeah, probably.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Japan Family Trip - Part III: Exploring Asakusa, Akihabara, Ginza, Yanaka and Tsukiji in Tokyo

By
After being away even for one night it felt strange to be back in the busy city. We arrived at  the end of the line for the Tobu Nikko line,  Asakusa Station .  Then we had to walk over to the Asakusa Line which took us most of the way to our aparthotel in Asakusabashi. It may sound confusing, but Google Maps never lead us astray. We made it onto the A line train for a short ride to  Asakusabashi. The kids look pooped. Eventually we followed the road next to the Chuo Sobu Line. Restaurants and cafes are tucked into many of the railways. A clever way to bring some life to what would otherwise be a desolate space. Our last stay was at the MONday Apart. The Asakusabashi Akihabara location. We were starting to get used to slipper life. In Japan you separate your trash into burnable trash and plastic garbage. We decided to get dinner nearby at Pizzeria Buono Buono, but when we arrived there was a note on the door that they were out of pizza dough for the night. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stillwater Waterfall and MN River Valley Hiking

By
  Scott had to take some sunset photos in Stillwater.  A fall color aerial 360. I hadn't been there in awhile so we tagged along. We left as soon as Meadow was done for school and headed for the St Croix Boom Site. I had heard there was a hidden waterfall and wanted to check it out. There's not a specific trail to it. From what I read you go down the stairs and take a left following the river.  I think it's an old state trail that isn't maintained and has way too much graffiti. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Japan Family Trip - Part II: Exploring the Shrines and Wilds of Nikko

By
We had originally planned on taking the bullet train down from Tokyo to Kyoto for a day or two. While being epically fast, it was a bit spendy for the four of us.  After talking to Brooke's coworker we settled on a two day trip to Nikko and its World Heritage Sites to break up our week in Tokyo. This turned out to be an amazing decision. The town is teaming with beauty from ancient shrines to epic waterfalls and some of the best meals we had on our trip. Kyoto didn't seem all that appealing to me when I started researching which location to go to. I too am glad we chose to head north to Nikko.  When we booked our Tobu Nikko Spacia X tickets I upgraded to the premium seats thinking that we'd be sitting facing one another. Instead we ended up with 4 individual seats, two in the first two rows and two in the last two rows. It turned out just fine with the kids sitting in front of us in two groups. Meadow and I were seated at the front of the car. Once in awhile we'd pas...
Post a Comment
Read more