Minnesota

 A few weeks ago, there was a conference in Minnesota that related to Mckay's research, so he went to Minnesota. Rather than stay behind alone and bored, the kids and I went with him. The drive there wasn't too long and the kids kept busy in the car.

I brought some puzzles for Dallin and a metal baking sheet with raised sides, which helped to keep all the pieces all on his lap and gave him a flat work surface.

Connor read books and slept a lot.

At least he was comfortable.

My roommate for the first two years of college currently lives in Minnesota so we got to visit her and her family a few times.

It was so great to see Amy again. It's was almost 8 years ago that we met and started college, but I think we look pretty much the same.

 One day while Mckay was at his conference, we went to the zoo with Amy's family. Dallin and Connor got to be chickens.

They got to feed pellets to the goats.

Connor loved brushing the goats. He would move quickly from one goat to the next, one brush stroke for each goat.





I think he was trying to set a world record for how many goat he could brush in 5 minutes.

 It was a hot, sunny day, but we all had a lot of fun.

With 5 kids between us, we had our hands (and strollers) full.

 The kids were worn out by the time we got back to the hotel.

We ate at restaurants most of the time on our trip since we didn't really have another choice. I did not miss doing dishes every day. Dallin liked that he could choose exactly what he wanted to eat, and his choice was usually pizza. One place even had a "make your own" pizza option. They brought dough and toppings out to the table.

Dallin very precisely placed each pepperoni.

He was so proud of the finished product.

Yet he only managed to eat one slice. Kids...

We got to see lots of cool sights in Minnesota, like the Mall of America, the Sculpture Garden, the Children's Museum, and the Spam Museum.

More post on those places will soon follow....