Amusement

Yesterday we left Iowa and drove 5 hours to Minneapolis. We wanted to take the boys to Legoland in the Mall of America. I’ve never been to the Mall of America, but, though I’m not much of a shopper, I have to admit that it was impressive.

Legoland itself was a bit of a disappointment. There were really cool large structures built with Legos, but it was much more a store than anything. There was also an area where you could build with Legos and race the cars you built. However, looming just beyond that area was a huge indoor amusement park. We were not able to keep the boys at Legoland very long with the screaming roller coasters calling to us.

We had decided ahead of time that we would do just a little at the amusement park.
But on a whim, we decided to do more. We’re so glad we did.

I love amusement park rides. If it weren’t for the cost and the fact that mature adults just don’t do it, I would ride the rides all day long at the 4-H fair. It’s great that my kids are just old enough to enjoy cooler rides than the merry-go-round, but are young enough to need me to ride with them. It’s been years since I’ve been on a roller coaster.

So we bought tickets and started to ride. We started out with a roller coaster that flew around above the amusement park. No huge hills, but enough high-speed twists and turns to make it exciting. Kendall is not fond of heights, nor is his oldest son. Kendall said he just about soiled himself. (Not his exact words, unfortunately.)

The second ride was a water ride. Not sure why we would take a water ride in Minnesota in March. But since it was indoors, we did. It was one of those log rides that are almost roller coasters. I looked closely at the people getting off the ride. They looked as if they had been very lightly sprayed with water. That’s all. It looked safe. Eli was begging for that one, so off we went. Well, it wasn’t so safe after all. By the time we got off that one, Eli, who had been in the very front of our log boat, was drenched. I was second in line and my legs were quite wet. So what did we do? Went on it again, of course! We were already wet, after all! Then we went out to the car, changed, and came back for more rides.

The highlight for me was a wacko ride that just Eli and I took, or, more specifically, Eli's enjoyment of the ride. Kendall and Evan sat it out and watched the madness. As we were flying around in circles, Eli and I were laughing. He kept yelling over and over, “This is awesome! This is awesome! Completely awesome! This is awesome!” I loved it.

After a fun afternoon and evening, Evan and Eli took a long shower at our hotel. I was listening to them review the day together as they stood in the spray. They were discussing all the rides. “What about the log ride?” And they were off on that one. From ride to ride. It was great. In fact, I heard Eli announce to Evan that this was his best day ever. How fun to do something so special.

Happy.

Home.

Tired.

We're home.

After all the beautiful spring weather, I was tentative at best about returning to the snowy winter. But it was beautiful all the way up through Minnesota. Then we crossed the great divide. Still beautiful into Canada. No snow! Kendall expressing surprise. (And a tad bit of disappointment.) Just a week ago, Kendall saw snow on his way down.

We kept driving. Still beautiful and snowless. I watched and waited with baited breath. (Whatever that means.) After awhile you could see patches of snow in the bush. But not much beyond that.

Could it possibly be true?!

Then, 45 minutes south of Red Lake, it began to snow. At first it looked like rain. But no, there was definitely a snowish quality to the precipitation. To prove its snowness, it increased in intensity and frozeness.

Then, a blasted blizzard! (Relatively speaking.) Welcome home, Hochstedlers. :)

Oh well, in spite of the confetti falling from the sky to welcome us, it was exciting (and surreal) to drive into our parking lot and see bare grass. So strange! And lovely!

And by the time we had our car unloaded, the yard was considerably whiter than it had been when we pulled in. So, if we wake up to a foot of snow in the morning, at least we were allowed a small glimpse of our grass before it disappeared again.

I’m writing from Iowa. Two long weeks ago I was getting ready to leave home for awhile. The last two weeks have been full. A weekend away with the Hochstedler women. A few days of friends and family. A very busy weekend in Iowa celebrating Kendall’s grandpa’s 90^th birthday, complete with a hotel pool, talent show and church. A few days of relaxing/shopping/enjoying summer-like weather. And we still don’t know if we’re leaving tomorrow or Thursday. Either way, we hope to stop at the Mall of America in Minneapolis to check out Legoland. Kendall works nights this weekend, so we need to be back by Friday evening.

Photos to follow…

Evan + Pencil

A scary monster and a rocket ship.


Here he was copying the purple sentence below. I think it is interesting how he doesn't really care which way his letters face. He asked me what the word on the second line was. Since he had put the M up above, I told him it said "anners." Wow, did that ever crack him up.

By the way, did you notice his eye? Yes, it was a stick. He was playing with a stick and fell on it or something. It scratched up his cheek and ended up right below his eyebrow. Gives me the heebie-jeebies. And just a few hours earlier I had been thinking that I need to be less protective and let them be boys.