Minneapolis

This last weekend we took a little mini trip up to Minneapolis with Jeff's sister and her family. We stayed at a hotel across the street from the Mall of America. We had joined rooms, which was very nice for the adults to hang out after kids were in bed.We all had a lot of fun, and hopefully we can go back soon :)

We got there Thursday night and took the kids swimming. Alyssa loves the water now. She would jump in and have Jeff help her swim across the pool over and over again. Dallin could reach and is getting better at swimming, so he was having fun. On Friday we went to the Mall of America. Jeff's sister and I thought we would get a little shopping in, but it was too hard once the kids saw the rides...I did buy some candy at See's candy and some legos at the lego store. The kids enjoyed the lego store.

Then we went to the Rainforest Cafe. Now I can say I have been there, and I have no desire to do it again real soon. Dallin and Brooke loved it there. We sat in the monkey section, and Dallin LOVED it when there was a Thunderstorm. Alyssa HATED it. She was scared and didn't like the thunderstorms.

We hit one more store before finally giving into the kids and getting unlimited ride passes. I knew Dallin would have a blast, but Alyssa actually rode several rides. She would not ride the carousal, but she did ride her first roller coaster and LOVED it!!  Dallin rode all the roller coasters he was tall enough for. He is so much fun to ride with because he laughs the whole time. We rode on the rides for about 4 hours, and the kids could have gone a lot longer...the adults needed food :)

 

 

We paid $2 for Jeff and Dallin to go on the HUGE slide! We thought they could only ride once, but it was unlimited while you were still in the slide area. They did it about 15 times in a row, and I think they were all tired of going up all the stairs over and over again!!!

Brooke was awesome! She sat in the stroller for most of the time. She enjoyed looking all around.

On Saturday we went to the free zoo, which was the perfect size. The kids loved it! 

 

 

 

 After the zoo we went to Ikea. Then we went swimming. The kids LOVED it. We took Brooke into the water for the first time. She stayed in the pool for about an hour, and liked it. After I took her out, she put her on my shoulder and was out cold. The swimming was exhausting! She is just so cute! 

Alyssa

As I am writing this post, my cute, little Alyssa is screaming in her bed. For some reason she has decided she needs mommy instead of sleep. She wakes up every 45 minutes or so throughout the night screaming at the top of her lungs for mommy. Then she wakes up at 7 and will not go back to sleep. If I try, she screams and screams. So she is a bit over tired all the time. She has been having some night terrors. She threw up for the first time this week, so I don't know if now she is scared or what, but I am a little tired. Between Alyssa and Brooke (who is a terrible sleeper), I am not getting a whole lot of sleep.

Alyssa is full into the terrible 2's! Her favorite word is no, and she says it all the time. She throws tantrums all the time, but I do know that I love this stage too (I just have a hard time remembering sometimes :) ). She is finding out all about herself, and I love to watch her develop into Alyssa.

She REALLY misses Dallin now that he is in school. Now that they aren't around each other all the time, they play so well together. Alyssa just misses Dallin so much.

I hope the 3 kiddos continue to be such good friends.

Alyssa is such a good and loving sister (she just sometimes forgets to not be so rough).

We are having a lot more mommy and Aly time. She LOVES to help me bake. She does make is messy, but it's better that way :) Sometimes she puts the mixer on high right after the flour is put in...

Her favorite thing to do is puzzles. She does puzzles for hours almost every day. She is getting pretty good at them. If you are sitting on the couch or the floor, there's a good chance she will come sit next to you with a puzzle. Here she is sitting next to all of her puzzles.

She loves to color and paint. She is very different from Dallin because she actually sits still long enough to do things like coloring and painting.

Alyssa loves her treats, especially things with chocolate.

She always wants to be doing what Dallin is doing. She is almost just as big, which she tells us often. So she wanted a BIG bike like Dallin. She can't really ride it, but she is great at riding the trike. Since she has a December birthday, we decided to get her a bike now so she can start to learn how to ride it. Her bike is pink AND purple, her 2 favorite colors.

Alyssa is very proud of herself because she learned how to pump her legs. She got tired of always waiting on me to swing, so Dallin taught her one day after school. It is kind of nice :)

We sure do love our Alyssa. She is so much fun to watch grow up.