Nickelodeon Universe

We spent a few hours at Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America.  The boys got to go on several kiddy rides.  And because Brooks is so little, Luke got to ride many of them with them! 

And after a full day of driving to Minnesota and riding rides we went and had dinner at Maenads Restaurant topped off with their carrot cake dessert.  

Christmas in Minnesota

We got to celebrate Christmas in Minnesota with Grandma Ludemann, Grandpa Ludemann, Aunt Amber, Uncle Brendan, Counsins Hayden & Abby, Great Grandma Bea, and Great Aunt Colette.

You would be impressed to hear all that we accomplished: A day at the Mall of America complete with a trip to the underwater aquarium, ridign rides at the nikelodeon land, and lunch at Crave, dinner for 8 adults, and 5 kids 3 and under ... at a nice restaurant ... made possible by a private room, several games of Zioncheck (one even by candle light - keep reading to find out why), watching snow flurries, going on a cold walk, watching neighbors ice skate, having a delicious Christmas meal after an hour long power outage right before dinner time, a few naps, opening a lot of presents, and getting to enjoy a lot of great company.

Here are some photo highlights:

The AQUARIUM

No Blog post is complete without a picture of Brooks in the stroller.

The RIDES

Back at MY PARENTS HOUSE

Opening PRESENTS

Luke made the paper airplanes and all the boys flew them!

The boys love reading and singing Christmas songs, so this book with Christmas Song lyrics in it was quiet a hit. We sang, 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas," multiple times.