Life as a Yowler

We can’t come to Minneapolis and not go to the Mall of America. At least I thought so, prior to today. We have always visited the mall during the week before. Usually we come toddler Tuesdays for that amusement park discount wristband.  We only had Saturday available this time to go. As soon as we pulled in and had to drive all the way up to the 6th floor of the parking garage, I knew the Gascho in me was going to suffer all day. Joah told me “mom, it’s not like you have to deal with death or anything difficult. These are just people. People aren’t bad.” Thank you my six year old, for your wisdom.

Before heading to the Mall, Brandon did his store trainings. That left me in charge of the kids. Breakfast was fun. There is some woman’s conference going on in the area, and this hotel is swamped. There was this sweet lady who observed me trying to take all four through the breakfast line. I was holding Isla because it’s easier than chasing her. She came over and said “I am a kindergarten teacher and am  used to lots of children. Let me help you.” Now I’m not one of those people who won’t accept help. She was amazing and I almost…..almost hugged her, but I didn’t want to appear socially awkward. I mean more awkward than we already were.

I am at it again. Here is today’s color coordinating suits. They are all going to love me one day for always matching them. I took the kids for a swim after we ate.

The pool was hopping during our breakfast, so I chose to not get my swimsuit on and sit out with the baby. As soon as we got ready and to the pool, it was empty of course.  I didn’t want to go back to the room and get myself changed. Too much of a haul with so many of us. I put a puddle jumper on Caed and let the older two work on their swimming skills. They did great.

We ate through four boxes of berries when we were done swimming.

Now back to this Mall ordeal…..we got there to realize every human in town was there for the PJ masks meet and greet. Also, the American Girl store is closing in just a couple days. This is the last saturday it was open. I can’t even tell you all the little girls I saw with dolls. It really made me evaluate why the heck we were here again? Then I reminded myself of the wisdom of Joah. It’s not like anyone died. It’s just people….lots of people.

We walked around the American a girl store. They were totally picked over. Most everything was 25% off. I didn’t think this was too huge of a savings, but I don’t think their products hardly ever go on sale. So people were buying a lot.

We took a look around the amusement park. We’ve never seen it so busy. We decided not to buy the kids wristbands. We would spend the entire afternoon waiting in lines and riding about two rides total. Brielle and Caed really wanted to check out Adventure Bay, a Paw Patrol themed play area.

It was really cute, and brand new for us. It had just opened the last time we were here. But then that snow storm hit, and we decided to drive home instead of go back to the Mall. One of my kids’ favorite shows is Paw Patrol. They had a 1/2 hour time slot to play. They could hardly move, because of all the other kids. But they didn’t complain. They loved every minute.

Caed was saying “whenever you’re in trouble just yelp for help.”

Joah thought he was too big to play in adventure bay. He saw the sign of the suggested age of 2-5 years old.  He chose to play a bean bag toss game instead. We let him get two bean bags to toss. He popped a balloon both times. The kid is athletic. He won a prize. It was a tough desicion between a star and a pile of poop stuffed toy. He chose the star.

He didn’t want to walk around any toy stores either. He wanted the sports stores. Joah is quite the shopper. He looks and looks but he’s too cheap to ever buy anything 90% of the time. Today, like usual, he decided to not get a thing. He says he will keep saving for now.

We ate at Bubba Gump. Rainforest Cafe had a 2.5 hour wait. Bubba Gunp had a  one hour wait. They made a mistake though and called us back after five minutes. It was the most blessed mistake in the world. I could hear them talking behind the scenes, and they definitely didn’t mean to seat us so quickly. I’m sorry to everyone else who had to wait. But I definitely wasn’t enough of a good person to not accept.

We left the mall after our meal. We had had our fill. The kids decided they were shopped out. They wanted to come back to our hotel and swim again. It gave me an opportunity to do some laundry. I love when hotels offer guest laundry. Brandon swam with the kids while I washed some clothes. Now for the rest of the night, we’re relazig and getting these kids to bed early.