minneapolis vacation - day three

monday brought our only pre-arranged plans for the trip - a twins baseball game. the game didn't start until 1 so we had the morning to fill. we headed down nicollet mall again to have breakfast at panera and then walked the opposite direction down the mall from the mississippi river towards loring park and the minneapolis sculpture garden.

it was a great morning for a walk (although we were all sore from all the walking) and the parks were lovely. i was hoping that the parks would allow mason to wear himself out before we had to contain him on our laps at the game. we walked all the way to the sculptural gardens first to check things out and then went back to loring park so that the kids could play on the playground. the playgrounds were in sand and we weren't really keen on them getting too dirty before the game so we didn't stay very long. i think madelyn's favorite part was the pedestrian walkway over the interstate to get between the two parks. she also thought that the ginko tree leaves were pretty neat too (at least i think that is what variety they were).

the parks wore him out alright (and daddy who was on mason patrol for the trip), but just enough for him to fall asleep on our way back to the hotel. we let him sleep for a little while in the room while we switched up our gear for the rainy weather expected while we were at the game. and we were dropping off the stroller so that we wouldn't have to mess with it at the stadium. of course, now matt would have to carry mason all the way to target field. and this meant that mason got to have his first ride on daddy's shoulders!

here are pictures of our adventures to the ball park. you can see madelyn's forehead injury from the day before too. we didn't stay at the game for too long. mason got very squirmy after about two innings and we had gotten there so early that all the food and snacks had been consumed by that time too. we normally walk around the stadium a little while to give the kids some distractions but with the wind and rain it wasn't all that much fun. we watched a little more of the game and then decided to just head back to the hotel.

but now what... it was about 4 and too early to stay in for the night. so we decided to try going to the como park zoo and conservatory again. we were hoping that the rainy weather would lessen the traffic over by the fair and the zoo too. we were right. it was a night a day difference from the day before. we had about an hour and a half before it closed and that was pretty much the perfect amount of time. first we visited their butterfly exhibit. it just so happened that it was the last day of the last year for the exhibit. madelyn was really excited about it and mason really enjoyed walking through too (no strollers were allowed).

the other main draw for the zoo was a baby giraffe that had been born over the summer. it was a great way to end our day. here are some pictures from como.

we ended up driving around for a while before stopping for dinner at applebees. matt and i were talking about how sad it was that we had only eaten at chain restaurants on the trip but with the kids it is just easier stopping places that we know they can eat.

matt suggested that mason should sleep with madelyn monday night and daddy could have the pack-n-play all to himself. poor matt. he spent another (sleepless) night sharing a bed with madelyn. love.