For the second week of our vacation, we met our friends Jason, Jessica, Hayden, and Kaitlyn at their grandparents (Paul & Roxanne) house in Otter Tail, Minnesota. While we were up in that part of the country, we decided to make a few stops along the way. Sorry for the overabundance of pictures, but we did a lot of stuff and took a lot of pictures and I had a hard time deciding which ones to share.
On our way up to the lake in Minnesota, we stopped at The Mall of America for an afternoon. It was very cool, but a bit overwhelming. Our plan was to spend time at the amusement park first, and then spend some time at the stores. But, the girls had so much fun on the rides, that the only stores we made it to were The American Girl Store (of course!) and a christmas shop to buy a Mall of America ornament.
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| The girls loved the swings so much they went on it twice! |
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| They loved being able to ride the log flume by themselves! |
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| Getting ready to blast some ghosts in the Haunted House |
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| Of course, you have to go on the carousel! |
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| Waiting to get on the ferris wheel (Sierra loved seeing Dora everywhere!) |
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| This is The Orange Crush roller coaster. It was another one they loved! I think they went on it 4 times. (Here they are right in the middle in pink and white t-shirts). |
After spending some time in the American Girl Store picking out Mall of America t-shirts for their dolls, we were on our way to Rush Lake to meet up with our friends. We spent 4 days up at the lake and we didn't stop the whole time. We went fishing, boating, jet-skiing, tubing, water skiing, and so much more!
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| Sierra showing off the fish she caught |
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| Avery & Jason fishing off the dock |
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| Hayden & Avery getting ready for a tube ride |
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| Sierra & Daddy having some fun |
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| Kaitlyn & Sierra getting ready for their turn |
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| Avery watching Daddy water skiing |
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| Avery out on the knee board |
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| This is Paul & Roxanne's "shed". In between all of the water sports, the kids had a blast playing in here. There was all kinds of fun toys like bowling, shuffleboard, baseball, a swing set, and sandbox, etc., and here they are playing with cardboard boxes. Go figure! |
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| Avery & Daddy on the jet ski |
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| And Sierra & Daddy too |
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| Daddy & Avery in the paddle boat |
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| And Daddy & Sierra! |
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| On one of our boat rides, Jason stopped and let the kids all take a turn driving the boat. Here's Avery at the wheel |
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| And Sierra with a thumbs up |
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| The kids all played so great together. They even put on some very entertaining shows for us! |
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| Paul is very into fireworks, so one night we did sparklers and set off some fireworks over the lake! |
One afternoon, we took a break from the lake to do a little sightseeing. First stop was Perham, Minnesota for the International Turtle Races. Basically you get a turtle and start in the center circle. The first turtle to make it out of the circle wins. We didn't win but we had fun trying.
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| Here we are banging our buckets on the ground to try to get our turtles to go! |
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| It was a good effort by these little guys! |
Next stop, Frazee, Minnesota to see the world's largest turkey!
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| We are so excited about this turkey! |
Enough sightseeing, time to get back to the lake!
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| The kids even had fun just splashing in the water! |
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| One of the highlights of the week...Avery got up on water skiis!!! It took a lot of attempts but she was determined to do it. I think she stayed up for a good 10 seconds. It was awesome! |
After we left Minnesota, our last stop was the Wisconsin Dells for two days. There are more waterparks there than you can imagine! We decided to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge because we weren't sure how the weather would be and it has both indoor and outdoor water rides. It was a great choice. We had such a great time!!
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| The girls had to get their pictures taken with every little statue. I think this was the cutest one! |
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| The Girls (I swear I didn't plan for all of us to wear pink, it just worked out that way!) |
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| Wiley the Wolf came out and read a bedtime story to all of the kids |
And now off to the waterpark!
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| I'm not sure why, but the girls both loved making their way across these "lilypads". By the end of the day, Avery was running all the way across them! |
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| This is Sierra's first cautious attempt. By the end of the day she was fearless! |
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| Relaxing in the lazy river |
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| Stopping for a cute picture at the top of one of the waterslides |
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| Getting ready to head down |
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| This is Sierra, Daddy & Avery coming down the raceway! |
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| Avery was all smiles on the Tornado! Unfortunately, Sierra wasn't tall enough for this one but the rest of us loved it! We sat in a big tube and it dropped you straight down and into this funnel that you went side to side in all the way down. It was so fun! |
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| This is Avery dropping straight down. I swear she's having a great time! |
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| Sierra getting dumped on by the big bucket! |
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| Sierra is excited for her ride! |
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| One last picture of our great vacation! |
