How is it 2025 already?!? It hardly seems possible that we’re at the quarter mark for this century. We’ve had a rather German celebration for the last two days, starting with fondue for dinner yesterday.
And of course we had our traditional hot chocolate bar for dessert…I was very excited about the addition of hot cocoa and marshmallow Hostess Donettes this year!
We watched Apollo 13 and Ocean’s 11, and I made it to midnight (but just barely) to ring in the new year in Animal Crossing.
This morning we were at the Lego store before they opened so we could look for a few new sets…the line was incredible, but we still managed to find everything we were looking for!
We did some shopping at Target and the Asian store and stopped for boba at what I think was a place we hadn’t tried before:
And we had another German meal for dinner:
Plus Black Forest cake for dessert:
Not a bad way to say “goodbye” to one year and “hello” to another…Guten Rutsch!
We actually managed to sleep in a bit on the second day of our trip, which is pretty much unheard of for us…but that just meant we were well-rested for our visit to the Mall of America!
My first priority was getting Caribou Coffee…I was not disappointed!
A big highlight of our trip to the mall was visiting the Lego Store:
We even got to see a “Space Brick,” built by the ESA from a meteorite:
The m&m’s store was also really cool…it ended up being one of my favorite stops in the mall!
There’s a whole Nickelodeon theme park in the center of the mall:
I think you can find a Dole Whip just about anywhere these days!
It was just so much fun to walk around a thriving retail space!
Before we left, we stopped for boba:
Five+ hours later, we finally made our way back to the car, and decided since the rain had held off, we would go visit the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
I loved the sculptures and the setting with views of the skyline in the distance!
Up next: A cathedral, a basilica, and a bunch more fun!
We saved Disneyland for our second (and final) theme park…seeing the train station for the first time was just as much of a thrill as it was at Disney World!
We got to watch the welcome show that is held on the steps leading up to the station when the park opens. The characters (minus Donald and Daisy, sadly), were all were their beautiful Disney 100 costumes!
We decided to take care of two things at once, and rode the Disneyland Railroad (something I really wanted to do since its Disney World counterpart was closed last summer) to the back of the park (where we wanted to get coffee).
What I didn’t realize is that station was practically on top of “It’s a Small World!” So we rode that first thing, and I loved it (of course)!
We then made our way to the Alice in Wonderland area, where not only do they have the teacups (a different experience because in California, they’re fully out in the open), but a second Alice-themed ride as well. And we ran into Alice herself, plus, the Mad Hatter!
We also visited New Orleans, home of the Haunted Mansion and beignets, and also Princess Tiana!
We wanted to make sure we saw the Sword in the Stone and the Wishing Well, since we missed both of those things at Disney World. Sadly, none of us was worthy to remove the sword, but we did all get to make a wish!
We were lucky that the “Star Wars Month” events were still going on while we were, and Turkey and Bunny got to ride “Hyperspace Mountain.” While they did that, I walked around and took some pictures of the castle (and let a Disney photographer take a photo of me!). Not as grand as the Cinderella Castle, but still lovely!
We walked back to the castle when they were done, and I found someone to take our picture:
The Disney photographers also got some nice pictures of the three of us:
And then we headed over to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. I’m pretty sure there are some minor differences, but it felt pretty much the same as the Disney World version! We got to have ronto wraps for lunch, and do some shopping and sightseeing.
One of the things Turkey and Bunny were most looking forward to, though, was having another lightsaber building experience at Savi’s Workshop (especially since they updated the parts since last summer). It was pretty cool to just get to be an observer this time, and watch other people do the work!
We didn’t see the Mandalorian and The Child, but we did get to meet Boba Fett!
We didn’t get to go on Rise of the Resistance because it was either shut down or the line was two hours long or it closed early (that was probably the biggest regret of the whole trip), but we did go on Smuggler’s Run…I got to blow things up!
After that, we walked through Downtown Disney on our way to dinner. Of course we had to stop at the Lego Store and admire their creations:
I really like this beautiful floral display:
And then we went to the Disneyland hotel to have dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen…it was so much fun! (Full details to come…)
After our meal, we hopped on the monorail to get back to the park:
We rode Star Tours (always a fun experience), and then went in search of Dole Whips:
We were barely able to find a place to view the fireworks…the crowd was massive!
The park is open for a couple of hours after the fireworks, so we had time for a few more things. We were three minutes late for Rise of the Resistance, so we headed toward Runaway Railway, instead. I love how the line is set up like a museum dedicated to Mickey Mouse!
After that, Turkey and Bunny decided to ride the Matterhorn while I took care of what was left of our shopping, and took some more pictures:
We rode the teacups one more time, and even managed to get on Dumbo the Flying Elephant.
We shut the park down (which I would somewhat regret the next day), and didn’t get back to our hotel until about 12:30. It was really hard to get to sleep after all that excitement and knowing we had a full day of travel ahead of us!
The theme for the tenth day of our trip was shopping. Since we were staying at a Universal property, we decided to take the bus to the Universal CityWalk, where we picked up a few wands we regretted not buying at our day at the theme park a few years ago, and visited the iconic symbol of Universal Studios:
We didn’t spend too much time there, though, because our main destination for the day was Disney Springs, which is a huge outdoor mall that I think is supposed to make you think of Rodeo Drive:
I’m not sure what we were looking for exactly, but we did find an enormous Disney store and a huge Lego Store, both places that gave us the opportunity to buy a few more souvenirs.
There were lots of other cool shops, too, including Cherry Tree Lane, where I assumed I’d find a dress I’d want to buy (I didn’t), and where I didn’t expect to find Orange Bird!
There was also a pin trading store with some familiar faces:
We stopped to try the poutine at The Daily Poutine:
There were displays for Pride Month:
It was a fun place to visit!
We continued the theme of shopping at Publix to stock up on a few additional food supplies since we were running low…I really like that grocery store chain!
When we got back to the hotel, we headed to the Bayliner Diner to use our complimentary dinner tickets.
I had the Cabana Bay burger, which, if it hadn’t been so well done, would have been possibly the best burger I’ve ever had. Even being so well done, it was delicious, and that’s high praise coming from me, the person who likes her burger to arrive at the table still moo-ing!
Everyone else enjoyed their meals, too…Ladybug’s tuna looked especially amazing!
The second day of our trip was the one I was most looking forward to, because after three long years, we were finally going to go back to Chicago! The weather forecast wasn’t promising, but in the end, although it was quite cool, the rain lifted, and that was good enough for us. We got to leave from a new-to-us Metra station (Palatine), so we saw a bunch of different suburbs on our way downtown.
The sights that greeted us were just like I remembered:
It was so good to be back!
Bunny took some time to feed some pigeons:
And one even photobombed her!
Mostly, we just walked around and took it all in. It was so much fun to see all of our favorite places (and some new ones), and we even stopped to listen to a street musician (who was very talented!) for a bit. The only thing we didn’t get to do that I would have liked was see Buckingham Fountain and Lake Michigan, but it was very windy, and that was in the opposite direction of the other stuff we had planned, so I settled on seeing a sliver of my lake from a distance.
We walked up the Magnificent Mile to Water Tower Place, something new for us. We stopped in to see the big American Girl store and the Lego Store (two of our favorite places):
We also spent some time in Jane Byrn Park by the historic Water Tower:
After that, we made our way to the Plaza of the Americas so we could visit the “Wings of Mexico” art installation, which is “a symbol of the immigrant journey and celebrates Chicago as a sanctuary city.” Moose didn’t care to have his picture taken, but us gals couldn’t resist!
No visit to Chicago would be complete without a stop at the former Marshall Field’s on State Street to buy a box of Frango Mints!
And then we made our way back to the train and said goodbye to my favorite city. The last time I said goodbye, I assumed I’d be back “soon.” Three years later, and without Turkey joining us because he was working Combo Breaker the whole day, I finally made it back. I really hated to leave, and I’ll never take it for granted again.
Back at the hotel, Combo Breaker had begun, so we spent some time on the floor, taking in all those sights, too.
We also enjoyed playing some of the arcade games they had set up, including Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Donkey Kong.
We couldn’t resist another walk outside, where the evening light was perfect. Also, we enjoyed watching muskrats swim in the hotel ponds…who knew?!?
We also found time for one more evening swim…it wasn’t quite the same as swimming under the stars at Pheasant Run’s outdoor pool, but it was still fun!
Yet another super busy day for Chickadee! I don’t know how she isn’t exhausted at the end of every day…I sure am!
She loves looking at the altar at Hope Lutheran in St. Louis, where her siblings are attending choir camp. Like me, she especially likes the imagery of the pelican on the front. While she was looking today, she knelt down, folded her hands, and started praying. My mommy heart nearly burst at that!
Did you know that Wehrenberg Theatres has dollar movies on Thursdays? I didn’t before yesterday, but I sure am glad I checked on a whim. Chickadee and I went to see one of her favorite movies, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, for literally change I had in the car! Plus, air conditioning!
We also stopped at the Lego Store. I wanted to drool over the new Big Ben set (so gorgeous…I can’t wait to buy it!), and Chickadee wanted to play at the Lego and Duplo table…because we don’t have enough Lego and Duplo bricks at home, right?
After our day out in the heat at the zoo yesterday, it was nice to find some fun things to do indoors, where we could also enjoy the cool air!
In February, we celebrated our 100th day of school. I made a big deal out of it, as I always do for a student (this time, Ladybug), in kindergarten. Chickadee celebrated one of her last remaining first holidays…Valentine’s Day. We had a tea party to celebrate. How I love all of my valentines! Our school received a wonderful gift of a microscope, and we had a great time playing with it. I got hooked on Downton Abbey, and the children got hooked on Jem. Chickadee entertained all of us by learning to say “uh-oh,” as well as dropping things intentionally so she could try her new word out!
In May, Ladybug turned six, although we had to wait for her big birthday celebration, because Ryan was gone on one of his many business trips (almost two months’ worth!) on her actual birthday. Our Lego store celebrated its grand opening, and we stood in line to be a part of it. It was a lot of fun, and the wait was worth it…unfortunately, it didn’t take the children too long to put all of their sets together! As we do every year, we went to Art on the Square, and this time, bought a print of our town’s beautiful fountain from our favorite artist. I took the big girls strawberry picking for the first time. We had our last day of school for the 2012-13 school year. We used some of the strawberries we picked for our Pentecost tea party. Memorial Day weekend, we made the trip to Kansas City to see the Cardinals play the Royals. Ryan and I started building the Lego Tower Bridge. We finished making a full set of church year banners for our school room.
December was, as it is every year, crazy. Due to an illness that we couldn’t shake for several weeks, we had to cross a few things off of my to-do list, and Christmas school fell a bit flat. We did get around to all of the important stuff, though, even if it didn’t all quite happen as planned (our Christmas baking this year, for example, got spread out over several weeks, and was still happening after Christmas was over!). Other than the illness, there was one low point in December…Turkey had to have some baby teeth pulled. He was very brave, though, and it was soon forgotten. We went to Christmas on the Hill…it was very cold! That meant that we didn’t walk around as much as usual, but we still saw La Befana, looked at the nativity scenes, and ate salamites! For the first time, we got to walk the Anheuser-Busch brewery at nighttime, and see all of their beautiful Christmas lights. We celebrated Santa Lucia Day, with Bunny playing the title role, and handing out Lussekattes for breakfast. Even though we had looked at Belleville’s gingerbread houses at night after the tree lighting, we went back to see them a little better in the daylight. Of course, we made it to our favorite event, St. Charles Christmas Traditions. We all fell in love with this sweet video of Sweden’s adorable Princess Estelle baking cookies, and Ryan even bought Chickadee her own tiny rolling-pin just like the Princess. To kick off his Christmas vacation, Ryan played video games for 25 hours straight (with some help from the children), to raise money for the children’s hospitals in St. Louis. The children worked hard to prepare for their roles in the Sunday School Christmas program. Ladybug lost a tooth right before we left for church on Christmas Eve! We had a very merry Christmas. For the first time ever, each member of our family received a Lego set (well, Chickadee’s was a Duplo set, but it counts!), but mine was the best…the now-retired Lego Winter Village Cottage. Now I don’t have to worry about what we’ll build the day after Thanksgiving next year! We continued our celebration the day after Christmas, when I made a pork crown roast for the first time for our fancy Christmas dinner. Ryan’s mom and I went on the “Beermaster Tour” at Anheuser-Busch…it was both fun and informative!
Writing this up is always a huge undertaking, but I love the chance to look back at all of the fun things we’ve done over the last year, and wonder what the next year has in store for us! It has been a busy, fun, crazy year, and I am so Thankful for all of the moments with which God has blessed us. I pray that He also blesses your days with joyful, noisy moments!
Today was day two of the Lego Store Grand Opening celebration at West County Center in Des Peres, MO. If you’ve ever wondered what such an event is like, you’re in luck, because I took lots of pictures! It was quite an experience!
We got there shortly before the Lego Store was scheduled to open at 10, and the line was already incredibly long. I was worried that we’d be waiting for two-plus hours, and even briefly considered leaving, but in the end the wait was really just over an hour. No small feat with five children, but they were all extraordinarily patient, and Grandma came along to help out. Here’s part two of the line we waited in (part one, which was behind us, was about as long, but much more twisty):
Part three of the line was in the mall itself…it was a relief to get out of that darkish, stuffy corridor!
Part four of the line was immediately outside the store, and it was the fun part of the line. The employees were having a good time keeping the spirits of the crowd up, and being that close to the store made you feel like your wait was almost over…and really, it was! I was impressed with how efficiently they kept things moving.
The children each had a “Lego Store allowance” that they received, plus a little extra money from Grandpa. They had a fun time choosing what they were going to buy. We entered another line to check out, and it, too, moved pretty quickly.
We were lucky to be among the first 300 customers (which surprised me, based on the length of the line), and received this free limited-edition Lego Store set, as well. That one is for me!
After making our purchases, we went down to the other end of the mall for the building event.
Our store was building an eight-foot high Incredible Hulk (they have different builds at different stores)!
It was cool how they were handling the building…there were tables set up with bins of Lego bricks, and cards showing how to make a large brick. The instructions were simple enough for even small children to participate.
The children had fun making their bricks, which were later placed on The Hulk.
After we finished there, we went back to the store (but not the line, thankfully!), so the children could get certificates showing they participated.
We had to walk past the building event again on the way out of the mall. I thought we were just going to leave, but the Master Builder was doing some giveaways, so we stood around a bit, to see what that was all about.
It’s a good thing we stayed, because Bunny answered one of the questions correctly, and won a Lego Friends set! It was something she had been wanting, but didn’t have enough money for, because it cost $40! She was so surprised that she won, she could hardly tell the Master Builder her name!
When we got home, we checked out our haul (even with all this stuff, we managed to stay within our budget!):
And then the children immediately got to work on their new sets.
It was a long, exhausting morning, but it was also more fun than I had imagined. The children are looking forward to going back next May for the one-year anniversary celebration!
