We got back from Florida exactly one week ago, plus a few hours (3:30 a.m.) and now I finally feel caught up enough to start blogging about our trip. Between needing to buy my kids winter gear (I was TOTALLY not prepared for winter when we left for Florida…I was thinking about shorts and t-shirts, not ski pants and mittens), buying groceries and the last of the Christmas gifts (besides stocking stuffers and possibly one more gift for Blake, I got everything else done) and catching up on housework, I had a very busy week. Switching from +30 to –10 and having to switch into Christmas mode was a transition, but I think I’m most of the way there now. Anyway, onto the trip!
We surprised the kids and only told them the morning that we left, which was Blake’s 6th birthday on November 6. I am uploading the video to YouTube while I’m typing this, so it will hopefully be on Facebook soon.
In anticipation of our 7-hour drive to Minneapolis, which is where we flew out of, I bought each of the kids big sticker books. Blake’s and Haley’s had 1000 stickers…Blake’s was a Lego Super Heroes book and Haley’s was Frozen. Kiera’s was a Sticker Dolly Dressing book, which are her favorite (found on amazon.ca). Those are up there with the best purchases I have ever made as it literally kept them busy for at least 4-5 hours!
We stopped in Fargo for lunch at Granite City and I did some quick power shopping at Gordman’s (I found a sweater, scarf and purse in about half an hour) while Jared took the kids to go find a coffee for himself. I also picked a jumbo bag of coconut flour and a huge jar of coconut oil from Sam’s Club and then we continued on our way.
As some of you may remember, we saw the world’s biggest buffalo and the world’s biggest holstein on our road trip to Washington state 3 years ago. I continued my research and found out that there were a couple of “world’s biggest things” on our way to Minneapolis. Jared kindly pulled over so that I could snap a picture of the world’s biggest prairie chicken in Rothsay, Minnesota.
We also stopped in Fergus Falls, which ended up being at least a 20-minute detour, to see the world’s biggest sea otter! I was so happy that I could add these to my list!
God painted some beautiful colors in the sky
Our plan was to end off our long day of driving with supper at my all-time favorite restaurant: Cheesecake Factory! We got there around 7:00 p.m. and the restaurant was packed. When we found out it was going to be a 50-minute wait, I almost cried. We were so tired and hungry, so we scrapped that plan and took a walk in the mall to find Ruby Tuesday’s.
The mall had nice Christmas decorations
We spent the night in Minneapolis and then took a drive the next morning to see another “world’s biggest.”
I was impressed by the tall buildings, as we don’t have a lot of those around here.
They still had beautiful fall colors, where as our trees were mostly bare when we left.
Here it is: the world’s largest spoon and cherry outside the Walker Art Centre! You can see how tiny Haley is beside it. I really appreciated the gorgeous trees in the background as well!
A neat house just down the street from it.
I like the tall steeple with the cross on top.
Our plan was to also go to the Mall of America, but by the time we would have found parking and made it inside, we would have had less than half an hour, which wasn’t long enough, so we kept going and decided to just get to the airport early and have lunch there before taking off.
Their first time on a moving sidewalk
Waiting for our plane to arrive…
…and there it is!
Waiting to take off at 2:00…it was Blake and Haley’s first time flying and it was Kiera’s first birthday the last time she flew on a big airplane, so it was exciting for her, too!
Reading the drink menu
Up, up and away!
Good-bye Minneapolis!
The clouds looked cool!
I don’t know what big river that is (it’s possibly the Mississippi) but I thought it was really neat to see that from the air!
The really nice lady who sat beside Blake gave him a Ninja headband that she had been given at the Mall of America.
Hello Chicago! You can see Lake Michigan off in the distance which again, I thought was really cool!
It’s not often I get to see an aerial view of a train yard!
It was only a 1-hour flight to Chicago, a 1.5-hour layover (which was just enough time to eat supper) and then a 2-hour flight to Orlando. Although I was starting to feel sick by the time we arrived in Orlando, I appreciated this view in the airport!
For some reason, we missed our hotel shuttle twice even though we were at the right stop outside the airport, so we ended up waiting an hour and half before we were finally brought to our hotel. I waited inside the airport with a fever and a sore throat while the kids ran around in a huge open, deserted area and played with a wheelchair. I had a fever all night and was concerned I had strep throat, but after taking an Advil Cold & Sinus, the fever didn’t come back and my sore throat got better after 2 days! Praise God! That ends days 1 + 2!
