Patience pays off!

My brother and sister-in-law blessed our family with 3 unlimited ride wristbands for the Mall of America. The kids were so excited and have been working very hard to earn beads (see previous posts) to earn a fun family activity. Last Saturday, Brenton and I were so excited that he was off on a weekend for the first time in a year, that we wanted to take the kids to use their wrist bands. We had a lapse of judgement on going to the MOA on a Saturday in the cold MN winter. Once we were there and realized that all of MN was thinking that same thing that day, we decided that is wasn't a good choice to waste the very valuable wristbands on a day that they wouldn't get to experience all the rides. Here is a picture from that Saturday as our children received a lesson on disappointment....

So we made a deal that we would take them out of school one day this week and have a special family day. We knew there would be no one at the mall in the middle of the week and Brenton had a day off , so they went from above to this...

We had a the best day!!! There was nothing I would have changed, except Andrew's height, but that's uncontrollable. We ran from ride to ride getting right on and sometimes being the only ones on the long roller coaster. There was even a couple times that we didn't get off the ride, we just stayed on for round 2 and 3. The kids went on the bumper cars at least 5 times in row. There was NO surprise by us that Isabelle LOVED the roller coasters and Jacob did not. Jake loved the Backyardigans Swings- he said he felt like he was flying. Andrew loved the train and race cars.

It really was the best day of 2010 as a family so far! THANK YOU Jason and Janelle for the huge blessing and help to create memories we will all carry forever.