Days 5 and 6

Day five of our vacation was another hot and humid day. This time we decided to spend the day at Lake Elmo. We even grilled lunch there! A fun time was had by most. I started out with a headache in the morning that turned into a nasty migraine. We were at the lake for about four hours before we packed up - for me to nap and for the rest of the crew to see Cars 2. I took a much needed nap for my headache and everyone else was in the comfort of a/c at the movies.

Day six took us to Ikea. John and Georgia had never been and wanted to see it. We ate in the cafeteria and then cruised around the store for an hour or so. Then we went across the street to the Mall of America to go to the aquarium.
Here are my lovely people when we first arrived.

Jared, Gemma and Sophia checking out some water creature.
Here is a photo of it - I think it's a sea anemone.

Starfish

David and the kids.
After we looked at the different tanks and pools, it was time to start our tour. To keep the kids interested, they each had these passports that had questions to answer. They had a lot of fun racing the the questions first.
Gemma and a turtle.
Here we are after the aquarium. Gemma is wearing the crown she earned for completing her passport. Spencer and Gianna each had one too, but just weren't interested in wearing them. As you can tell from the photo, Gianna wasn't interested in taking the photo!

After the aquarium it was off to dinner at one of our favorite pizza places. I then dropped Gianna off with Bamma and the rest of us headed to Midway Stadium to watch the St. Paul Saints. It was military appreciation night and we had free tickets - the best kind of family entertainment!
Shortly after the game started the weather took a turn for the worse. Luckily we were close to a tent and were able to seek cover during the rain. However, it wasn't just rain - it was a severe thunderstorm. The tornado sirens even went off during this time.....not a very fun moment.
Luckily for us, we only experienced the torrential down pour. Which was followed by this beautiful rainbow I tried to capture. You can see it right above the red truck in this photo.
When the rain let up, the game was suspended so they could take care of the field. In the mean time our van was parked right next to the stadium, so we waited until we were given the all clear. Here are some photos of us killing time.


Finally around 9:15 (the game started at 7pm) we went back to the field to await fireworks. (Fireworks were scheduled for after the game, but they decided to do them before the game, just in case it started to rain again.) I had to leave at 9:45 to get Gianna from mom's and home to bed. But the rest of the crew stayed until 11pm and had a blast! It was a very fun, busy and exciting day!