Mini-sot-ahh

Last week we ventured off to the land of 10,000 lakes for Mike's sister's wedding!

There was so much to see and lots and lots of time planned with family.

The day after we arrived, we headed to the Mall of America to see Legoland and Nickelodeon Universe, formerly Camp Snoopy.

All those legoes were pretty cool.

We had to get lunch and the food court is about 3 or 4 times as big as the ones at the malls here-REALLY!

Emma and Ethan got McDonalds and Mike and I got Panda Express....mmmmmmm!

Emma really liked her juice

We ate right in front of one of the lego dudes at Legoland-a big Transformer. Anyone who knows Ethan knows what a huge Transformer fan he is so I just had to get a picture of him in front of it.
After lunch we went to ride some rides at Nickelodeon Universe. It's an amusement park in the mall-so cool.
Here's Ethan on his favorite ride, Swiper's Sweeper

He also liked the bumper cars

he had to ride with Mike because he's not tall enought-yet, maybe next year!

He really liked the Wonder Pet's Flyboat too.

I went on it with him the first time, but the second time, we only had one ticket left so he got to go with other kids.

(it's similar to the Big Shot in Las Vegas, only not as high and not on top of a building)

That night we went on a double date with Mike's sister and her hubby, we'd never met him before then and wanted to get to know him.

We found mustaches in the car, there is a story but I won't get into that here, so Mike tried the Mario one on.

Fitting don't you think? Matches his eyebrows!

I love how much Mike makes me laugh!

The wedding and the reception

The wedding was Friday afternoon. It rained but I don't think the bride and groom minded.

The man I married

The happy couple
Another happy couple

Saturday afternoon was the reception. The wedding colors were black and white with an accent of orange.

My cute kids in their wedding clothes.

At the wedding dinner Friday night, Mike put a whoopie cushion under the bride's chair (his sister). It was a joke we played right back on him. We evenentually gave them the whoopie cushion but not until after Emma had a lot of fun with it.

She really enjoyed pushing on it and sitting on it, though she got a better result from it by pushing on it like she is in this picture. She even took a jump to land on it, completely missing it, but laughing about it. I don't know what was funnier, the sound the whoopie cusion made or how much she laughed at it and enjoyed it!

Ethan LOVED the chocolate fountain.

(The reception was going to be at a park but it was rained out. But since it was planned at the park, the kids all got orange shirts with Team Herrington and Team Cottle (the groom's family) on them so the kids could run and play and not mess up thier good clothes, hence the t-shirts and jeans my kids are wearing!)

Como Zoo

Our last full day in Minnesota, we went to the Como Zoo! It was fun and free and even more fun because it was free!

We saw these dudes who were 10 days old at the time.

They remind me of Master Shifu from Kung Fu Panda.

Mike and the kids posing by the giraffes
Just Emma

Just Ethan

Ethan and his cousin, Daniel

Just Emma

Provo half marathon

Mike ran the Provo half marathon again this year. Last year it was so cold and snowy. This year it was GREAT weather.

The kids and I went down to watch him cross the finish line.

Emma liked cheering the runners on

My attempt at taking a picture of all 3 of us
A better attempt, but no Emma, she ran off, but not too far...

At the fininsh line

Mike wasn't feeling completely himself, but he did beat his time from last year by 5 minutes, and when you run 13.1 miles, I say that's a pretty good result!!

Congratulations Mike!!

Emma was so tired she tried to fall asleep in the car on the ride home.

I guess the sun was in her eyes!

Cleaning up

Ethan has been helping clean up around the house more and more lately. Since he was about 2 he has been clearing his dirty dishes and taking them to the sink after eating. The last year or so I've asked him to load them in the dishwasher, unless it's got melted cheese on it, then it needs to be scrubbed off, especially if I'm not starting the dishwasher right away.

Here he is taking part in cleaning up after a yummy breakfast of donuts Saturday morning.

Emma has been pictching in too!
she got to sweep up all the crumbs from the donuts.
I guess I need to get her a shorter broom, it may make the task easier!