A Vacation

The Taylor's took a little vacation!

Before the vacation started, we headed up to Clarion late Saturday afternoon to spend some time with my family.  My niece, Hope, got confirmed at church on Sunday and I really wanted to be there.  It was very nice being there for her... and also spending some fun time with the kiddos and enjoying the nice weather on Sunday.

From there, Sunday afternoon, we headed up to Minnesota.  Ryan had a seminar/class to go to for work on Tuesday.  So Monday we filled the day with FUN.  But before Monday, we hit the nice pool at the hotel Sunday night and had a quick dinner...  Kayson loved the hotel room, which was fun.  

Monday morning we got up and headed to the Minnesota Zoo.  What a great zoo... and an even more perfect day.  The weather was awesome, ideal for being outside for 3 or 4 hours.  We just had a great time... taking our time walking around and seeing all the fun animals.  Kayson loved it.  From there, we pushed it and decided not to go back to the hotel, so we went straight to the Mall of America.  K fell asleep on the way to the MOA, and we thought he would fall back to sleep once in the stroller - wrong - but that's ok... he did pretty good.  We made it a quick trip - hitting the Lego Land area and just walking around 2 levels of the Mall.  2 hours later, we were all spent and ready to put our feet up!  Monday night we just hung out at the hotel, had dinner and played...  

Today Ryan had his class, so Kayson and I hit the pool first thing (to get that out of the way!), then we played as much as we could in the hotel room before check out time.  We packed up (that was a chore for just me!), but it worked out well...  Kayson and I got lunch and sat outside at a picnic table, and also hit a nearby park so K could play outside even more.  Ryan got out of his class mid-afternoon, and we headed back home.  LONG day, long trip home, but we are here and I'm glad to be home.  Kayson was such a good boy...  and literally talks ALL THE TIME!  ha.  It's pretty comical when we really think about it!  Overall, he was great - of course, we had our moments, but the worst moments happened when we were on our way home tonight...  just him being over tired and not really wanting to sit in a car for 3 plus hours...  but after awhile, he gave in and took a nap, then a movie was watched and we made it home.  

It was great to get away...  I am so glad Ryan thought of including us for this (typically it would have just been a quick trip for him for the class), but it was nice for our little family to do this.  I'm glad it worked out and we had such a nice time.  

Now on to some of the negatives ---- hotel rooms.  We've already said, we've got to bring our own pillows!!  ha.  Hotel pillows are terrible...  I mean, it's fluff!  Both Ryan and I need firmer pillows...  I just laughed everytime I laid down!  ha.  Also, the hotel towels - could they be more ROUGH!??!  ha.  And the toilet paper - rough.  Too funny!!  I also hate their bar soap for your hands...  aaaa - next time, I'll bring my nice Bath & Body foam soap!!  These are some of the reasons why it's nice to be home...  ;)  

On to pictures - I've got a TON!  Enjoy!

Eating Powdered Donuts.  Breakfast of Champions!

Monkeys are behind us!  They were hilarious... jumping around and playing!

Feeding the Goats at "The Farm" at the Zoo.

This BIG guy was just sitting like this the whole time we watched the other little prairie dogs play.  Too funny!

We got to see how the cows were milked at "The Farm" at the zoo.  It was amazing!

These Grizzly Bears were playing in the water!  It was awesome. 

At Lego Land with 'Woody'

Kayson and Daddy having some fun!

And a football tattoo to top off the trip!

One of my pretty nieces, Hope.

The Hardy grand kids