.....That Actually Worked Out! Well, for the Most Part.

This post is Part 2 about our trip to Minnesota, well Nebraska, then Minnesota, then Nebraska again.

Anyway, Friday morning we hit up the Mall of America.  Because my parents literally live 5 minutes from there and it's basically a kid and woman's dream place. Sorry, Brian. Oh did I mention that our car battery also died? Because it did. Fun stuff.  Anyway, back to the Mall of America. We rode some rides, 

Layla's 2 and a half-ness came out full force and everything was just so traumatic and dramatic. 

We rode a bunch of rides, ate lunch, got our fill of Caribou Coffee and headed home for naps.

Where Layla "accidentally" locked herself in her room. This child, I tell you. I am frightened for the teenage years. After a good 20 minutes of "JUST MOVE THE LOCK, LAYLA!" with no success, Brian resorted to climbing out the window. 

See the things your dad does for you, Layla?! I was terrified, yet still taking pictures. Because if you don't take pictures, does it really happen? He was able to see in the window and tell Layla exactly how to move the lock and finally we were in!

"Whaaat? I wasn't doing anything!"

After naptime we met up with some friends and hit up the new outlet mall literally 2 minutes from my parent's house. It's dangerous for our wallet going home now between the awesome outlet mall and the Mall of America plus Ikea is basically attached too.  After that we went out for a drink and then headed back to my parent's house.

Where there was a surprise party waiting for me. WHAT?! I was pretty surprised and touched that everyone came over to celebrate with me. Sneaky people, they are! Remember how I said I didn't enjoy surprises? Well being surprised 2 weeks in a row was alright. Yeah, maybe I liked it.

After the party we went out for a little while and let's just say we celebrated enough for all of the 29 year olds out there. The next morning was rough.

But it was wedding time! We did our best to shower and look halfways decent.

It's a shame they were so sad to see us go.

The wedding was beautiful.

I am so, so glad that my old college roomie found her forever love.

Oh that's just Brian doing the dougie.

University of Minnesota roomies plus Laura, our adopted roomie!  And the flash was incredibly bright.  

We spent another late night out and then headed back to my parent's house. The next morning we packed up really quickly to get back on the road to Nebraska. Our time in Minnesota went by so, so fast.

We made it back to Omaha in about 6 hours and went to our friend's new home for a bbq with all of our friends there.

Layla enjoying a snack with one of her old friends. 

I didn't get a picture of the whole group but it was so amazing to see them all again. Made me miss living there so much because of their amazing friendships and the friendships our kids have. Brady kept saying, "My friends!! I'm so happy I get to see my friends!" 

Some of my bestest girlfriends from Omaha. Sure do miss them. A whole lot.

The next morning we had planned to go to our favorite pumpkin patch but it was raining cats and dogs so we hit up our favorite Nebraska fast food place, Runza.

(That's her "thumbs up")

Then we headed to our other friends house for a playdate, the ones we met at the trains on the way there.  I sadly didn't take any pictures but the kids had a great time playing together again.

After that I dropped Brian and the kids off at another friends house to play while I hit the road so I would get home at a semi-decent time.

The kids were super glad to be traveling again.

"Thanks Mom for organizing all of this."

To add to the fun their flight was delayed.

Finally they were on the plane and Layla slept the entire flight for Brian, luckily and Brady was a champ.

I drove the 9 hours back through western Nebraska and eastern Colorado (got to be one of the most boring drives, ever!) and got home around 10:00 that night. 

And awoke to this beautiful view. I miss everyone in Minnesota and Nebraska so, so much but it was good to be back.

It was a great trip overall but I have definitely learned a thing or 2 and will leave you with a piece of advice: CHECK AND RE-CHECK YOUR FLIGHTS BEFORE YOU BOOK!