Junk Bonanza, Famous Dave's, Wild Rumpus & Sebastian Joe's {Fall Adventure 2011}

When it's Fall and temps in your neck of the woods are still hitting the 3 digit mark every couple of days, you need an escape. And escape we did! While Lance went on a work trip to Atlanta, Noonie, the littles, and I headed to Minneapolis!

This makes 2 years in a row - how fun! We were there last Spring so it was neat to experience a bit of Fall this go around. My dear friend Angel met us at the airport - such a sweetheart! Her dear dad went to Heaven this past week. Will you keep her in your prayers? Thank you!

Bright and early on our second day we headed to
Junk Bonanza in Shakopee, MN!Girls ready to shop...Boy already not interested! HA!
{pic borrowed from Angel}There were so many fun booths! Grace loved this one. She found an old rusted flute and, of course, she had to try it out before I could get it out of her hands - yuck!Junk Bonanza with the littles in tow was definitely an adventure. I ended up buying this little wooden clown to help Grace pass the time while Hudson hogged the DVD player.While there we met up with Jenn! So fun to finally meet her in person!We even went back for a couple of hours on Friday and Noonie got to meet Ki Nassauer, Junk Bonanza Queen! Did you know that JB has over 10,000 attendees in their 3-day run and over 125 vendors??! Whew! No wonder we were tired!We ended up with lots of treasures! Sadly, my camera's shutter/mirror messed up on the last day so I'm camera-less for several weeks while it's being repaired. I'll have to borrow my mom's point-n-shoot cam this week and take pics of our finds to share with you. With treasures in tow, we headed to Famous Dave's.Noonie took one bite of the ribs and "mmm...mmm...mmm.mmm.mmm" - declared them the best ribs she'd ever eaten her whole life.With bellies full, we headed to Wild Rumpus in the Linden Hills neighborhood - the cutest little children's bookstore ever!Intrigued...At first it looked like just a regular {albeit cute} children's bookstore...But then...Was that a chicken??? Why, yes it was! And a cat...And a lizard...And a canoe upside down on the ceiling...And secret hiding spots for hamsters and guinea pigs and chinchillas...We actually sat down and read for a little bit - that is when Hudson wasn't bolting to go chase one of the chickens! Can you see him eyeing one? he he heThe littles picked out books to bring home with some of the spending money Mimi & Pop so graciously gave them.
Thank you Mimi & Pop! They loved deciding what to buy with "their money"!

Time to go! Check out the cute little door!! It wasn't easy getting the littles to leave Wild Rumpus...only the promise of ice cream averted the inevitable tantrum from a certain two year old. Sebastian Joe's had the most wonderful homemade Oreo ice cream! YUM!Told you it was good :)That's my ice cream!Sweet memories with my two favorite little people...Noonie surprised the littles with some little treasures of their own...Grace was mesmerized by the little dancing ballerina and the soft music. Be still my heart.Hudson is currently obsessed with all things "dinosaur" and "dragon". He even wants to be a fire-spitting dragon for Halloween, so this cute little alligator, ahem, dinosaur-dragon Noonie picked out was just perfect!He talked to his new pal the whole ride back to the hotel. At one point he said, "I wub you, Dragon". Oh my, so sweet!That night he cuddled up with his Dino-Dragon and DD has been his new sidekick ever since...What a fun-filled day! And Brrrr...it was COLD in Minnesota! Temps were expected in the 60's and 70's, but it was in the 50's and I think it even dipped down into the 30's at night! So when you see me wearing this same sweater again in the next set of pics at the apple orchard - don't laugh! We were not prepared!! :)