Welcome to Minnesota

We left on Labor day from Martin's Cove in hopes of seeing Mt. Rushmore and Matney one last time.  But our start was too late and we had 13 hours to go so we drove all day and got into our hotel in Maple Grove about 1 AM.  Because of Randy's surgery and other events we were unable to secure a home before leaving Indy, so we stayed in an extended stay type of a hotel in hopes of finding a place soon. Randy had to be up early and at his new job that next morning and so we sent him off with his very own first day picture, lol.

 Over the next 3 weeks, we searched everywhere for a rental.  We thought we wanted to stay somewhat near Randy's office so he wouldn't have to commute that far, but we also knew with this new position there would be a lot of travel, so being near the airport was also an option.  When we couldn't find a place up on the Northside, so we expanded our search to all over the Minneapolis area and found a home in Lakeville in a little bit of disarray from previous tenants that the landlord said he'd work on while we were living here.  It was big enough and for a great price, considering the area, and since we had been struggling to find a place we jumped at the chance and moved in as soon as possible.  We had been living in a 2 bedroom hotel for too long and we were "all done" living that way.  Plus the kids had been out of school long enough and they were getting a little stir crazy.  We tried to get out of the hotel as much as possible, but with Randy working and being new to the area it  was hard to explore with 6 kids. We did go to the Mall of America which had been a dream of mine since I was teenager.  Now we live 20 minutes away!!!  This place everything imaginable, even roller coasters and other rides.  The kids really like the Peeps store and of course the Lego store.

 Being out of our ordinary routine was hard for Kaders.  Living in a hotel, not having his normal bedtime routine made it hard for naps as well as bedtime.  But he would eventually crash somewhere.

 We also heard about the Como Zoo which is a free zoo in Minneapolis.  It was small but had some really cool animals.

So far we really like it here.  There is a lot to explore and so many lakes.  I feel like I'm living Up North all of the time.  Now if we could just afford to buy a lake house, I would be in heaven!!!