Dust Busters: All Smiles...almost

Last weekend we took a quick trip to the Cities for a couple days away while Kurt had some time off. We spent some time in the hotel pool and hot tub, the Mall of America, and the Como Zoo. It was wonderful, and Myka is at a fun age to vacation with (well, for the most part). She had been to the "big mall" almost a year ago with some Seminary friends and remembered being there. Then she was much more hesitant and in awe of everything around her. This time she was eager to try each ride and went on her favorites again and again (and again).

If you look close, you can see that we were pretty much the only people there. It was a Friday morning and we walked onto every ride since school was going on. This was fun for us but Myka was looking for "friends" to ride with. Particularly Aiden and Alexa who were with us the last time.

The ride above seemed to be her favorite of the day. It lifted her up about 20 feet in the air and then bounced its way back down to the ground giving about a fourth of a second of weightlessness for every bounce. She went on it about 26 times in a row at one point.

Then we came to the mini bumper cars. This was one we couldn't ride on with her unless we paid, so we explained it to her and the worker explained it to her and then she was on her own. She pushed the pedal and got it moving, and even steered a little bit until crashing into the back corner. Then she was stuck. We were all trying to tell her to turn the wheel, which she would do a little bit, but then turn it the other way. Eventually, each time she actually started to turn it, the park worker would say, into his microphone, "keep turning. keep turning. keep turning. keep turning." And this wasn't like motivational or enthusiastic in any way, it was more like "Bueller. Bueller. Bueller." of the Ferris movie. Kurt and I couldn't hide the laughing fits we were having. Myka was not amused in any way.

And of course, she was the only one on the ride.