mall of america adventures | bismarck, nd child photographer

So, as I mentioned in my last post, we’ve had all sorts of exciting things happening.  One of those was our big girls’ trip to the Mall of America.  We had such a wonderful time together, and I could not think of a better way to celebrate Rory turning five.  I will never forget the amazing time we had together.  {Warning: I know the quality of these photos is not that great, but I still love them anyway.  I was not about to carry my camera all over the mall.}  Some snapshots and iPhone photos of our adventures…

We started out with a visit to the Sea Life Aquarium, where we saw so many incredible things.  The highlight for me was a sea turtle the size of…I don’t even know what.  It was enormous!

The next morning, we got up right away to go shopping and have lunch at the American Girl store, something Rory had been looking forward to for months.  Lots of photos on that in the next post!

After that, we spent the afternoon at Nickelodeon Universe; the girls had an absolute blast!  We even got to see Dora and Boots there; that was a major highlight, especially since I had just talked Rory into going on a water ride in which we came off completely soaked from head to toe and she was in tears.  I thought she was going to never go on another ride again, but thank goodness for Dora.  She saved the day!

At one point, Rory and I were on a ride together and she screamed, “BEST.DAY.EVER!”  Another moment I will never forget. 

And as if we couldn’t have any more fun in a day, Rory got her ears pierced at the Mall of America!  My big girl didn’t even cry!

We ended the day with a fancy (for a five year old) supper at The Cheesecake Factory and a small photoshoot at the most gorgeous park I’ve ever been to.  Amazing.  I could say it again and again, but that is the only word that describes our weekend.  Okay, maybe exhausting would describe it fairly well, too.