Sometimes we do things that are must-see things to do. Except I don’t really like them. So is this really necessary? Will I kick myself later if I just skip them? That may be an experiment I have to try, but apparently not today.

Instead, today we went to the Mall of America, the biggest mall in the US. Now, we aren’t really shoppers, and, with a family of 8, we don’t have the finances to just drop wads of cash every day. So the mall has an amusement park we didn’t go in, and an aquarium we also refrained from. Aunica got a phone set up she had been waiting to use, we went to the (awesome) Lego store, where there were tables set up for the kids to play, a wall of individual Legos to buy, and a computer that brought the sets to life when you held a box in front of it. We watched a Nickelodeon slime contest and went to the American girl doll store. We walked through Hard Rock Cafe and saw Prince memorabilia, and bought some things at lands end. We survived. Crowds of people, we managed to leave with all 6 kids in tow, even if our nerves were shot.

   
    
    
 
Then we headed over to the science museum of Minneapolis. It was late by then, so we didn’t have much time, but it was free with our membership. It was a great museum, that I wish I could have devoted more time to. There was an excellent, thought-provoking exhibit on race, which I have spent a lot of time thinking about lately. My girls and I spent the majority of our (limited) time in that room. One exhibit in the museum bothered me though. The first exhibit presented upon walking in the door was a pro-vaccine exhibit. I do believe in (most) vaccines, and my children are fully vaccinated. However, many of our friends are not. I believe in the right to choose, and I believe science and big pharma are too closely entwined to be objective. I expect the risks are being downplayed, if not intentionally covered up. And I don’t like my children being fed one side of an argument to be indoctrinated. So, that is my two cents, take it or leave it.