American Girl Store #1 - Minneapolis (Mall of America)

National parks and American Girl stores...we're hitting as many of both as possible (I know.....quite a dichotomy of interests we have, right?) Alea & Anissa got to see one of the dear American Girl Staff, Kerry Stanton, that had been with us on the AG cruise...what a treat! She gave Alea some magazines to read on the road, one of them being the not-yet-on-racks July/Aug issue (which Alea was bummed about missing that issue while we were gone on vacation).  Lo and behold the cover girl is our very own Madison Whitehead from church!!!  Anissa was Madison and Alea's team leader on Wednesday nights for Expedition 56 (our 5th & 6th grade program). Way to go Madison!  You are beautiful!

Alea with her doll McKenna (2012 doll of the year) that she won on the AG cruise!

Sipping a smoothie at the AG Bistro.

NOTE: Kristy (who we're visiting here in Minn) is the one who started our whole Am Girl craze! She got Alea her first doll for her 7th bday! We were visiting here for Spring Break 2008 (Alea's bday is in March) and Kristy surprised her w/ Mia, doll of the year 2008, who just happened to have red hair! :) Since then Alea & Anissa have read every single book (all the historical series plus all the doll-of-the-year book sets). We have learned sooo much history about our country and been inspired by each character's amazing inner strength to overcome obsticals in life and how they handle personal challenges! 2 summers ago we got to see how Kirsten lived when we visited all the Laura Ingalls Wilder historical sites, this past spring break (2012) we got to experience Felicity's world at Colonial Williamsburg in VA, and later on this trip we'll get a taste of what life was like for Josephina when we visit historical sites in NM! If any of you want to get your daughters hooked on history, have them start reading the AG books! It was such a thrill to meet 3 of the authors onboard the AG cruise last year! All of the series are soo well written...your heart will be touched!