Odds and Ends

It's been a busy time. We've been making the most of our weekends since buying the pop-up. Since my last blog, we've camped up at St. Croix State Park and William O'Brien State Park. St. Croix State Park is up near Hinckley, and has its fair share of mosquitoes and gnats. It was pretty funny because we were looking out the camper windows at some tent campers. I swear, it looked like they were doing aerobics. I figured it out when we went outside, they were swatting bugs. It truly was hard to tell. Below , the next picture is from a hike we took along the river. The second picture is from a program they had on identifying birds at the park. The kids were called on to act like the bird described. After flying around, kids got to decorate their own bird mask.



William O'Brien State Park is north of Stillwater in the town of Marine-on-St. Croix. It's a cute little town with this fine park. The bugs were tolerable, and the amount of hiking trails was plentiful. The boys made it 6 miles.. outstanding for a 3 1/2 and almost 5 year old. We rewarded the super hike with a big sundae at a malt shop in downtown Stillwater. I couldn't resist the cliche train tracks shot with Sean. This was at mile 5 of our 6 mile hike. He's pretty content to sit for a picture, which is rare.


This tree caught my eye due to its funky shape:


Same tree, but closer this time.. with me tickling their tummies (else it would have been funny faces - it's their newest form of photo resistance).


We played Uno that night, which Mitchie didn't really understand, but Sean sure enjoyed. This morning, I woke up early enough to see the sunrise, but instead I found fog. This first shot was in full color. I left the image on the dark side because it's more true to what I saw.

I went back hoping that the fog would have burned off more.. and got this...


September is crazy busy for me on the weekends, and it doesn't lighten up until mid-October. Before you know it, snow will be around.. where did the year go?