summer trip #4 - camping...

Camping was on our want-to-do list this summer.  With a baby on the way we knew it would be out of the question for next summer, so we really wanted to get out a couple times while we could!  Then the weather was icky and sticky for most of the summer, and this pregnant lady was NOT going to go out in that.  Luckily there was a bit of a reprieve in August, so we decided to make reservations.  We made them with S's folks at Sibley State Park, near S's hometown, so that if it was really icky, I could go and stay at S's parents' house...well, we all could if necessary!  Turns out we had a fabulous weekend for camping, much cooler, only a little rain, and a great state park to camp in and explore!

Being that we hadn't been out camping yet this summer, we hadn't updated our camping gear which meant we only had a tiny "four" person tent in our possession.  Rather than us purchasing one at the end of the season when selection is not great, S's parents offered their old family tent which we gratefully accepted.  Best part was they set it up for us before we got to the campsite!  The tent gets its own picture here because it was pretty famous over the weekend as we had a family stop and ask to take a picture of it because it looks like Darth Vader.  We told Mom and Dad B that when they are ready to get rid of Darth Vader tent they will have to sell it for a mint on ebay...=)

*Soon after we arrived Friday noon, the kids were ready for an "adventure", so we headed out to the nearby interpretive center and for a hike around the pond. 

*family photo! (thanks, dad B)

The pond is surrounded by native prairie, so we enjoyed the wildflowers that were in bloom and saw quite a few monarch butterflies too.

 

The kids' favorite spot was a footbridge about halfway around the pond.  Here they looked for shells and snails and probably would have stayed here all day if they could have!

snails!

It was only a little over a mile and a half hike, and the kids did pretty well with it.  They were excited to be with Aahma and Papa, so that helped a lot. 

butterfly weed (we have some of this in our backyard)

After finishing our hike through the prairie and oak savanna, it was back to the campsite for supper...hot dogs over the fire and fresh green beans on the camp stove.

Part of camping, to me at least, is hanging around the campsite and fire in camp chairs.  So I found these used kids camp chairs on craigslist from a very nice lady, and the kids LOVED them.

Roasting marshmallows...

...and of course, s'mores!

After light rain through most of Friday night, Saturday dawned bright and clear and we were ready to go.  We visited the interpretive center for a kids program on animal tracks, and then did the shortened version of the Mt. Tom hike (highest point in Kandiyohi county) before lunch.  Kids were tickled that the mountain had the same name as Papa (we really should have taken his picture by the sign)!

The park has a nice lake with a swimming beach, so despite the chilly breeze in the air, and only because we knew the delight our children would have, S and I put on swimsuits with the kids and headed for the beach.  We thought enough in advance (luckily!) to bring buckets and shovels for the kids, so they were very content to play by the water's edge for quite a while.  Could we get lucky enough that they wouldn't want to go in all the way?

*another family photo!  (thanks again, dad B)

Nope!  They wanted to go all the way in.  Notice the lack of an Aahma or Papa in the photo?  They came to the lake conveniently "forgetting" to put their swimsuits on. =)  The water temp wasn't awful and fun was had by all, so we were glad we ventured out.  We were even more glad to put jeans and long sleeves on when we got back to camp and warm up by the fire with tonka toasters and campfire pies for supper!

There was more light rain Saturday night, but we all stayed dry in the Darth Vader tent!

Sunday morning arrived with more beautiful weather.  We went to "camp church" at the interpretive center, and then came back to cook bacon and blueberry pancakes on our ringer-washer lid fry pan (thanks Merlin and Avis for that!).  Then it was time to pack up and go...

...after a group photo. Thanks for a great weekend Aahma and Papa!

(for something fun, make sure you are on our actual blog site - not Google Reader - and run your mouse over the last photo! =)

summer trip #3 - staycation! (part #2)

...long awaited first game at Target Field
...game time temp was 76 degrees F and low humidity (after a very hot and sticky week!)
...seats were in the lovely afternoon shade
...unexpected free hot dogs and sodas with our seats
...good-natured crowd around us despite Twins poor performance
...helmet sundaes
...deciding to wait in the surprisingly efficient line for the kids to run the bases after the game and avoiding the vehicle lines and traffic leaving the game thus making it home from our wonderful staycation in 20 minutes

...added up to one very happy Bruin family

summer trip #3 - staycation! (part #1)

The end of summer is rapidly approaching!  Being that a big remodel project has monopolized most of our time this summer (more on that soon!), we did not take a big family vacation.  But when August was on us, the stress was taking it's toll and we knew it was time to get away, even with the giant list of things to do at home.

Florida?  nope, rather the small conservatory at the Sculpture Gardens.

And while we would have LOVED to make it a tropical vacation and really get away, time and budget just weren't in favor of that (they weren't even in favor of going 2 hours north...mental note, if you want to vacation in Duluth in peak season, try to plan more than 5 days in advance otherwise all places to stay will be $250).  So S took a couple of days off to make a long weekend during a small break in the remodel project and we decided to do the staycation thing.

Which actually turned out to be absolutely wonderful.  We are fortunate to live just north of the cities with all sorts of museums and attractions and places to stay.  We decided to focus mostly on the south side of the cities as we don't get to that area as often.  We spent the earlier part of the week planning a few things to do, and then found a two room suite at nice hotel with a pool close to the airport (another mental note, we will totally do that again as the kids loved watching all the planes and being that we live near a train track the noise did not bother us one bit) for a very decent price, made reservations for Thursday night and planned to start our vacation Thursday morning.

Then life happened.  Thursday morning came, S had to go into work, I had nothing packed, and C broke a crown off one of his front teeth and we had to wait to get into the dentist.  While it would have been great to get a start on having fun right away, we realized that this was supposed to be a weekend about relaxing together as a family and that meant going with the flow.  So S cleaned up stuff at work, I packed, we took C to the dentist, and headed off from home barely in time to beat the rush hour traffic.

First stop:  supper picnic in the Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center  We had such a great time exploring all the different sculptures on a beautiful evening...makes us wonder why we don't do this more often as it is just 30 minutes from our home.

kids loved the Spoonbridge and Cherry and had fun burning energy by running around the pond where the bridge sits

that was where we decided to have our picnic too, and REALLY started relaxing

We enjoyed all the native plants and flowers in the Arbor Garden

some sculptures are meant to be climbed on, like Arikidea - S and I have pictures (somewhere) of us on this in college

We then ventured on to our hotel and settled in.  Kids had fun watching air planes on our balcony before bed!  But to bed we did go as Friday we had a big day planned at the Science Museum of MN!  We actually bid on and won tickets to the museum at the charity auction for G's school back in May, so it was fun to use them over this weekend.  And the guy who arranged the tickets for us threw in Omni-Theater tickets for S & I, so we played tag team parenting and each got to watch the Mummies movie on the big Imax screen. 

driving the big tug boat

building a dinosaur skeleton

family picture after our picnic outside the museum

this air stream machine probably impressed the kids the most throughout the day...well, what kid wouldn't be - they got to play with a ball and it "magically" stayed above their heads!

The kids loved the mini-golf addition to the Big Back Yard.  We maybe should have timed our game a little better as it was the hottest and most humid part of the afternoon, but expensive smoothies from the lobby afterwards cooled us all off nicely!

Up next?  Swimming at the hotel pool!

they are not the least bit excited, can you tell?

Saturday morning we decided to head for Como Park Zoo and Conservatory.  We know this zoo well, so we just planned on making it just a short trip as to avoid the worst of the heat and humidity in the afternoon.   And we had a great morning and saw all the animals and plants at a pretty quick pace (which the kids didn't seem to mind at all), and we also took in the Sparky the sea lion show which we have not seen before. 

clapping for Sparky!

getting a very close up view of a polar bear in the new polar bear exhibit

G was excited to see the Galapagos tortoise, as their school studied the Galapagos islands and Ecuador last year.

G was also excited to go through the rain forest exhibit as they also studied rain forests in kindergarten, but this pregnant momma let Dadda take them through...yeah, the humidity was so high in there they walked through fog!

I took them to the sunken gardens in the conservatory while S got the van.  So pretty!

We knew that it would be too hot for any outdoor activities Saturday afternoon, so we headed for the giant Mall of America and visited the newly renovated and renamed SEA LIFE Minnesota Aquarium, which is famous for its underwater tunnels with sharks and fish swimming all around you.  We purchased a year pass to this with Christmas money, and have enjoyed visiting it every couple months or so (visitors get in for half price with us so let us know if you want to come with us sometime!).

looking at the swimming manta rays through the "glass floor"

the new touch and feel pools were a big hit too

I haven't figured out yet how to get decent pictures in the tunnels, but we may go again a time or two before the year is out!  After the mall we retreated back to the hotel for pizza in our room and Shaun the Sheep on Netflix. 

More on the last day of our staycation in the next post!

sneak peek...

There is a lot of clean-up and organizing and a few major things left to do before it is done, but here is a photo from supper tonight...

summer trip #2 - Brookings...

Brookings is also near and dear to my heart.  We spent 4 years there while Steve got his doctorate at the pharmacy school.  It was our first real home away from parents and college.  Steve had a good experience with schooling, I loved my trust accounting job at the local bank, and we made a lot of wonderful friends that we still keep a connection to today.  Plus it was a small town feel but big enough with the university to have many conveniences as well as a wonderful arts scene which we loved.

Towards the end of July, S had a big inventory weekend at work.  It meant that he would have a big day of work on Friday followed by an 8 to 10 day on Saturday with follow-up Sunday morning.  He has these two times a year and I always try to find something to do with the kids during those weekends, whether it be playdates with cousins, visits from / to grandparents, or just a special trip to a museum or park with supper out.  On this particular weekend, I decided to pack up the kids and head for Brookings, to spend time with dear friends and also take in their newest addition to town, a Children's Museum.

Friday night we settled in by A's condo and had pizza.  Saturday we spent the whole day at the Children's Museum and had supper with A's son and wife and their new baby.  Oh and went out for ice cream and S and my favorite place, Zesto's!  Sunday we attended church (and Aahma and Boppa R drove up to go to church with us!), ate out for dinner and headed home.  So it was a whirlwind trip, but so worth it to catch up with good friends and enjoy summertime in Brookings.

(and DO stop by the Children's Museum of SD if you are ever in the area!  It easily rivals big city children's museums, if not out-does them!)

One of the museum's most famous attractions, a life-sized T-Rex!  The loud roars and animation were too much for my dinosaur loving 4 yr old though...=)

There is also a T-Rex baby, who also roars and comes out of her cave.

The outside play area of the museum is a fabulous prairie style play area with all sorts of fun things, like a giant nest to pretend to be birds in.

There was an outdoor kitchen and table...

A stream with rocks to explore...

And of course a splash pad!

This happened to be one of the hottest and most humid days of the summer so far, so getting completely soaked felt great for the kids!

And one bonus about such a lovely Children's Museum in a small town?  After getting soaked outside in the morning, we could go back to A's and change clothes, eat lunch and catch a nap and then go back to the museum to continue exploring for the afternoon!

playing in the music room (complete with life sized SDSU marching band on the wall!)

playing with the sand art table

the grocery store was a big hit as always, and I loved how everything in this one was from Hy-Vee!

there was a big exhibit on different houses/homes

And this cloud sculpture that you could climb to the ceiling on was fabulous!

there was also a great view of the T-Rex's from inside

But while the museum was a great part of the weekend, I really made the trip for these special people.

Baby D!!!  We loved meeting this 3 month old sweetie and catching up with his sweet parents, S & C

And a big thank you to these lovely ladies (and wonderful "aunti's"!) for such a great weekend.  Love you both!