Red Wood Falls

 One of our days in Minnesota was spent at Red Wood Falls. We have been here before but this year the kids could explore and appreciate it in new ways. It was a warm day but luckily we spent much of the time in the shade (or the water).

 Exploring the river

 Walking sticks are important with all the rocks around!

 Cooling off

 LUNCH TIME:

Grandpa made a fire and we made lunch over the campfire.

 Our picnic

 Cheers...with hot diggity dogs!

 Marshmallows + Fudge Stripe Cookies + a little roasting = a really yummy MN SMORE!

 Deliciousness!

 Gooeyiness

 Suits on and we are ready to explore the river

 We stopped by this little dam and the kids tried to make one of their own.

 A little rock climbing

 We hiked to the falls. How beautiful!

 Some pictures from different angles.

 We hiked out onto the rock that overlooks the falls. Exciting (and nerve racking)

 If you look at this picture we are standing on the "platform" to the direct left of the falls. I took this picture looking back at the falls as we left.

 The hike was complete with a creeky suspension bridge! Thrilling!

 We took LOTS of time just to explore the river. The kids loved it. My little river rats~!

 After all that hiking we had to stop at Dairy Queen for a "famour" Dilly Bar. YummY!

 Dinner out that night at AppleBees. They clean up pretty well!

The Start of Our MN Adventure

 On Monday morning we woke up bright and early and set off on a MAJOR adventure. The kids and I loaded up the van and trekked from our house to Willmar, MN. We have made the trip many times before, this time we were missing Dad. It was fun to try something new! I wasn't used to doing all the driving myself. Usually when we make the trip I will take a leg or two of the 12 hour trip. But this time I did it all myself! I was pretty tickled with myself. I was dependent on the GPS as my co-pilot and the kids did a great job of "helping" out. We split the first day up by stopping in Chicago for a few hours to explore the Lincoln Park Zoo! We got there right when the zoo opened and saw so many animals. They knew it would be hot so they were out and about bright and early.

 The Lions

 Lazy Tigers

 The ant exhibit

 Meerkats were a favorite this year!

 Up close to the giraffes during feeding time {awesome!}

 The laziest seal EVER!

 One of the monkeys escaped...oh wait that's one of mine!

Climbing in one of the cool "kid zones"

 Serously so cool....the black bear was sitting right next to us in the log....

 Elle wanted to get a picture with me in it, too!

 The map reader, telling us where to go next!

It was such a fun morning! Then we were off to Portage, WI. We spent the night in a hotel there to break up the trip. We got Subway for dinner and took it to our hotel room. Then hung out at the hotel pool until bedtime! We woke up early, had breakfast and hit the road. We had a smooth trip through Wisconsin through the Twin Cities and hit our only glitch when one of the roads was closed. Fear not, I managed through the detour and we were back on track! We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's around 2:00. We played at Grandma's and were ready for our adventures at Redwood Falls for Tuesday!

Fabulous Fourth of July

 This year the Fourth of July fell smack dab in the middle of the week. The kids and I drove up to the lake on Tuesday so we could enjoy the lake since it was so HOT! We had a little pop up shower in the morning but that blew off and it was roasting for the rest of the time we were there. The sun cooked us all day long. The best place to be was...in the water.

 We put all the floaty devices to good work. We spent much of our time on the boat and floating in the water. Christian surprised us with his boldness and decided he would join Carter and Elle in jumping, diving and frollicking into the water off the back of the boat. He proceeded to strip off his life jacket and start jumping and swimming ALL.BY.HIMSELF! What a big guy. All those swimming lessons paid off! Wow!

 Racing to the boat. We spent all our time in the water that we didn't get as fancy this year with all our decorations and "festive foods". I attempted to make cookies for the kids to decorate and for some reason (I prefer to think the heat had something to do with it) my cookie batter had a mind of its own! So no cookies this year. But we had sparklers......and

 .........SMORES....&

 a full moon & beautiful fireworks

 Scott has been enjoying lots of solom skiing this summer! The boys are watching and getting pointers!~

 THis was our version of the "4th of July Photo Booth"

 Mom and Carter-Dude

 What a goofy kid!

 What a tough guy

 Noodle fight

 Having fun in the green tubes

The 4th continues to be a favorite holiday for us. We spend it with family and friends (we miss Uncle Evan and Heather terribly) at one of our favorite places on earth...THE LAKE!