And more pictures...

Sick of pictures yet?  Hope not!

We visited Scenic State Park while we were up at the cabin.  It is a park that lives up to its name.

One more post, and then I'll change the subject, honest.

Brad's Birthday

Brad's birthday was on Sunday, the 30th.  We had a really great day.

First, we went snowshoeing in Mille Lacs Kathio State Park.  It was pretty cold that day (10-12 degrees), but we stayed warm with our layers, our hand warmers, and, of course, snowshoeing (once we got moving, anyway).  The birthday boy took the pictures during the outing.

We came home to have dinner with Todd and Brian (Brad's brothers).  And cake, we can't forget the cake.  Brad requested lemon cake, and that's what he got!

No, the candles are not an actual representation of how old he is.  That would have set off the smoke detectors...

All in all, a pretty good birthday.  We still have to go out and get his present, though--which will be time alone for us (yay!) and shopping for new clothes for him (meh--don't really like shopping.  I know.) because he needs some really badly!

Winter on Superior

On the 27th, Brad and I took Dan and Stacey up to Lake Superior.  It was their first time up to the Lake, and I think they really enjoyed themselves.  We ate at Burrito Union for lunch, and Pizza Luce for dinner.  The food was fantastic.  Between eating destinations in Duluth, we headed up to Split Rock Lighthouse and Gooseberry Falls.

Here are a few pictures from our wintertime adventure on the North Shore.

 Gooseberry Falls in winter.

 Ice on the rocks near Split Rock Lighthouse.

 My sweetheart.  Near the campground at Split Rock State Park.

Stacey and Dan with Split Rock Lighthouse in the background.

Whirlwind

Wow, what a week and a half!

Mom flew in with a new kitty for us.  Homer came to us because Mom rescued him, but he wasn't fitting in with the other pets in the household.  The doggies were chasing him and the other kitty was picking on him.  He is very, very slowly getting used to us and his new house.  He is a beautiful boy with long, misty gray fur and bright green eyes.  He likes to hide in the ceiling of the laundry room during the day.  Hopefully he'll start coming down soon.  He's had a lot of adjusting to do in the last half a year!  Here's a bad webcam photo of Homer relaxing with me for a couple of minutes upstairs last night.

We all went up to Duluth to hang out at the waterpark for Holly's birthday and just for fun.  It was an interesting trip, for sure.  Henry freaked out with all the sensory overload and it ended up being mostly exhausting dealing with the waterpark.  By the last 45 minutes of our two-night stay, he was actually ok, of course.  We had some great meals while we were there--Pizza Luce never disappoints with their gluten-free menu.  It was fantastic.  The second night we returned to our room after touring Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock Lighthouse (state park and historic site) to a crockpot with a chicken and wild rice dinner.  It smelled fantastic.  By the time we were heading home, the huge storm that hit the midwest was coming in, and we watched the waves (and surfers) on Lake Superior from the Marine Museum (which was really cool!).  The waves were forecast to reach close to 30 feet tall on the lake from that storm!  Driving home was an adventure with 40 mph winds and gusts up to 60 mph.  But we got home safely, and we were happy to come back to our cozy home in the storm.

When we got back, we baked a chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting (all gluten-free, of course!) for Holly's birthday and opened presents.  Holly was very excited about her gifts and I must say, she makes a great 6 year old.  I have some pictures of her birthday to post in the next few days.  Gotta show off the pretty birthday girl!

That was just the first half of Mom's visit.  I think I will break up the visit into two posts.  I need to find pictures, too--I'm always bad about taking pictures when someone is visiting.  I get distracted.  I just realized that I don't think we took any pictures of the kids in their costumes on Halloween!  We Skyped with Grandpa Kelly instead to show off the costumes and must have gotten sidetracked.  Maybe we'll take care of that today!  Better late than never...

Fall Touring

On Wednesday, we drove (and drove and drove) to Maplewood State Park.  We hiked for a short while, found a tick on the dog, and then discovered there was no bug spray with us (and the dog didn't have her Frontline).  So we decided to check out two other state parks on the way home instead of hiking around the one park.  These pictures are from Maplewood.

Thanks, Brad, for taking this while I was eating.  Classy.

Our little friend enjoyed her time out too.

I wish we would have waited for the cloud to pass by before we took the pictures--it makes it a lot less pretty than it actually was!

After Maplewood, we checked out Glendalough and Lake Carlos.   It was too much driving, honestly.  I felt like we ate way too much junk in the car and didn't do much walking.  We got home really late and burned a lot of gas.  BUT we did see the most beautiful scenery and the trees were stunning.  We got to check out an area that we don't get to often and know now that we think it might be fun to camp out there.  So, live and learn, I guess.

Taylors Falls boat tour

Last Monday, Harry came over to spend some time with the grandkids (and us, too).  For those who don't know, Harry is Brad's dad.

We headed over to the St. Croix river and took an 80-minute tour on the paddlewheel boats that go through the Interstate park system and downstream.  It was a beautiful day, a beautiful trip, and we even had some yummy snacks (they were only Skittles, M&Ms, and almonds, but they were yummy on the boat).

 

Afterward, we took Grandpa through Interstate State Park (where the ever-popular potholes are--the kids LOVE that little park) and showed him the interesting geology and stunning views.

We headed home for some play time and then dinner on the grill and a spice cake (thanks Mom!) with cream cheese frosting.  It was a great day.

Thanks, Harry!  We had a great time!

North Shore Nature Study

Some of the interesting or beautiful things we found on our trip to the North Shore (please forgive the lack of precise naming):

Pretty Rock

Mushroom

Devil's Paintbrush or Orange Hawkweed

Fairy house!

White agate embedded in rock

Beautiful rock formation

Lake Superior Agate

Interesting Rock Collection

Possibly Red Jasper?

Harebell

Tiny green frog

Family Vacation 2010

Grand Portage State Park.  This river forms the US/Canada border.

We returned from our North Shore Experience on Saturday evening.  What a great trip!  It was cold most of the time (30
degrees one night!), but it was, as expected, beautiful and relaxing.  For the most part.  Of course.

Temperance River State Park

We stayed--as I have already told you--at Temperance River State Park.  We hiked and saw the falls there, hidden and otherwise.  Spectacular.  Lots of fish in the river.  We saw salmon all stacked up in the river, right under the bridge.  It's spawning season there, so we got to see them jumping up the falls in the river.  The kids thought it was hilarious, of course.  The salmon, in case you are wondering, are pink salmon.  They also have brown trout and rainbow trout in the river.  We saw a guy catch a 2-3 foot long something (couldn't tell for sure what it was, looked salmon-ish) on the rocks right near the river mouth.  It was a very nice fish.

Split Rock Lighthouse (State Park)

We were buzzed by a bald eagle (again--this is the third camping trip in a row that's happened on.  Is it a sign or something?  These birds come close, really close, right over our heads!), found agates and other amazing rocks (red jasper, I think) along the shore, hiked to beautiful overlooks, played by the lake, went to Canada, and lived by the fire in the evenings.  I couldn't get the smoke smell out of my hair for a few washings!

It was sad to come home.  We love the North Shore so much, we wish we could live there.  Maybe someday.  But for now, we're back, and we feel refreshed, ready to start school on Wednesday.

For the most part anyway.

Lake Superior, near the mouth of the Temperance River

Temperance River State Park

I have too many pictures to put on the blog, so they will be going to Flickr.  If you'd like to see more pictures from the trip, go here for the first batch.  I'll have to wait a while to add more--I reached my limit for the month already!  I will be sure to let you know when more are available.