Random Thursday

• First 4-H meeting for the kids tomorrow.  I'm excited and hopeful that this will be something we all enjoy together.  We're trying out a group made up of homeschoolers first.  I hope it's a good fit!  It's nice to have activities in the early afternoon instead of at night.  Tomorrow, the kids will be "voting" in an "election" complete with "districts" and everything.  It sounds fun!

• The weather has been pretty incredible for the last while.  Perfectly blue skies setting off the fiery colors of the trees and grasses, all in a 65-to-about-80-degree (tomorrow and Saturday) temperature range.  It really doesn't get any better than this.  We want to go camping!

• I have a party/show tomorrow night here.  Which means I need to shop and clean.  Of course I don't really want to do either.  But I'm excited to see friends and eat yummy food.

• How is it possible to be so far behind in my laundry?  And how does our house get so stinkin' messy??

Educator Night at the History Center

Tuesday afternoon/evening, I got to go to Educator Night at the History Center in downtown St. Paul.  I ended up not being sick.  Yay me!  First stop was my friend, Michelle's house--we carpooled our way over.  That was fun in itself!  Girls on the town!  Wooo!  Heading to the History Center!  Partay!!  (I get my fun in different ways than others, apparently.)

We had a tour of the new "Chocolate" exhibit, which is really neat (planning to go back), and I met some homeschooling moms.  That was fantastic, because we homeschooling moms all need as many people to...how do I put this...socialize, collaborate, commiserate, brainstorm, and party with as possible.  It's essential.  Especially the "party" part.

Anyway, we looked at a lot of the other exhibit halls in the History Center (to which I had not yet been), and I was blown away.  What is it with this state and all the amazing resources?  How am I still stunned by each new thing?  Why am I not jaded by this time (it's been 9 years!) and just expecting there to be more?  I certainly am not complaining.  I am very thankful.  Let's just say we'll be visiting the Center sometime soon.

I also found out about Lego's monthly mini model build nights, first Tuesday of each month, at the Lego store/center at the Mall of America.  You get a free little Lego kit and get to put it together.  I think there are tours as well.  We'll probably be attending that too.

After the Event (we thought there was going to be free chocolate, but instead it's in the museum store and you have to PAY for it.  Darn.), Michelle and I grabbed some quick dinner before heading home.  We had a great time talking (and eating!  We were so hungry!).

I'm excited to do more moms' activities in the near future.  It was just what I needed.

Close to Home

After our big trek on Wednesday, I was wanting to get out and actually walk or hike in the fall leaves.  I was, like I said, fairly disappointed by our outing on Wednesday.  At least we got out the next day.  Closer to home.  As in, we can bike there next spring, when Holly has her bigger-girl bike to ride so she can go faster.  The bonus is that we can visit the library while we're there.

I've really, honestly just plain forgotten about this park.  And it's a great park.  Rum River North County Park is right in town.  It's part of a series of parks on the Rum River.  You can get in your canoe way up on the Rum, paddle down to the North park, camp, head to the Central park, camp, and then go to the South park.  These are all local, close to home parks with miles of paved, unpaved, hiking, cross-country, and horse trails.  They've got picnic pavilions, shelters for when you're out skiing in the winter and want to build a fire, and fishing piers.  Also boat launches.  How can I forget about the one in town?  I don't know.  I look at the trail all the time.  I'm just glad I remembered. 

The kids and I walked for probably an hour all over the park.  Then they played on the playground equipment.  It was a great day in the stunning fall weather. 

Photo by Henry

Photo by Holly

We're planning on going back every few days for a while to watch the leaves change for Nature Study (one of our subjects).  I think it'll be fun.

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.