Category Archives: minnesota

State Fair

This year we realized we hadn’t been to the State Fair since before Phoebe was born, so I figured it was time we gave it another try. There’s nothing wrong with the State Fair, it’s just usually very hot and very crowded and neither of those things are our favorite. The kids were excited at the prospect and I was looking forward to some tasty food, so we figured it was a win/win.

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The kids were thrilled when we decided to take a bus. It’s absolutely the little things. Our day started off slightly rough, however, when we arrived at the Fair only to realize that neither of us had grabbed the tickets, our coupon book or ride tickets (all pre-paid and therefore much cheaper). SIGH. Oh well. We got in line, got our tickets and since the kids were already starving, got cookies because there’s no other way to start the day. The kids were really only interested in ice cream and rides, so we made our way there.

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For some reason, Phoebe was only a fan of the rides if they weren’t moving. As you can see from the picture above… let’s zoom in a tad… she didn’t fully enjoy the rides, which is odd because she had a blast the last time we went to a carnival.

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We did at least manage to talk her out of the mini Ferris Wheel, which we knew would freak her out. Instead, Enzo had a fun time riding it by himself. He’d try to look as stoic as possible and not acknowledge us and then you’d see him fighting back a smile when we’d wave and make faces at him.

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We did get the kids to go to a few other things here and there and we continued to snack on things like cheese curds and deep-fried Tacos. We each had a beer and were glad we went on a Friday rather than a weekend. It was still busy, but definitely not has bad as on a Saturday or Sunday.

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We decided to just bring one stroller and the carrier this time, and it worked out really well. Enzo rode in the stroller for a bit and Phoebe at one point very happily napped in the carrier on my back for at least an hour. The weather could not have been more perfect and no one got too hot, which was a surprise for this time of year.

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Overall it was a fun and exhausting day. We had some hits and misses with food – the maple glazed bacon donut sliders were a sad let-down, and now I want to make the version I had pictured in my head – but the bunnies and babies never let us down. The kids did great with all of the walking and being out and about all day. I think they could have kept going, but by late afternoon, Josh and I were DONE. We probably won’t go every year, but it’s fun to go to every 2-3 years – maybe more frequently once the kids are older and don’t have to be carried around. 😉

September Caterpillars

At the beginning of summer when we went to pick out plants at the nursery, I don’t remember Enzo grabbing milkweed, but apparently he did. All summer we’ve watched this plant grow and grow until finally it flowered and honestly we’ve kind of forgotten about it. We’ve been busy and haven’t been spending as much time out front. Last week, however, Josh sent me a picture of something very surprising!

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Neither of us realized we had milkweed, so obviously seeing a milkweed caterpillar was a big surprise since that is all they eat. As soon as I got home I went to the front to look for it and low and behold, there were about 6 or 7 more caterpillars on what we realized was milkweed. I’m not going to lie, it was really exciting – I love monarch butterflies! Some were still pretty small, and others were bigger getting ready to do this…

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I was hoping we’d be able to actually see the whole caterpillar to pupa process, but alas, at some point he completed the process and we discovered another pupa that we had missed close by! We have three that we know of currently.

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Very unfortunately, however, we were hit with heavy storms and to my great dismay, two caterpillars did not make it to the pupa stage. As for the other caterpillars that had been on the milkweed… well we looked briefly this morning, but couldn’t find them anywhere. We were running late and the mosquitoes have been fairly obnoxious lately, so the kids and I could only look for a few minutes. Hopefully we’ll find that they are safe tonight. Otherwise, I’m crossing my fingers that the butterflies will wait to emerge until we’re all present. I read that they typically emerge mid-morning, so please let it be on a weekend! I don’t want to disrupt them, but part of me is tempted to carefully move them (according to instructions) to hopefully ensure that these ones survive. If nothing else, we will next year. I also was unaware that you can get these awful little yellow aphids on milkweed and ours is rather infested… not to a point where there isn’t enough food for the caterpillars, but still something we’ll need to watch next year since the plan is to plant more milkweed. 🙂

Why don’t we do this more often?

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to walk down to the river with the kiddos and do some fishing. Well, the boys fished. Phoebe can’t be trusted with a fishing pole yet, and I’m indifferent. Plus, someone has to keep an eye on the munchkins to make sure no one falls in. It’s about a 15-20 minute walk with the kids depending on the route we take. We probably could have ridden our bikes, but chose not to this time, and I can’t remember why. Old age is creeping in, apparently – I can’t remember anything lately.

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We met up with Josh’s sister Leah and her son Malcolm for a bit since they are close by. It was a beautiful day and the mosquitoes weren’t terrible yet. Since these pictures there was major flooding, but I think even that has gone down now too. See where Enzo’s standing? The river covered this area completely and went almost to the road. It tends to happen every year.

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The kids stayed interested in fishing for a little bit until we found another area where you could walk right into the river! Phoebe wanted to splash, so I told the kids they could take their shoes and socks off to get their feet wet. Well, about 5 minutes later Phoebe started pulling her pants and undies off informing me that she wanted to sit in the water, but (thankfully) didn’t want to get her clothes wet. Ha ha! Before long both kids had completely stripped and we scared off another mom and her older kids. Heaven forbid small children be naked. Yeah, yeah, I know there are creeps out there, but every now and then I like to encourage their innocence if I’m safely nearby.

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We snacked while the kids dried off and Josh kept fishing. Nothing was caught, but it was relaxing and a nice way to spend the afternoon. Who knows, maybe we’ll do more of that this weekend… well, maybe. The mosquitoes are out in full force and Enzo and I tend to get eaten alive. We’re off to the State Fair on Friday, though, so that should be a lot of fun and then Josh and I are going to see a special showing of The Neverending Story at the movie theater! Woohoo! Maybe I’ll actually have more to post about next week. 😉 Ha ha.

The rest of the weekend…

Both kids were very excited to go to the “beach” on Sunday morning. It’s really just a man-made swimming pond, but it’s really nice and has a huge shallow wading area for little kids. We also go there early enough to grab one of the big umbrellas; however, within an hour we had people plopping their stuff right down next to ours despite their being a ton of open space everywhere. Apparently everyone was doing that (crowding for shade) and we were not the only ones perturbed by this. I assumed first come first serve? I would never invade someone’s space like these people were doing, which is also we bought our own sun shade – for when the umbrellas are already taken. Okay, rant over. I just really hate having my personal space invaded. Okay, rant actually over now.

The weather could not have been more perfect with a nice cool breeze now and then. Phoebe was completely in her element and refused to leave the water even when she turned blue and was shivering with chattering teeth and all. Enzo is still fairly cautious and would only go out so far, but he enjoyed himself nonetheless, especially since we brought the squirters.

Eventually, once it started getting busier and the lifeguards arrived we decided to eat a snack/lunch, get changed and head over to the playground, which also happens to be one of the biggest playgrounds I’ve ever seen. Perhaps next year we’ll get a seasonal membership and go swimming more often. It really is the perfect way to spend a morning.

Happy weekend all! We get to leave early and I’m taking Tuesday off, so it’s an especially long weekend for me!

More on our crazy busy weekend!

This past week was full of spontaneous decisions and last minute changes. We knew it was going to be hot and come Saturday morning the kids were already getting antsy. So, I figured we could stay at home all day or we could find something free to do indoors. We had all day, so on a whim we decided to drive 2 hours to see the new Spam Museum. Its Minnesota… how can you not love Spam? It’s interactive with a fun kids play area, so we really couldn’t lose. Until we went to buy Spam in the gift shop and Enzo wouldn’t stop touching and grabbing things and when I asked him to hand over what he had he did the dreaded wide open scream that all parents dread when shopping. So it was just me and Phoebe maneuvering the stroller while I tried to keep her from grabbing things and an oh-so friendly employee followed us around, probably worried that we were going to cause more trouble. Anyhoo, it was fun, but I think they’re still working on filling in some blanks. Also, because Josh was wearing his Spam shirt, we got freebies, which Phoebe pretty much ate all of.

While we were on our way to Austin, MN, we drove by the RAD Zoo and decided since we already out this way we might as well stop there too, so we made our way there next. They have a large variety of reptiles and amphibians, though the main draw is their massive alligator Big Al who is 12 feet long. It felt a tad over-priced, but it can’t be cheap feeding all of those animals. We didn’t stay very long mostly because there was no AC in this giant warehouse-like building and it was around 90 degrees outside. The kids seemed to like the turtles best… personally I liked the lizards.

Both kids were tuckered on the way home and watched a movie while we headed home. Amazingly we were scheduled to arrive home right at dinner time, which rarely happens when we’re being so impromptu.

On that note, this post has far too many pictures to even consider adding to it, so I’ll post about our beach time next. 😉

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures