Last Trip to the Zoo

We are really going to miss The Minnesota Zoo. So many fun memories and a one of our favorite places to visit! During this visit it was raining, so we had the outdoor playground all to ourselves!

Baby Time at the Zoo

Thursday's Field Trip to the zoo - it's baby season!

You should know: the kids all wanted to feed the goats (of course) but I had not planned ahead and only had a nickel and a $20 bill. I ended up finding a change machine which gave me $20 in quarters. My purse is very heavy.

Interstate State Park

Monday was supposed to be the nicest day of spring break week so I loaded six kids in the car, met up with Kelly and headed out to do some hiking. The forecast said 50 degrees however, the warmest it got was a balmy (OK freezing) 38 and cloudy. We drove a little more than an hour North to Interstate State Park. Before we left I had the kids watch a video about the geological pot holes the park is famous for. Though many of the trails were still too icy, we were able to see many of the pot holes and have a great time climbing on the rocks and trails.

The park is on both sides of the river in Minnesota and Wisconsin and we visited each side. On the Wisconsin side we had the coldest picnic ever by the river and then went on a hike we later dubbed "The Poop Walk" by the amount of animal droppings we had to navigate. The kids informed me the droppings were from an herbivore, because of their shape and contents (don't ask how they found that out).

We will have to go back and visit again when it is warmer and I imagine the park would be simply gorgeous in the fall. One word of warning: the trails travel along many cliffs so you need to have enough adults or older kids to hold the hands of every young child.

Winter Carnival

Winter Carnival is always fun to attend and our favorite part is the display of ice sculptures in Rice Park. This year, we ran up one busy Saturday and only had an hour for a quick browse of the of sculptures.


We arrived during the wedding of a former King and Queen of the carnival. They were handing out cake and champagne to celebrate.

Back When We Were Healthy . . .

These are the last healthy photos of us during winter break. The kids had a week off from school, but I still had to work Monday through Thursday. At some point during the week, Kirstin came down with a severe cold which passed to me a day later. We had all sorts of grand plans of places to see and visit while Kirstin was in town but instead, we drank a lot of herbal tea, went through two boxes (and counting) of tissues and a box of cold medicine that had expired two years earlier. It has been rather miserable.

Our saucy plans of dinner and dancing on New Years were revised to flannel pajamas and watching season one of Lark Rise to Candleford on the computer (by the way, if you have not seen this little drama, request it immediately from Netflicks - so good!).

We did get out a couple of times during Kirstin's visit despite feeling like warmed over death. One day we met up with friends and took the kids to the zoo. Another evening, Kirstin and I met up with girlfriends for dinner at Crave and some shopping at the Mall of America. On Friday, Kirstin and I took the three kids to the amusement park for a day of free rides thanks to one of my daycare families. Mostly though, we slept, hung out in pajamas and watched movies. Many thanks to the Young Women who dropped off soup and rolls Sunday afternoon.

Hopefully, we are on the mend. Kirstin flew home to Oregon last night and I think (hope) my worst days were Saturday and Sunday. I still feel pretty nasty today, but it should be better soon . . . right?!

New Year's resolutions will have to wait until I can breath out of at least one nostril.