Canterbury Park

Just like last year, we headed to Canterbury Park for the Sunday before Labor Day. The weather was gorgeous, so watching the horse races outside was perfect! Madeline loved watching the horses go around and around :-)

State Fair Time!

Today Aunt Melanie drove up and we went to the MN State Fair! First we went to the baby animal barns - always a hit with Madeline :-) Then we walked all over finding everything we could to eat that came On-A-Stick :-) We had all of the following on a stick: Big Fat Bacon, Shrimp, Reuben, Mac 'N Cheese, Homemade Tator Tots, and Porcupine Balls (actually made of wild rice and ground pork) and Pizza! It's great to have a few people sharing so we can taste a lot of different things!!!
Aunt Melanie took Madeline on the carousel again this year....
This year's picture: Last year's picture: Then we finished off the day by getting Fried Cheese Curds - absolutely the best reason to go to the fair! You can bet we'll be back next year :-)

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Uncle Keith sent Madeline a new shirt and today Mommy and Madeline decided to dress up as twins when we went to swimming lessons! Madeline thought it was so fun!
Then it was off to swimming - it was Daddy's turn to take her in the pool: She's getting so good at kicking her feet! Miss Natalie was so proud :-) She can even swim all by herself with the swim noodle!!! She just LOVES swimming :-)

One Last Day...

Today we got up, ate breakfast and started to pack everything up. Madeline kept busy by driving her cars up and down the Bike Trailer Hitch... so creative and it kept her busy for a long time! Once we got everything packed up we decided to hit the trail one more time. This time we walked a mile or 2 in the opposite direction and explored yet another lake - what a great trip!

20+ Miles - A Beautiful Ride!

Today we packed a lunch and headed out on the trail back towards Waseca. The trail was sooo nice! Completely paved and shaded with very few hills (we're sure that's because it used to be a railroad track) making it a very easy and enjoyable ride :-) First we stopped in Waseca and let Madeline play at the park - needless to say she had a great time. Then we biked about 8.5 miles from Waseca to the next town over - Elysian. Here we stopped for lunch at the Bear's Den. There are lakes ALL over Minnesota so of course Elysian has a public beach. Madeline and Daddy had an absolutely wonderful time playing in the water... and Mommy helped build sand castles on the beach! It was hard to convince her to leave , but we had to make it back to the campground to meet aunt Melanie and cook some dinner!

Camping in MN

Our last camping tip was so fun we decided that it was definitely something we wanted to again! This time we decided to stay closer to home and only drove about an hour and a half south to Waseca and the Sakatah State Park. We chose this park because of the Sakatah-Singing Hills State Trail, a 10-foot wide, 39 mile paved trail set up on an old railroad way. Since getting the new bike trailer for Madeline we've really enjoyed biking on all the great trails all over Minnesota and thought this would be great for our second camping trip! We left when Matt got home from work so we didn't get there until later in the day, but we started up the camp fire and cooked some dinner. We can't wait for our big bile ride tomorrow!

Potty Training Update: Part Four

So we think we've officially conquered potty training!!! She's only had a handful of accidents in her big girl bunders (underwear) and for the last 2 days she's even woke up from 12 hours of sleeping with a dry diaper!!!!
We'll probably continue to use the Pull-Ups every once in a while and put a diaper on at night for a little bit longer... but as far as we're concerned we have a potty trained little girl :-)

Saint Wenceslaus Festival

It's that time of year again - time for the Saint Wenceslaus church festival! After a great lunch we headed over to the kids carnival area.
Madeline fished for prizes... Chose some ducks from the pond... And picked a sucker from the pyramid :-) She got stickers, bracelets and some candy - once again a great day at the festival!

First Camping Trip: Day 3

It's our last day of camping and we are having a blast!
Madeline has been sleeping great inside her tent (inside our tent) :-) After breakfast we headed out for another hike. This time we saw even bigger Waterfalls And got to play by the Copper River. On our way back to camp we even got to see a deer close up! After lunch we packed up the tent just in time. The rain was coming and the clouds looked like a painting. We're glad we left when we did, but we're definitely going camping more often!!!

First Camping Trip: Day 2

Madeline woke up pretty early this morning, but after crawling into bed with mom and dad went back to sleep for another hour or so. Then it was time to get up! Wake up Daddy!!! Maybe a good morning kiss will work :-) Madeline was HUNGRY! We cooked up some breakfast on the fire and then got ready for our hike. The trail we went on was just under 4 miles. We walked over bridges and We got to see a waterfall... Once we got to the top we had a spectacular view! We stopped for long enough for lunch And a little bit of exploring :-) Then it was Mommy's turn to hike with Madeline.
She was so worn out she actually fell asleep in her carrier! We finally made it back to the car! We drove back to camp and headed to the lake! It was Madeline's first time at the lake and she definitely loved it!!! Hopefully we'll get one more hike in to morrow before we have to leave :-)