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 :-)

First Camping Trip: Day 1

Today we packed up everything we needed for a few days in the woods and headed out! We met college friends Eric, Nancy and Nancy's sister Carrie-Ann at Cannon Falls State Park in Northern Wisconsin. It was about a 4 hour drive - not too bad, but still pretty long. We got there before everyone else, so we decided to set up the tent. Madeline was a big help :-)
Once everyone got there and settled the guys started a camp fire and we cooked dinner. Madeline thought it was great!
As the sun went down we watched the fire and then headed to bed. We'll hopefully get some hiking in tomorrow :-)

Potty Training Update: Part Three

It's been 3 days without an accident in her diaper (except for overnight), so we decided it was time for big girl underwear or "Bunders" as we like to call them :-) We actually looked for training pants, but because her bum is so little we just couldn't find any that would fit. Hopefully she continues her steak of not going anywhere but her potty chair - we're keeping our fingers crossed!

Cousin Alyshia stayed with us last night and helped us with the Bunder shopping today. We also went to the park, splash pad and hot dog stand for lunch - what a busy day :-)

Potty Training Update: Part Two

Another big day! So, we left for the fair at about 9:30 or 10:00 this morning and we just put a diaper on Madeline, thinking it was going to be a pretty long day. We must have been distracted by all the animals, good food & carnival rides because we didn't realize we hadn't checked her diaper until about 1:30 in the afternoon. We knew we had waited too long and scrambled to find a changing area. When we took her diaper off she was completely dry!!!! Mommy immediately took her to the bathroom and she went - yeah!!!

After the horse show, demo derby and a pony ride we were getting ready to go. We checked her diaper - dry again! Back to the bathroom and she went again!!!

Still a dry diaper when we got home. She went on her potty chair, so that definitely meant she got to watch an episode of her favorite show - Little Einsteins :-) Here's a great picture of her and Grandpa singing and saying "Blast-Off!" That afternoon she realized that if she went on the potty that meant she got to watch her favorite show, so after every episode was over, she would run to her potty chair, go a little bit and then yell "Einsteins, Einsteins!" We have one smart little cookie on our hands!
We've been so good about her watching very little TV so we really didn't want this to become a habit. We decided to change the reward for going on the potty... Bunny Crackers for a potty and Einstiens for the other. She may get more Bunny Crackers than she ever has before, but at least she won't be plopping her bum in front of the TV all the time :-)
After dinner it was off to the bath tub... An entire day without going in her diaper once!
We're not going to get our hopes up, but we think she may have got it!