Minnehaha Falls and Fort Snelling's Pike Island Hikes

We had a random warm day, Scott got new hiking boots and I love waterfalls. So a trip to Minnehaha Falls we went.

Will she ever get bored with waterfalls? Probably not.

Getting down any trail sure takes longer than before we had kids.

The kids just wanted to play in the creek.

We haven't walked the trail to the river since Meadow was Theo's age.

It's still one of my favorite hikes in Minnesota even if it's right in the city.

"What?! The sand is yellow!"

All the fisherman and woman were out where Minnehaha meets with the Mississippi.

The kids would've played in the sand cave all day, but we had to get back before sunset. It was a school night, after all.

I wonder when we'll be back here next. I think the kids hope sooner rather than later.

After some literal tree hugging, we called it a night. They do this everywhere.

On Saturday the kids and I picked up a box of doughnuts for breakfast from Bogart's.

Another hiking weekend at Fort Snelling. While it's our least favorite, we decided to stay close by this time. The kids really wanted to go back to Minnehaha Falls.

It's not my least favorite, but this time of year, after a lot of hikes, I'm kind of ready for leaf canopies to be in full bloom. It's just so gray out right now.

Little tree huggers.

At it again. Goof balls love nature just like their parents.

Hey, deer.

The kids wanted to play in the water again.

At least this was more interesting than the main trail that we've hiked so many times already. Honestly would've been fun to hike one of the other trails in the park, but we're on a hiking club mission.

We found a tree that had been ravaged by bugs. It was pretty groovy.

It's about the journey and not the destination. I suppose.

We made it to the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers.

And the hiking club password.

Hi, Theo.

Theo wanted to be carried but only if he could be carried from the front.

Brooke doesn't think Theo looks like her because he has blonde hair. With a hat on you really see it.

I still don't see it.

Pretending to be a butterfly.

I guess we really didn't do much the rest of the day. We don't normally head out of the house so early. We all admitted we like starting things later and coming home late. We didn't really know what to do the rest of the day.

Finally, Brooke admits that taking your time is better than rushing out in the morning.

Comments

Sisters, a Brother and Walking Chicago

Summer always seems to mean one thing: weddings. Whether I'm shooting or attending, we're bound to end up at a few every year. This time around we were heading down to Chicago from my big sister Katrina's nuptials. I feel like all our vacations are centered around a wedding or something wedding related. I wish we could go on a vacation without having to worry about being somewhere. It also means a few repetitive trips down I-94. There aren't nearly enough unique stops off the interstate. One outlier is Foster Cheese Haus , the only organic Wisconsin cheese shop I know of. Run by the folks behind Castle Rock Organic Farms , we always try to stop by. Unfortunately for us they were closed on Wednesdays, but at least we got to spy on their darling garden out front. Brooke and I arrived in Necedah. We decided to stop at Brooke's sister Brittany's home along the way to cut the ride in half and get her dressed hemmed. ...

Dakotas Road Trip: Badlands and Black Hills

I thought we would skip Wall Drug this time since we've seen it before but Scott was gun ho on going. Come on. You can't go to the Badlands and skip the world's greatest tourist trap. First stop ice cream. We thought we would have lunch here but after seeing the prices decided we would cook something at the park instead. But first we had to take a couple tourist pics. When we we decided we were coming here I was expecting it to be 90's and hot. Did not think it would be rainy, chilly and foggy. I always make Brooke look cool. She on the other hand always finds a way to take a pic at the most awkward possible moment. Either that or I'm just really awkward. Earlier this year, I asked Theo where he wanted to go on vacations this year. He said he wanted to backpack camp at the Badlands because he was sad he didn't get to go yet. This is all for you buddy.

Japan Family Trip - Part II: Exploring the Shrines and Wilds of Nikko

We had originally planned on taking the bullet train down from Tokyo to Kyoto for a day or two. While being epically fast, it was a bit spendy for the four of us. After talking to Brooke's coworker we settled on a two day trip to Nikko and its World Heritage Sites to break up our week in Tokyo. This turned out to be an amazing decision. The town is teaming with beauty from ancient shrines to epic waterfalls and some of the best meals we had on our trip. Kyoto didn't seem all that appealing to me when I started researching which location to go to. I too am glad we chose to head north to Nikko. When we booked our Tobu Nikko Spacia X tickets I upgraded to the premium seats thinking that we'd be sitting facing one another. Instead we ended up with 4 individual seats, two in the first two rows and two in the last two rows. It turned out just fine with the kids sitting in front of us in two groups. Meadow and I were seated at the front of the car. Once in awhile we'd pas...

Search This Blog