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Chelsea and the Boys Visit Minneapolis

I told Chelsea earlier this year she was the only one who hasn't seen our house yet. She said she would visit this summer. She texted me earlier this week asking when she could come. Looking at our calendar I said, this weekend or the weekend after Labor Day.

When they arrived Theo gave her a tour of our house. 

I told her we had plans to go blueberry picking and she agreed to go along too. They had never gone before. 

Hoo, boy. Was I glad that I got out of blueberry picking this year. I spent the day painting back at home.

I don't know why, but I do enjoy berry picking. 



Afterwards we picked up food from the co-op and had lunch in Stillwater. 

Then we went swimming at the St Croix River Boom Site. 

We parked our towels right next to the natural spring that flows into the river. 

Blake...


The sunny skies soon turned to clouds and then it started raining. The kids just kept on playing. 

I couldn't believe they were still out in Stillwater.

Then we went over to Teddy Bear Park. 

Afterwards we got candy at Tremblay's. 

Were they ever coming home?

We did indeed come back. As we decided to have dinner at Bread and Pickle. 

Oh, look they're also painting their shingles. This was looking really gnarly.

Harvey's ketchup exploded on his face. 

Don't let that fool you, they probably didn't eat anything.

Then we went over to the playground.


Chelsea and the kids spent a good hour playing with chalk.

Our night wasn't over yet. We wanted to take them to Bebe Zito for ice cream, but the line was super long. We opted for Sonny's instead. 

I feel like we must not have enough ice cream shops in Minneapolis with the crazy lines around town at nearly every ice cream shop.

Sonny's would do.

The next morning Meadow made us her famous muffins for breakfast. 

With freshly picked blueberries of course.

We debated what to do next. 

I guess they spent too much money in Stillwater. Tsk, tsk.

Chelsea needed gas and suggested we go to Costco for lunch. I forgot how cheap their food is.

I mentioned to Chelsea that Meadow had to turn in her booklet to get her Junior Ranger badge. I asked if her kids wanted to do it too since we were going. 

We were back at the Mississippi River National Recreation visitors center for the second week in a row after never going here all these years.

I helped Nolan and Harvey with their booklets. 

Theo tried to tie ropes as fast as he could. And kept getting frustrated.


Still at it.

He wanted to do it over and over. 

We were getting bored, so we checked out the musical stairs.

Harvey and Nolan were great junior rangers. They talked to the ranger and repeated the pledge. 

We were again debating what to do. Did we want to spend $170 bucks to get in? I was shy to ask, but I guess we qualify for reduced entry fees and got us all in for $15! Now we'll have to get a membership.

We discovered there was a secret scavenger hunt. 

It was a pretty fun hunt. Next time we'll have to do one of the other ones. 

We mostly stayed on the lower level at this point. 

Dare I say that the Science Museum of Minnesota is better than any children's museum?

Apparently I can jump 3 feet off the ground.

Little guy gave it is his best try.

Harvey loved racing.

Scott was anxious to get back to go to the Aquatenniel fireworks. We wanted to check out the special exhibit first. This artist creates beautiful pieces of art with insects and small reptiles. 

It seemed like we weren't going to make the fireworks.

We thought Harvey and Nolan loved sushi like their parents. We convinced them to go to Sushi Train anyway. 

Well, we loved it. As did Chelsea. But apparently she's not into crowds or fireworks.

Harvey was excited to see the big city so we walked around downtown after dinner. 

We caught the end of the fireworks still. 

Just a bit.

The next morning Theo and I picked up donuts for breakfast. 

Mmmm...donuts. For some reason even though we're the same distance, we don't really walk to Bogart's much since moving.  That's what a busy street will do.

Before they left we took them to our favorite neighborhood wading pool. 

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