Fall Adventures with the Kids (without Scott)

While Scott was exploring (I was working...) California the kids and I were back home. Porch breakfast and planning for our upcoming Washington road trip.

Today we had plans to go apple picking and hiking. I packed us a picnic lunch for our day.

Meadow had earned some money recently and with her money bought herself a music stand. It arrived today.

Then the kids and I drove to Whistling Well Farms to go apple picking. We had been here a couple times in the past few years.

I always like this one because it's simple. Apple trees, a little shop and a couple animals. That's it.

I also like this place because you can pick whatever variety you want.

And 10 minutes later we were done.

The only thing the apple orchard didn't have were caramel apples. We saw a sign on our drive for the Carpenter Nature Center Apple Shack and figured they would have caramel apples. Sadly they did not so we got honey sticks instead.

Afton State Park is only 5 minutes away from the orchard so figured we would hike there today. First we had our picnic lunch.

We came here to do the hiking club trail, which took us near the beach. I should have brought our swimsuits. I looked at camping here the night before, but changed my mind last minute. Thankfully I did because it rained while we would have been hiking in.

Meadow loves catching grasshoppers.

We took another break to play in the creek where Theo fell in.

And another break to play in the creek up the trail.

I told Theo if he didn't make any complaints during hiking he could pick whatever ice cream he wanted. We stopped at Selma's Ice Cream Parlor in Afton. Of course he picked the biggest mint chocolate chip in the fanciest cone.

Cute place, be sure to stop after a hike at Afton State Park.

When we got home Meadow had another item she ordered waiting for her. She used my old Tamagotchi until it died for good and had been wanting another one.

We keep meals simple around here when Scott is gone.

Trying out her new music stand.

The next day we took a quick trip to Como Park. I had an old card for Como Town to use it. The kids couldn't decide on a ride and finally settled on the swings.

Being here in the summer we got to experience the Japanese Garden. Except most of it was closed for a tea ceremony.

Comments

Six Months, More Like Six Years

Approaching the 11th hour of this Sunday we finally rolled out of bed. Brooke and I made a night out of our six month since being married. In a way we could be celebrating six plus years together. I met the little lady above in February 2006. Now we garden together. We had a lovely night indeed: dinner at Red Stag and drinks at Aster Cafe. I went outside to show Brooke where our new boulevard tree was going to be planted. We found a love letter in our bushes. Brooke couldn't read it, so we let it dry on one of the radiators. The first page was mostly apologizing for not writing and then the second page turned sour with lots of swear words. We drove downtown to eat brunch. We parked across from this rare small pre-1950s building that has somehow survived in downtown Minneapolis's ongoing urban renewal. We decided to eat at La Belle Crepe since I picked up this for our post-wedding breakfast back on that October day. This creperie is...

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. ...

This Puzzle Just Never Ends (Plus More Bread!)

I got off Sunday for the second week in a row. While we both got up at about the same time, Brooke took forever to get dressed. I think she has too many outfits to choose from. Once up I fry some salami to go in this week's bread. We hadn't made ebelskivers in long time. We filled them chocolate chips and jam that we got from our friends Ben and Jordan. It feels like just yesterday that they stopped by post-Christmas with their cat Galaxy. Hopefully we can visit them in Seattle in the next year or so. No those aren't chocolate ebelskievers they weren't turning well and started burning. Since we were having problems with the 'skivers we decided to finish up with some waffles. Scott plans out meals for our grocery list while I clean up the kitchen. It's great to see our mixer back in action. I fixed it midway through the previous week. I meant to take photos of the repair process, but forgot. Then Scott got star...

Search This Blog