Zoo

Let's face it, summer has been cooler and more wet than most. It has been hard to get to the beach, have water fights, and enjoy the typical summer activities that we are used to having the past few years. However, that will not stop us from being thankful for another day and enjoying every moment that He has given to us.

Today, we took an unexpected trip to the zoo, and it was such a wonderful outing. The animals were magnificent! Each one moving around, playing and enjoying the day as we stood in amazement soaking up every detail of it.

 

As we were leaving the zoo we had the excitement of riding a 100 year old carousel. This was no ordinary carousel. Each horse is all wood, hand crafted and painted in 1914. The horses are beautiful.  I have never been that big of a fan of the carousel. I get dizzy easily and just don't particularly like the ride. I do it for the kids. So today, I got in line and although I was intrigued by the history of the carousel, I was not looking forward to the ride itself. I was delighted by the enjoyment I got out of this ride. It was the fastest carousel I have ever been on not to mention it was almost a 10 minute ride rich in history. I loved every second of it, as did the boys. I have walked past this particular carousel many times and not given it another glance. I will not make this mistake again.

We are all looking forward to the next zoo visit and the next carousel ride!

I am thankful for today.

Climbing High!

When did they get so big? This year for Noah's birthday adventure he decided he wanted to take a trip to the cities and do some rock climbing. What a fun day! What a fun field trip! We ended up buying a punch card. Cannot wait to go back!

This was right after we told the boys we were going to have to head out for the day. As you can tell the youngest was none to happy about the idea of leaving!

Llamas!

What could be more fun than a field trip to the llama farm? One of the many exciting things about school is the field trips. In May we took a trip with a few other families to the llama farm. It was wonderful.
We started the almost 4 hour visit with an educational time. There were so many things that I/kids did not know about llamas.
The educational section was followed by the much anticipated trail walk. Each child got to walk a llama, and this was no short walk. Even super dad got in on the fun!

Noah enjoyed walking Tootsie...

Jacob is a kind of animal whisper. He walked several, but in the end had the most fun with Mocha.

Walking the obstacle course

Sweet Jonah! He is 2 years old going on 16. There is not much that gets by him. He is one tuff cookie. Mariah did not want to walk, but Jonah did not give her much of an option. It struck me as funny to see an 6+ foot tall animal getting handled our the little man.

Say Cheese!

After our walk the kids were able to see a llama getting sheared, see the yarn after it is cleaned, make a project, and groom the llamas.

Lastly our 3 boys helped put all the llamas back out to pasture for the farmer. All in all the outing was educational, fun and engaging. Our family would definitely give it 2 thumbs up!

Apple Orchard

On September 30th, we went to Deer Lake apple orchard. Mommy has made it a tradition to head out to an apple orchard in the fall to take in the sights & smells of fall. We also learned of a new (to us) apple developed at the University of Minnesota - the Zestar. We already have one Honeycrisp apple tree that was developed at the U. That tree barely survived the deer last fall as they nibbled every new shoot & young twig down to the trunk. We still need another tree for pollination & wanted to try out the Zestar apples, but they were all done for the season. If anyone has had any of the Zestar apples, let us know what you think.



We met our friend Sandy & her daughter Jennifer at Deer Lake. Mommy & Sandy have meet now for a couple of years for a day out in the fall sun enjoying the turning leaves. Nobody told daddy that it was yellow shirt day...



Here's Noah in the pumpkin patch again. This is mommy's favorite photo of the day.



Here's Jennifer & Noah sitting among the pumpkins. You can see the beginning of it here, but Jennifer wasn't quite having as much fun as Noah was. It didn't take too long before she had had enough & wanted to get up and run.



Here's one more family photo with Noah on the tricycle. We're thankful that Sandy was willing to snap the pic as we do not get too many family photos when we run the camera.