Hiking at Glacial Lakes

Happy 4th of July!!

The kids and I spent the week before the 4th at Mom and Dad's place! It was a blast to spend some time with all of my nieces and nephews. They helped me keep up with my walking, too! Lydia, Mikayla (my niece) and I formed a walking choir, singing multiple verses of "Down By the Bay" and "Down on Grandpa's Farm" while we marched along (best verse--Did you ever see mosquitoes eating Doritos...down by the bay!!). Andrew (my nephew) walked with me too. I was so impressed with his determination to make it to the end of the street and back. I was ready to turn back...but he just wanted to keep going! What a trooper! We had a lot of fun and I am so thankful to have them as a part of my life!

Itasca State Park

Anna, Caleb and Isabella joined us on our camping trip this past weekend. We were determined, in spite of the rain, to get in a good, long hike!! So, on Saturday we drove to Itasca for the day. Isabella and Lydia joined us for the first 5 and 1/2 miles of our walk. We pushed them in the double stroller while we attempted to outrun the swarms of mosquitos. We took the bike trail from the Visitor Center to the Headwaters where we met up with Erik and the boys. How devastated we were to find out that the cafe was all out of the wild rice soup that we were so looking forward to!! After lunch Erik took all of the kiddos so that Anna and I could hike the 5 and 1/2 miles back...in the POURING rain!! Our shoes were soggy and we were dripping wet, but we had to be thankful that it wasn't a balmy 90 degree day!! What a fun adventure!!