Glendalough State Park

Since we were home on Saturday and it was such a beautiful day, we decided to spend it out and about at one of our local state parks. It was a gorgeous bike ride and although the water was a little bit chilly, the kids loved spending some more time at the beach...

Horseback Riding!

Bella has had it in her head all summer long that she wanted to go horseback riding. Luckily we have some friends that have horses and LOVE to take kids out on them. We set up a "play date" and headed over last Friday to see her horses. The kids had a great time and the horses were so well trained that they were even able to ride them "on their own". Chris and I definitely got our walk in while we followed them all over the yard, pasture and wherever else they decided to ride! It was a great day!

Bike Park

We made our yearly trip to the Wadena bike park... minus one of the Kiser families! Ronnie's kids are both involved in volleyball and football so they couldn't find time in between practices to meet up with us. Those of us that were able to go had a good time though, with very few wipe outs and tears! :) Brody was having a blast "catching" some air with Josh's BM bike and he was pretty dang excited.

Day 8 - Camp Canella

We spent Day 7 of our trip traveling back into the states and heading to Laura's cousin's house. They live in Grand Rapids and have a house surrounded by trees. This was heaven for our outdoors loving kids and they spent most of the night and all of the next morning running through the woods in their borrowed camo clothes chasing each other with sticks... It was a little wild and they had a blast. My kids keep asking when they get to go back to Camp Canella!!

Day 6 - Prince Arthur's Landing

Today we headed out to see Lake Superior from the Canadian side. There wasn't a lot to do but wander around on the docks and check out the area along the lake. We find fun in almost everything that we do though and still had a good time. Laura and I were definitely surprised about how little "souveniory" places we could find... Our other vacations have been filled with souvenior and trinket stores so we were ready this time and alas, nothing...

Day 5 - Fort WIlliams

This was a personal favorite of mine! We spent the day at Fort Williams Trading Company and it was so fun. It was a historical reenactment where all the actors stayed true to character while we were there. We had a FABULOUS tour guide who stayed with us pretty much the entire time that we were there even though she was supposed to only give us about a half hour guided tour. The kids really got into the excitement of the place and had questions for everyone that we came upon. A lot involved a "prisoner" that was stuck in the jail cell. He (the recording) kept saying that he was innocent and that he needed to speak with Mr. Tate (the jailor). The kids then spent the majority of the rest of our day asking everyone where Mr. Tate was and trying to find a way to get this poor guy out of jail. It was awesome! :) They also had the chance to make nails, gather birch bark from the canoe making shop to trade for bread at the bakery, load, move and stack wood for the settlements outside of the fort and much more. We also got to be part of a "skirmash" between the villagers and the soldiers. Josh felt that he had a little PTSD after all the musket and cannon fire! :) There was so much to see and do that we barely had time to eat, luckily we had brought granola bars and a few fruit snacks along. Laura and I decided that it was a sure sign that the kids were having fun when we were there from about 10:00-4:00 and they really didn't even complain about being hungry or thirsty!! Zoe was still asking about Sally, our tour guide, as she went to bed that night. It was a great time!