camping in Maplewood

you'll never believe it... but I went camping!

in a tent!

for 2 nights!

for the first time in 12 years!

there were cyotes howling, owls hooting, acorns falling on our tent constantly, and loons calling... ALL night long! PLUS: I had a horrible cold and it was FA-REEZING at night.

But, despite all of those things...

I had fun!

I might even do it again next year... :)

here are some of my favorite pictures:

roughing it:

our 2 bedroom tent:

our campsite was right on the lake!

view from our campsite:

pictures from our hike(there's a lot!):

Jeffrey's caterpillar(he was dead):

lilypads

animal hole/home:

cool fungi:

bee close-up:

lilypad close-up

hiking:

my 2nd time wearing my new tennis shoes that I bought a year ago(both times were for hikes):

spider web:

beaver lodge:

to be continued in next post...

more hike pictures

bat house:

I like photographing spider webs...

tree hugger!

love this messy face!

evanrude:

look how cool this tree is!

the one tree that had changed already:

we are going back on John's birthday or mine for "Leaf Days"- can't wait to see all the trees in color! We all had a fantastic time on our camping trip and made many special memories.

Best of all: everyone was proud of me! :)

Buffalo River- trouble again!

me- M A D

Do you remember last year when I wrote about the mean boy at this beach? Welllll.... we braved it again on August 21st and this time we had a WORSE experience than the last!!

Here we go:

When we arrived there was hardly anyone there so we picked a nice spacious patch of sand to set up on and the kids got right to work on their elaborate sand castles/ cities. There was a picnic table right behind us in the grass and I usually put some of our stuff on it if that happens but since there was so much room everywhere and we weren't going to use it I just left it empty. It turns out that would be the biggest mistakes of my life.(not literally as Mickey would say) Because... a group of two families came later and completely ruined the rest of our day. With endless choices of picnic tables and beach space they chose to claim the picnic table 3 feet behind us as the perfect one for them!?!?!?! WHY WHY WHY????? They had toddlers- of course and "forgot" to bring any sand toys- OF COURSE! I knew immediately what was in store but I could have never in my wildest dreams imagined how it would actually play out. As predicted the kids not only wanted to use all of our stuff but also kept walking through our area/wrecking our castles to get to and from the water! Did their parents care? Guess. At one point one of the little boys was walking all through Mickey's castles(which if you know Mickey was completely devastating on many levels- so he started hyperventilating) and then walked with his sandy feet all over our blanket, Mary Beth's snack, and some towels!!! The mom and dad just COULD NOT manage to hoist themselves up from their lounging position to get their son- so they just kept calling his name in a sing song voice and said "ooooohhhh- sorry" after the sandy snack walk. I was so upset by this point after all of the shenanigans that had come before that I stood up, didn't acknowledge them, angrily picked up the snacks, shook out the blanket, consoled Mickey and tried to help him fix his ruined city. Not long after this when John and the kids were in the water, the mom I mentioned above walked directly down to the water(through our area!!!!) and purposely stepped on top of one of Mickey's castles on the way!!!! I gasped. What kind of mother would do that???? Then she waded out to her husband and told him something, he looked up at me and then they both started laughing together. Were they psychopaths???? I was furious!!! I just kept wishing my sisters were there to take care of the situation because I was too scared to- and they aren't. The mean mom was a "big gal" and she definitely seemed like the type that would cause a ruckus. And since I prefer never to be beaten up(especially in front of my children) I decided to just shoot dirty looks from behind my sunglasses and make passive aggressive comments to John- just loud enough for them to hear. That showed them.

Thankfully, they left about an hour later and I demanded we stay longer just so I could enjoy some peace for awhile. What is the deal with this beach??? Why can't we catch a break there? But I'm over it now- can you tell?

Minnesota Zoo

On Sunday, August 7th, on the way home from WI we decided to make a quick trip to the Minnesota Zoo to see the new penguin exhibit that was being advertised everywhere. It was 2 hours before closing time but we thought- no big deal! we have our zoo pass which gets us in free and we can come back another time to see the rest of the zoo. WELLLL... we handed the guy our Fargo pass like usual except this time he said: $40 please. WHAT??? Apparently the reciprocity is only 1/2 off admission now!! It wouldn't have been so bad if 1. we knew that and 2. we had more than 2 hours to see a huge zoo! because of course after spending $40 you don't want to just look at a few things and leave! Another surprise: the penguin exhibit was just a small enclosed case with a few penguins running around. I guess we were expecting a bit more after all the hype! Like a whole area with several different penguin species, ect. Oh well. The good news was that it was a special night where this one union was getting in free and the hours were extended so we ended up staying for about 3 hours and saw most of the zoo(with no dilly-dallying). I guess we will be going to the Como Zoo from now on! We had fun though.