Animals

Chahinkapa Zoo and Riding Mules

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Nick’s parents have mules and a pony so riding lessons always happen while we visit! Milo was so spoiled while up there! My cute nephew!

Grandpa was sacrificed in the name of keeping girls entertained… Next up we went to the Chahinkapa Zoo in Wahpeton.

We got a discount from our local zoo membership! It is a small zoo but actually has a lot to see! By the time anyone was even somewhat in the picture my second oldest was kind of done…

He smiled the first 5 times I tried though.

Ha My kids probably saw this same look from me several times while Nick was gone… Love watching these girls together. The girls decided to play gymnastics while up there and roped the two youngest into being students. This girl is crazy strong.

We kept the next day super light with a trip to a local park and I got to go pick up Nick from the airport alone!

I was so happy he was back!

And I was happy he would be there to get kids to go back to sleep that night!

HA

My Family, Parks

Dunton Locks and Tagging Monarchs!

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I started figuring out right away that my plan to sleep in my in-laws camper with the girls while Nick was gone would mean less sleep for me.

Ha

But having extra help around was priceless! We went to a place called Dunton Locks for our first full day without Nick. I tried to not run around all day but at least have something fun everyday. The kids also enjoyed getting to spend a lot of time with cousins! The next day we went to a prairie wetlands learning center and ended up being there while they were tagging Monarchs! They educate the kids on what to do and why and let them catch them for them to tag! 9 kids all with giant nets was a bit chaotic but we survived and most caught one. The tag is a little sticker on their wing.

This helps them find out if any of the butterflies from Minnesota made it to Mexico!

After they are done tagging they let the kid decide if they want to release it from their hand or face. Most left pretty fast so it was hard to get a picture but some stayed a long time!

This was such a fun, unexpected treat!

I felt like this should totally have counted as a field trip…

HA

History, My Family

While Nick was on his way to Poland…

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Nick needed to go to Poland for work so we decided that we would move up our trip to Minnesota(and miss the fall colors!) so I could stay up their with the kids while he was gone.

We got there Friday night and he left Sunday.

I of course started trip planning right away when we decided to go up there.

I basically keep the kids and I busy to deal with him being gone.

I was super excited when I realized that we got into the Hjemkomst Center for free with our ASTC membership!

I have wanted to go back every year since we first went but it cost too much to get so many kids in.

We dropped off Nick at the airport and went right to see the viking ship!

My father in law came along to see it and help me wrangle kids 😉

I like the replica of a church they have outside also.

The youngest three were getting a bit antsy but we made it through the tour.

We were told they might have stored dead bodies during the plagues in this outside area.

Yikes.

I am so thankful that one membership has gotten us into so many different places though!

This is how most of our family pics go, let me know if you want tips so you too can take amazing pics like this…

What was funny about Nick going to Poland is that he had also gone to Poland 4yrs before almost to the day.

We had just gotten the twins a few months before and it had gone really, really, badly so I was thankful this time went better.

Stay tuned for what we did while he was gone, if I got any sleep with three kids in a camper with me for five nights, and pics from one of my favorite places!

I might have looked like this a few times that week…