Tag Archives: Minnesota

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…

My Family, National Forest, Parks

Kabetogama State Forest and Voyageurs National Park ~International Falls, MN

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We camped at the Woodenfrog Campground in Kabetogama State Forest in northern Minnesota. The girls loved all the deer at the campground(the boys stayed with their grandparents).
This was dry camping and I have to admit the vault toilets were chilly, especially at night but it was not bad at all! With his girls. Voyageurs National Park does not have any land access campgrounds so we stayed at the nearby Kabetogama State Forest. Nick and I have canoed out to the National Park to camp before though! The campsites at the Woodenfrog campground were beautiful! And there is a trail right at the campground that was beautiful as well.

You could just walk this beautiful campground road.

So pretty.
We borrowed Nick’s parents camper.

We kept nice and warm inside the camper even without hookups 😉

Used power from batteries(recharged with generator during the day) to run fan for furnace and the gas furnace.

Kept it a little chilly to make sure we did not run out but it worked great. This was the campground trail. Amazing. You can access some of the Voyageur trails by driving.

The Echo Bay Trail was near the campground and was beautiful.

Trying to not share all the pics but it is so hard to choose! It was magic. Something magical happened while we were up there also…

It snowed! We found this road on the side of the road by International Falls. We stopped though and big beautiful flakes started to come down! The twins were not sure about the cold but Little Bit was as happy about the snow as I was! We walked on the Kab-Ash Trail for a little bit but it was really wet and it kept switching to sleet instead of snow so we did not hike long. The next morning we woke up to…

me squealing.

Because of this!!!!

There was a bit of a concern about being able to get out but we made it!

We stopped at the Echo Bay Trail on the way out and I took some snow pics before we headed back to his parents. Thanks for showing off northern Minnesota!