Happy Birthday Anna!

Just wanted to post a Happy Birthday message for Anna. The girls and I love her so much and appreciate all that she does for us. She is the greatest!
Happy Birthday Anna!

State Parks

Now that July is over and Todd has finally finished all of his night classes (yahoo!). We decided to explore some of the state parks Minnesota has to offer. About 45 minutes from our house along the St Croix river are two parks- the Interstate Park (on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin), and the Wild River park. Both are very pretty and have various things to offer.

Here are Anna and Jayda overlooking the St Croix river at the Interstate park. The state border is actually in the middle of the river. You can see a small ferry boat (paddle boat) that you can take on a ride up the river to see the large cliffs if you want.

 

Addison did pretty well hiking around in the backpack, and Jayda was a super energetic hiker that we had a hard time keeping up with. She could have run up and down the trails all day long if we let her.

 

Part of what is popular are the large rocks that you can climb in and on. Several groups of rock climbers were there, and Jayda thought it was cool to hide in this little rock outcropping.

 

The kids and dad again overlooking part of the river.

 

A little farther up the river is the other park called Wild River. Not sure why they call it that name, it is a very calm and quiet area where the water barely moves. It was a beautiful walk/hike through the trees to the river. It was a short hike, but very scenic and fun to watch the kids run half of the way. Here is Anna with the girls on the way down into the trees.



The girls loved walking together and holding hands or chasing each other.



After our hikes we had a little picnic at the visitor center. Addison was playing around and we snapped this picture. It looks to me like she is doing a little country jig. Not sure if she was really dancing or not, but it is darn cute.