Another Weekend, Another State Park

It was another lovely day in the Twin Cities today.  Actually all week has been nice, but today was a particularly beautiful fall day. 72 degrees, warm breeze, blue skies - stunning. We took advantage of the weather and did more geocaching in another state park, Fort Snelling State Park.

Following the GPS, trying to find the cache!

Found it!

The geese are starting to fly south for the winter...

Brenny loves to climb trees.

Charlotte's Birthday Party

Charlotte had a sleepover and birthday party with 5 girls.  Brennan was allowed to invite one friend, too.  The kids did a scavenger hunt around the house, yard and neighborhood, finding prizes along the way.  That was a huge hit!  Then they played in the leaves and finally got their faces painted and balloon animals from a hired artist.  The party finished with silly string spraying and mummy wrapping with a roll of toilet paper.  Fun was had by all!

Geocaching at Afton State Park

Had a great day hiking and looking for caches at Afton State Park.  It is a free activity offered by the park to lend GPS trackers to find little "prizes" hidden all around the property.  It kept the kids busy and gave us a lot of exercise.  Best of all, it was loads of fun!!

Just starting off...

Figuring out how to work the GPS

We're on to something!  I think I see the cache!

Yay!  Our first find!  I don't think we should eat the candy in there....

who knows how long it's been in there!

Second cache.  We're getting the hang of this now!

Char and Bren are pals.

How fun it is to walk through the meadows...

Showing the love...

Catch a falling leaf and you'll have good luck.

Got it!!

Brenny runs more than he walks!

Afton Alps Fun Day

What  a beautiful day out at Afton Alps.  Hayrides, hiking, pumpkin painting -- and best of all, playing in the newly-created snow.  They ran the snow-making machine so the kids could get a taste of what is to come in a few months!

Bren and the Computer

So it's finally happened.  Our youngest has succumbed to the lure of the computer and all of its games.  We try to keep them educational games and limit his time playing them -- he loves playing outside, as well, going for bike rides, etc., but he can easily get sucked into hours at the computer.  So here we've captured him in his rapture!

Brennan looks very much like his cousin, William, in this photo...

Swim Meet!!

Char and Bren competed in a mini-swim meet.  It was only Makos against Hammerheads (the two teams they are on, respectively).  Here are some shots from that day.