Snow

We got our first snow a couple weeks ago, but today we got a lot of snow, and we had a lot of fun!
I don't think Joslyn remembers the snow from last year, but she knows what it is now, and she really wanted to go out in it.

This is a couple weeks ago, but Joslyn was pretending she was at a snow party!

Dorian's first time in the snow, he didn't like it at all. I had to act pretty silly to get him so smile.

His second time was a lot better.

Joslyn loved the sled, but Dorian was less enthusiastic.

The temperature has been getting pretty cold, so we've been spending a lot more time inside. We've had a hard time getting creative and finding things to do, so if any of you have any ideas on what we can do indoors and at home please let us know! We have a long winter ahead of us! 

One thing we've done that both kids enjoyed was making a fort. They liked it so much they wouldn't sit still for a picture.

Halloween Party

This Saturday we had a Halloween party! We were pretty excited for Halloween this year. We had a party last year, and we had so much fun with it, that we decided to do one again this year. Kim loves making Halloween themed foods and snacks, so she made quite a few! We didn't get pictures of everything, but the favorite was these spider cookies.

Mummy and pumpkin pretzels 

Frankenstein veggie platter

Mummy pizzas

For Halloween this year we dressed up as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We didn't get pictures of all of us together in our costumes, and Dorian didn't really like his, but Joslyn loved hers! All month she's been so excited to be the blue turtle. Dorian was orange, and Kim was the purple one.

It is so rare that I get both kids to smiling at the camera at the same time, that I had to share this picture from church on Sunday.

Joslyn has been trying to climb trees for a while now, but she finally found one she could get up!

Interstate State Park

Over Labor Day weekend we decided that we really wanted to do some hiking. We really enjoyed hiking in the mountains around the Provo area, but out here there aren't a lot of places to go. So after asking around about some good hiking areas, we decided to check out Taylor's Falls, which turned out to be across the street from Interstate State Park, right on the boarder of Minnesota and Wisconsin. We found some nice trails for hiking, and it was so beautiful, even though it did rain on us a little bit.
So we started out on a trail in Taylor's Falls, and came back on a trail through Interstate State Park.

This is in front of the sandstone bluffs (they weren't super tall, but they were really cool)

You can see the orange/yellow color better in this one.

We had to go down a few stair cases like this (it was kinda scary with no handrail!)

We even had to go through a couple tunnels!

This is a Glacial Pothole in the state park.

Also that weekend, Joslyn was invited to one of her friends birthday party. She had a really good time! They had a pinata and played at the park. Her favorite part, though, was the chocolate cup cakes!

Dorian had fun too!

MN State Fair

A few weeks ago, we did the Minnesota state fair. It was really a lot of fun.
We started out with the animals, and Joslyn got to pet baby animals that were just a few days, or hours old. Joslyn especially liked the pigs and sheep.
While walling around, we ran into Joslyn's favorite cartoon, Dora! We had no idea she would be there, but Joslyn was so suprised, and loved it!

Joslyn stayed with Dora for a long time, went back several times, and kept asking to go back and see her again the rest of the day.

Then we did the Kemp's farming experience. Last year Joslyn was too little to really understand what to do, but this year she understood a lot more. She got to feed chickens, cows and sheep, and collect eggs, milk and wool from them.

She also got to drive a tractor! She was a little too small to actually peddle, but she had a blast!

Our little animals!!

Our last stop was the giant sand box. Both our kids love the sand so this was a hug hit! Joslyn did a lot of digging, and Dorian mostly just held fistfulls of sand.

This has nothing to do with the fair, but I was pretty proud of this bread I made the other day. :)

Minnesota Zoo

I think we've mentioned that we live really close to Como Zoo, and that admission is free, so we've been quite a few times. But we recently decided to check out the Minnesota Zoo.
It rained quite a bit while we were there, so we didn't spend a lot of time at the outdoor exhibits. But we were pretty excited about how easily we were able to find the animals. They were all out where we could see them. And some came really close!

Like this brown bear just hanging out by the glass.

 They also had a spicial dinosaur exhibit going on when we went. Getting into the exhibit cost extra, so we didn't actually go in, but there were some dinosaurs and dinosaur footprints throughout the zoo that were pretty fun to see.

While walking around, and trying to keep out of the rain, we came upon a carousel, so we decided to go for a ride. The kids both liked it.

Out of all the cool animals to ride on, Joslyn picked the tiger cub.

 
They had a lot of indoor stuff to look at.  There was a large indoor rainforest area.  It had a lot of weird birds as wells as small crocodiles and a couple komodo dragons.  They even have a nice aquarium with lots of jellyfish and small sharks that you're allowed to touch.

Dorian got to ride on the hippo next to Joslyn.

The best part of having the Minnesota Zoo and the Como Zoo so close is that they have almost no overlap.  They don't have very many of the same animals.  The Como Zoo has more monkeys and gorillas, while the Minnesota Zoo has more reptiles and an aquarium.  One has brown bears, the other has polar bears, etc.  

They both had so much fun!

The kids really like the zoo and want to go back again soon.  There are several play areas and jungle gyms throughout the zoo for them.  We'll write another post soon.

Vacation

We went on vacation for a few days up north. The first day of our vacation we hiked the highest point in Minnesota! The hike was pretty rough, and took a long time, but we all made it to the top. We forgot to bring our phones on the hike with us though, so we didn't get a picture.

The second day we drove even farther north; into Canada! Kim had never been out of the country before, and we were pretty close so we decided-why not?
While in Canada we made a couple stops. First we went to Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park.

It was a really park with a lot of different things to do. We didn't do much more than look at the falls, though. It was really cold. It's only a couple hours north of us, and we thought the weather would be similar to the twin cities, but it was way colder!

After going to the falls we went to a museum, and Joslyn had a really good time!

This is her in an old jail.

And finally, our neighbor is Canadian, and he told us if we wanted to do a truly Canadian thing while there, we had to stop at Tim Horton's. It's a major doughnut chain in Canada, and everyone gets their Tim bits (doughnut holes). We liked the Tim bits, but their signature doughnuts weren't the best.

And now just some awesome pictures of our adorable kiddos!

Dorian started solids, and he loves everything!

Dorian loves the swing!

Enjoying a snack outside

Dorian is such a happy boy!

Joslyn made a giant tower (with a little help)

Joslyn has started to use her imagination, and it has been so much fun! She is doing a lot a pretend play, and has started building things with her blocks!

Joslyn's birthday

This Saturday Joslyn turned 2! I can't believe how fast these 2 years a have gone! She is so sweet and loves her brother so much! She talks non-stop, and asks to play in the pool every day!

For her birthday we went to a nearby park. Joslyn especially like the giant rock climbing hill and slide.

After the park, we went to the zoo. This was the first time she's been really interested in the animals. She really liked the monkeys and the polar bear. 

And for the summer they have a special butterfly exhibit. Kind of like the butterfly room at Pacific Science Center in Seattle. Isaac thinks it has even more butterflies. Joslyn absolutely loved it! She ran around pointing at all the butterflies and thought it was so funny when they flew in front of her. A couple of them even landed on Dorian!

That night we had a little party for her. Another girl in our ward had her birthday the next day so we decided to celebrate together. Joslyn loved having all her friends around and eating the cake.