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.