Land of 10,000 Lakes

Minnesota is known as "Land of 10,000 Lakes," and today we experienced a number of the lakes. We started off by fishing. We caught about 7 sunfish, using popcorn and corn-on-the-cob as bait. Luckily we had Grandma with us to take the fish off the hook - the rest of us were too scared to touch the fish. Next we went to the beach. Kayla did a little "scuba diving" - she would go underwater and the fish would swim right into her goggles. We then walked to a beautiful garden by the lake and had lunch at an outdoor cafe. Last, but not least, we went out on a peddle boat and peddled through 3 lakes. Kayla was a bit scared to try the boat at first, but ended up loving it. Chloe had the best seat on the boat - the rocking put her right to sleep.

Aunt Gina

Gina arrived from NYC yesterday. Of course, she came with lots of homemade gifts for the girls, including dress-up clothes and bridal veils. The girls love spending time with their aunt.

Here's the Children's Museum

Why can't we have this kind of thing in Grand Junction? I guess then it would not be so special when we get to visit when we are in Minnesota.

Minnesota

So, here's what we've been up to for the last few days. On Wednesday, we went to the zoo. The zoo even had rides that the girls enjoyed going on. On Thursday, we went to a park with a waterfall. We had lunch at a restaurant in the park with my grandma, uncle and dad. The park had a pavillion with a stage where the girls put on a show for us. Today we went to the Children's Museum. They have a special Curious George exhibit right now. We were there for about 2.5 hours, but I think the girls could have spent the whole day there. We are still enjoying beautiful, sunny but cool weather. While I miss Andy and the dogs, I definitely don't miss the heat of Fruita!

More birthday pics. The kids liked playing croquet in the backyard. Chloe got "accientally" whacked on the head by a mallet, but then she was running around the yard screaming, "Try to hit me, na na boo boo." Kayla found some of Baba's old clothes from Czechoslovakia. Baba made these clothes about 70 years ago. They are beautiful and totally handmade with beautiful embroidery and stitching. We got a kick out of seeing Kayla dressed in these clothes.

Kayla had a second birthday in Minnesota with our family. During the day we went to the pool. It is the same pool I swam in as a child, but it has been redone with lots of fun things for kids to play in. We had a family party at night with Kayla's favorite foods - steak and shrimp.

We celebrated Kayla's birthday at a pottery painting studio. Her theme was "Butterflies." I think a good time was had by all. However, I scheduled the party for 2 hours, but the girls were all done painting after about 15-20 minutes.