It finally warmed up enough (to a whopping 20 degrees) to take the boys outside to play in the snow. Compared to the -18 weather we've been having it was relatively warm. We were hoping to make snowmen but it's just too cold out. The snow won't pack. Some day it will warm up enough. Instead we tried out our new sled. There just happens to be this perfect hill right in our backyard, thanks to the snow plow. Too much fun.
Mikey lying in the snow- being the first time in many days, he was loving it.
Super bundled up.
Mikey at the top of the hill waiting for the sled.
Mikey in action.
This is Davey.
He was actually smiling under there.
Loved it.
I know, we are crazy. We put him down the sled with Mikey.
I wasn't planning on including this video, but uploaded it accidentally, so here it is.
Last time down.
The boyz.
Dan pulling the boys back home.
Mikey kept rolling off the sled after each run. I'm not sure why. He must have thought it was fun to land in.
We actually did pack the boys up in the car a few days later to sled on an actual hill. The place we went actually has huge hills and in the summertime it looks so steep. For sledding, however it just wasn't what we were expecting. We couldn't get the sled to make it down the hill in one run. Bummer. From now on, we are sticking to our little backyard hill.
Oh, and by the way, Happy Chinese New Year!
Double impatience. Which does great in the shade but super wilts in the afternoon sun.
Astatic lilies. Which were just beautiful in bloom. 
The sweet william was planted from seeds (thanks, Heather). Doing really well, but have yet to bloom.
2 lilac bushes which should bloom next Spring (behind Mikey). Hopefully preventing kids from falling down into the basement well.
Mikey diggin up the rocks.
Our little herb garden dried up and died before we could harvest it. I'll have to try something else next summer... the herb growing wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I think it just got too much sun. And was I supposed to thin them out? I think that added to their death as well.Summer camping. How wonderful. One of our favorite things to do together as a family. Once Dan returned from China we were all set on going but it was just getting hotter and hotter outside. We were thinking we might not get a chance for camping during his remaining 3 weeks of break. However, on the last day of June there was a slight turn of the weather -night temperatures were forecast to be in the low 50s- so we packed up our little car and headed out for a night. Decided to head to Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park (which is about 45 miles south of Rochester). We found a nice little, secluded campsite and set up camp, then headed out to experience the Mystery Cave catching the last tour of the evening. The cave was, well, a cave. Interesting things to see, but not super impressively huge like other caves I've been to. Formation after formation and very educational. Seemed like something in a quaint, little town.. Which it was. We only saw a portion of the cave- it supposedly is one of the bigger ones out there but seen mostly through spelunking I suppose. Our little one hour tour was nice with only about 6 others in our group and a paved walkway for the stroller. Great for us and our little 2 year old. Dan took a million pictures so if you want to virtually walk through the tour (I think he got every inch covered) let me know and I'll hook you up with all the pictures. Otherwise a few of the highlights of the cave are featured in the slideshow below.
That evening we had a few raccoons visits our campsite. At least we think they were raccoons. It wasn't the baby moving that kept me up, or the uncomfortable air mattress, it was these really strange grunting and wrestling noises coming from outside. Like all night long. Weird. Nothing of ours was ruined so I guess it's fine. Michael didn't hear them or see them but we told him about how they visited our campsite that night. A few nights later Dan told him a bedtime story about the raccoons. Now every night before he goes to bed he asks for Daddy to tell him the "raccoon story." Dan recounts the events of the camp out and makes the raccoon family very adventurous. Mikey loves it. When we went to the Minnesota Zoo a few weeks ago, I think his favorite exhibit was the raccoons. Ironic. Post more about the zoo adventure later. For now, enjoy the pictures below from our little camp out.
(Click on pictures to enlarge. For a full screen slideshow, after clicking on the picture, select the "Slideshow" text to the right of the picture -in Picasa under the "Download Photo"text).
Spring is finally here and the bulbs I planted outside are finally blooming. Well, no flowers yet, but we can see the heads of the tulips and greens of the others. Yeah! I was worried they might have a hard time coming up through the rocks, but so far not too many problems. Where the rocks were a little bit thicker the flowers seem to be coming up a bit slower, but I've been uncovering them and they seem alright. When I went outside a few days ago, I found this as I looked down at my bulbs:
I had no idea what the furry thing was at first and thought it might be some scary dead rodent or squirrel, but as we looked closer we realized it was a baby bunny. It had curled up underneath one of the tulip leaves. He just laid there until Dan nudged him with the broom. We tried feeding it some greens, but I don't think he ate any of it. Might have been too tiny and still on the milk diet.
Michael was so cute and after I told him the bunny was scared, he kept saying he was scared too. He was really interested in it until it started hoping towards him. Then Michael just ran into the house saying "scared." So cute. I was a little worried about the bunny after he was still sitting among the flowers that evening, but the next morning he was gone. Hope he found his way back home. I can't help thinking this is like some little story out of a picture book though. A bunny in the tulip garden. No wonder where they get their ideas.
And as we were eating dinner out on the porch tonight, we happened to see about 7 bunnies hopping around and chasing each other; running back and forth across the street and into the little woods next to the bike bath. Really fun. I've never lived anywhere with wild rabbits. Michael loves it along with the rest of us.
I am finally getting a chance to post about our family camping trip. During Dan's 2 week "selectives" this past month, we selected to take a trip to Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park, located about 45 minutes northwest of us. The park campsites were completely empty (it was a weeknight) so we basically had the whole park to ourselves. We set up camp and took about a 3 mile hike, seeing their waterfall (which wasn't much of a waterfall coming from Utah), and the other trails they had through the forest. We saw a little snake which totally startled me, a big, fat raccoon which was running through the woods and climbed a nearby tree, all kinds of birds including a falcon of some sort and woke up to woodpeckers pecking on the trees. Michael really enjoyed walking and only rode in his snugli pack back for maybe a mile or so. His new words now include: fire, camping, smoke, marshmallow, tent and pretty much anything else camping related.
We just stayed one night...I think that was all we could handle for now- a big tummy and a sleeping bag didn't mix too well and I had to get back to teach piano and dance classes. The weather was perfect for the first day, a little chilly in the morning but it ended up raining and hailing for a few days after we got home so we picked the perfect day. Here are some pictures from our little adventure.
Eating Subway on the drive up to the park. Michael's first time eating it himself.
Taking a rest on the bench along the hiking trails. Looks like fall out hu?
Mikey's funny face and walking on these cool stepping stones that were tree stumps.
If you enlarge the left picture you can see the green horsetail plants (Equisetum arvense).
Watching the waterfall and trying his first smores at our campsite.
Smores with Daddy and picture with Mom in front of our tent.
Family picture (gotta love Mikey and me bundled up and Dan in short sleeves).
So apparently Minnesota now has the most snow it has had in December in over a decade. The entire state is at least covered in 3 inches of snow. Awesome! We have about 1.5 feet here and it seems like more since those 1.5 feet have been plowed and are now piled up around town to 3 feet plus. At the dance studio parking lot where I teach there is a pile towering 20 feet. I've been learning to drive in ice and we've had our fair share of skidding and sliding around. They take really good care of the roads here, but there is only so much they can do when it's snowing non-stop all day. Michael loves the snow. The little coat I got him doesn't quite fit up around his neck- I am not sure if the coat is too small or if his head is just too big (I have a hunch it is the later since the sleeves on it are still baggy), so I think I still need to get him a scarf or something for around his nose. However, then he wouldn't be able to stick his face down into the snow and take bites out of it. He loves to taste it and repeatedly says "yum, yum" after every face plant. 
This is our little snowman we made- the snow just won't stick.
Today was a beautiful, beautiful fall day. We woke up to an inch of frost covering the ground and roof tops. Then it warmed up, the sun came out, and there was a nice breeze perfect for blowing all the leaves around. There are a million leaves everywhere now and the colors are absolutely beautiful. I heard on the radio last week that this past weekend was the peak time for seeing all the fall colors. We went to 2 local park this afternoon to celebrate the season. The first one was super windy- Dan pretended to study while Mikey and I played. With too much wind, we decided to try out another park - Essex Park, one with more trails and scenery. Rochester has so many parks, it's great. Michael didn't really care to play too much in the leaves, but enjoyed walking around and crunching them. He was somewhat interested in lying in the leaves and looking up at all the yellow leaves against the sky. We were basically the only ones at the park so it was nice. We did happen to see two guys get out of their car with some big kits in their hands. I was not sure what they were up to until Dan told me that they were carrying bow and arrows. Cool. Guess we'll have to pick up that sport sometime later.
I am trying something new... Instead of uploading all my the pictures separately, I have grouped them together on 1 or 2 pages (well, I ended up putting together a scrapbook page with the top one). What do you think? Prefer them individually or all in one layout? I'm not sure which I prefer yet. (If you want to see the pictures up close, just click on the image.)
Essex Park right before sundown. Looks like a picture out of a book, eh? Minnesota is so beautiful. 
A few Fridays ago we took a little trip to our local zoo. The main one around here is up in the Twin Cities, about a 75 minute drive, so we decided to check out the free one in Byron, about 10 minutes away. I thought it would be a great place to take Michael since he seems so fond of animals lately. Turns out this place was more like a petting zoo with farm animals and a few other animals behind cages- one black bear, a fox, cougar, otters, and a few other animals like owls, eagles, turkeys, and badgers. It took us not more than 45 minutes to view all the exhibits. Michael was scared of the cows, and more interested in the waterfall in the bear cage than the bear itself. However, he loved running around the grass and poking his head through the fences. We took a million pictures that day (Dan taking one of every exhibit for the record) and here are a few. I added the scrapbook page I made at the end as well, just for fun.
