The girls are on their first real summer vacation this year- or maybe its more about me, since this is the first summer that I have had to truly re-acclimate myself to having them around the majority of the day!!
I guess I took for granted the 7 hours they were at school 5x a week for the last 9 months in Kindergarten!
Its been a little nutso over the last week with all 3 ladies in the house and me still trying to pretend I work part-time from home, ha!
Anyway, L&S are in a 2 hour park program every morning this week (through our awesome new hometown- Mendota Heights), which has helped ease me into the new status quo for the summertime.
Before I get into our Fort Snelling adventure, I have to throw in this quick anecdote. After their morning camp fun, I let the girls play for a bit on the playground. S proceeded to trip over something and face planted (and bounced) off some playground equipment that led to a bloody nose etc. I threw the gang in the car and proceeded to the local Subway to hopefully grab ice for her nose (since I wasn't sure what the bruising situation was going to be like). There were a couple of Mendota Heights cops sitting outside enjoying their lunch. I figured instead of hauling all 3 inside I would ask one of our lovely public servants if they wouldn't mind asking someone inside to fill a ziploc bag I had with some ice for S's injury. They were more than happy to oblige. And then the other cop came to my car to take a look at her to make sure she was OK; he stayed with us for quite some time informing me of my options in case I was worried, such as taking her to urgent care OR (since I lived in Mendota Heights), I could just give the police precinct a buzz and they would send someone over to check her out at our house...! It struck me just how different a place we live in now! Especially considering, even after we called 911 during the riots in Bmore, no one came! There's no place like (our new) home!!!
So... after that heartwarming interaction we stopped home, packed a lunch and hit Fort Snelling State Park which is literally minutes from our home. This was the first time back for me in over 10 years. I had all 3 girls and there was a threat of rain, but that's all it was. It was windy, but gorgeous...and virtually no one was around.
We stopped at the swimming beach area which is a little hidden slice of paradise. The space is huge. Its on Snelling Lake, the water is beautifully clean and refreshing, there is a small playground and TONS of space to picnic and grill. There are restrooms, a changing room building, and you can rent canoes. One thing that's maybe not for everyone, but we loved, were the planes. You could watch plane after plane come in to land at MSP airport. It was really quite entertaining. Though it looks cloudy and dreary in these pics, it cleared up minutes after, but even in the clouds it was beautiful. We are not playing in mud, the sand was just wet:)
The girls and I played in the water and sand and L found a baby turtle which was so cute!! But eventually we had to move on since G kept trying to grab the tiny thing and put it in her mouth! There was also what appeared to be a "Goose Family Day Out" of sorts, we counted 5 pairs of adult geese and almost 50 goslings all in one big group.We drove around the park and saw a quail (?) and a few deer along with a lot of neat dragonflies. I am so glad we spontaneously decided to check out this fabulous park today- we will be back!
I guess I took for granted the 7 hours they were at school 5x a week for the last 9 months in Kindergarten!
Its been a little nutso over the last week with all 3 ladies in the house and me still trying to pretend I work part-time from home, ha!
Anyway, L&S are in a 2 hour park program every morning this week (through our awesome new hometown- Mendota Heights), which has helped ease me into the new status quo for the summertime.
Before I get into our Fort Snelling adventure, I have to throw in this quick anecdote. After their morning camp fun, I let the girls play for a bit on the playground. S proceeded to trip over something and face planted (and bounced) off some playground equipment that led to a bloody nose etc. I threw the gang in the car and proceeded to the local Subway to hopefully grab ice for her nose (since I wasn't sure what the bruising situation was going to be like). There were a couple of Mendota Heights cops sitting outside enjoying their lunch. I figured instead of hauling all 3 inside I would ask one of our lovely public servants if they wouldn't mind asking someone inside to fill a ziploc bag I had with some ice for S's injury. They were more than happy to oblige. And then the other cop came to my car to take a look at her to make sure she was OK; he stayed with us for quite some time informing me of my options in case I was worried, such as taking her to urgent care OR (since I lived in Mendota Heights), I could just give the police precinct a buzz and they would send someone over to check her out at our house...! It struck me just how different a place we live in now! Especially considering, even after we called 911 during the riots in Bmore, no one came! There's no place like (our new) home!!!
So... after that heartwarming interaction we stopped home, packed a lunch and hit Fort Snelling State Park which is literally minutes from our home. This was the first time back for me in over 10 years. I had all 3 girls and there was a threat of rain, but that's all it was. It was windy, but gorgeous...and virtually no one was around.
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| View or Summit Lake beach and picnic area |
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| A little windy and chilly @first; Greta sleeping |
We stopped at the swimming beach area which is a little hidden slice of paradise. The space is huge. Its on Snelling Lake, the water is beautifully clean and refreshing, there is a small playground and TONS of space to picnic and grill. There are restrooms, a changing room building, and you can rent canoes. One thing that's maybe not for everyone, but we loved, were the planes. You could watch plane after plane come in to land at MSP airport. It was really quite entertaining. Though it looks cloudy and dreary in these pics, it cleared up minutes after, but even in the clouds it was beautiful. We are not playing in mud, the sand was just wet:)
The girls and I played in the water and sand and L found a baby turtle which was so cute!! But eventually we had to move on since G kept trying to grab the tiny thing and put it in her mouth! There was also what appeared to be a "Goose Family Day Out" of sorts, we counted 5 pairs of adult geese and almost 50 goslings all in one big group.We drove around the park and saw a quail (?) and a few deer along with a lot of neat dragonflies. I am so glad we spontaneously decided to check out this fabulous park today- we will be back!
Love your detailed story. Enhanced the beautiful pics💜
ReplyDeleteLove your detailed story. Enhanced the beautiful pics💜
ReplyDelete