Happy Father's Day!

M loves his panda bear, aptly named "Panda". He loves anything with pandas. I caught them snuggling together one night.



D had a strange sleeping position that night, too.



We headed up to the cabin for Father's Day weekend. We picked up some pails and shovels for the kids in hopes of it being nice enough to go to a beach around town. No such luck, but the kids loved their new toys anyways.





M wanted to help Daddy work on remodeling the basement. He used that hammer on everything this weekend.



Going for a walk Saturday morning on our driveway. The kids found lots of deer tracks. There was a crazy rain, lightening and thunder storm over night, so we knew they had to be fresh.



We went to the Blueberry Junction playground and walked the Gandy Dancer trail.



The kids had fun throwing rocks over the edge of the bridge and watching them plop into the river below. It's a long way down!





On our way home from the cabin, we stopped by my parents' house to wish my dad a Happy Father's Day. The kids were excited to finally go swimming (the sun finally came out) and try out their new water blasters. They were just like the ones they had used at the Firefighter's Hall and Museum.

Wildlife Science Center

On Friday, we went on our next field trip to the Wildlife Science Center in Columbus, MN. They have the largest captive population of wolves there, along with several other animals. As you can see by our clothing, the weather was a far cry from the 100's on Tuesday. In fact, it was quite cool and in the 50's. That's Minnesota weather for you!

Our guide showed us some animal skins and pelts. First, a super tall snake skin.



Next, a skunk.



And, the main attraction... the wolf.



Next, we got to go outside and see some of the animals they cared for there. The mountain lion came right up to us and followed us on whatever side of the fence we were on. Creepy.



We saw several different kinds of wolves: Mexican gray wolves, red wolves, and timberwolves. We learned a lot of interesting facts--like that red wolves are only found in the wild on an island off of the coast of North Carolina.



The picture below shows wolf pups. Another interesting fact is that the farthest south a wolf will be found in Minnesota is Hinckley (we've caught a picture of one from the game camera on our property), while coyotes are pretty much anywhere. Wolves are afraid of humans, whereas coyotes are less timid.



This looks like a pet, and ironically there are none found in the wild anymore because people took them in as pets. This is a New Guinea Highland Dog, and it really does look like a dog you'd have as a pet.



The funnest animals to watch were the black bears. There were four of them in this enclosure, and one of the youngest ones, Lucy, was a real ham. She played in her pool in front of us and acted just like a young kid splashing around and playing with her feet.



Balancing on the pool rim before hopping in for a dip.





One of the volunteers brought out two birds for us to see. First was a screeching owl...



...and then a red hawk.



We got to see one of the animal handlers feed a treat to the porcupine. Did you know that they have orange teeth?



Here is a coyote. This one was rescued from a dorm where it was a pet! Can you believe it? I found it interesting that many of these animals were rescued from people who had them as pets (yes, even a black bear!). I'm not quite sure where these people live, but they must have a lot of space.



We also got to see the handler feed a salamander its dinner for the week--two (dead) baby mice. It has no teeth and swallows them whole. Kind of gross, but the kids loved watching it.

It's Been a Hot Couple of Days!

Kids swimming at the cabin this weekend with Steve.







And running through the sprinkler at home. The temperature today (Tuesday) was in the 100's. Crazy!



M got bubbles from his speech teacher (his last day of class was today) and we spent a lot of time doing bubbles. They are both getting pretty good at doing them on their own.







These bubble containers looked like ice cream cones--D's smelled like banana and M's smelled like chocolate. M kept on licking the ice cream part of the cone!

Mill City Museum

On Wednesday, we went on our next summer field trip to the Mill City Museum. It was great--I learned so much and the kids had a lot of fun. Here D and M got to design their own cereal box.



The giant box of Bisquick.



Using the trains and river to deliver the goods to the stores.



Doing puzzles in the baking lab.



Then, learning about wheat and sampling baked goods.



The coolest part of the Mill City Museum was the Flour Tower. You get a scheduled time to ride in a giant elevator and learn more about the city of Minneapolis and its history of flour production.



This elevator is so big, it has risers in it to sit on!



We are sitting in the back row of the elevator listening to our tour guide give us some information. During the presentation, the elevator would go up and down eight different floors, stopping now and then at various ones which had a scene set up for us to look at while we listened to audio and watched some videos about flour production.



Closing the gates on the elevator.



We stopped on the eighth floor and saw some of the original building that was not destroyed in the 1991 fire. We also got great views of Minneapolis and the Mississippi River.





We also got to go outside on a little walkway on the eighth floor.



Below us were some of the ruins.



Back inside to the water room where we learned about the importance of the river in this industry back in its hey day.



Feeling the strength of the water pressure.



Logging on the Mississippi.



The kids took the place of the water and spun the wheel.



Outside, the kids got to explore the ruins.



We topped off our morning with a picnic lunch at the park next to the Guthrie Theater.