Chino, Mercedes y Fuerte Snelling

Before and after pictures of the kids getting their hair cut at my friend Nikki's.



D only got an inch off, so not too much different.





Nikki cleaned up M's hair from all of my "in-between" cuts.



Our friends Chino and Mercedes from Guadalajara, Mexico came to stay with us again for a couple of weeks this June while joining our church's mission trip to Pelican Rapids. This is Mercedes fourth time here and Chino's second. The kids love them and were so entranced by Chino when they found out he played guitar. They always wanted him to play for them and they got serenaded a lot in Spanish. M is accompanying on the drums.



On Friday, we did field trip number three. We missed last week's trip to Como Zoo because of Vacation Bible School, but I guess they cancelled due to bad weather anyways. We visited Fort Snelling, and I'm so glad Chino and Mercedes were able to join us for this excursion. Gracias a Chino por las fotos porque se me olvido mi camara!

As we were entering the fort and I was talking to Chino and Mercedes, I realized that I really didn't even know why this fort was built, even though we visited it just last year! We asked about it and the very short version is that it was built to protect traders and Native Americans from British and Canadian settlement.

Overlooking the river and Minneapolis.





We visited the school house. We learned that if you so much as whispered out of turn, you got rapped on the knuckles with a ruler. Ouch!



The kids got to try their hand at doing laundry "the old fashioned" way. It will be hard to complain about doing the laundry again after seeing that!



We visited the kitchen in the Commandant's house. We learned the ins and outs of cooking over a hearth fire.



The kids learned how they would grind coffee.



In the storage room next to the kitchen.



Another room in the Commandant's house.



We listened to a talk about trading goods at the Indian Agency.



D and M got to try on peace medals. M then promptly smacked D in the face with one of them. Oh, the irony.



We watched an infantry drill and got to see them shoot their rifles.





Lunch time!



Chino and M playing checkers at the Sutler Store. Chino really is an avid chess player.



The Round Tower was built in 1820 and is the oldest standing structure in Minnesota. It has been used for many things--a prison, beauty shop, and even a private residence!





We had great views of the entire fort and city of Minneapolis from the top. It was a beautiful day--so unlike the unbearably hot temperatures when we visited last year.



The kids just wanted to run in circles. Time to let off some energy.



Atop the tower by the fort's entrance.



One of the most interesting demonstrations was the blacksmith showing us the process for making a nail. The large bellows would get the fire up to 3000 degrees! This was done several times in the different stages of making a nail. I couldn't believe the process it took to produce one little nail!





They also did a cannon demonstration, but the kids weren't too interested in watching this as the rifles were quite loud during the infantry drill. We went down to Dred and Harriet Scott's residence (another thing I learned--I never knew Dred Scott lived on Fort Snelling) instead, which I'm thankful for now. The cannon shot was still very loud even thought we were quite far away.



After Steve came home from work, we went to the Stillwater for the evening. First stop, Teddy Bear Park.











Next stop, the riverfront. The water was so high, we had to walk up on the grass instead of the walkway. The plus side was that the bridge seemed to be going up more than usual as the bridge was so low to the water that most boats needed it up in order to pass through. Hey, that looks like the boat we got married on!





Final stop, Nelson's for ice cream. Mercedes told us Chino could eat a whole carton of ice cream by himself in one sitting, so we knew this was the place for him. First he wanted a child size all by himself (which is so big they let you split it into two flavors and is what Steve and I normally get to share). Then, he decided he wanted a single. He finally settled on a double. This is what a double looks like! And yes, he ate the whole thing.







Superman is one of our favorite flavors and we had to show off our blue tongues.

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.