The Great Outdoors

What a great weekend to spend outdoors. Last weekend we visited Natural Bridge State Park.
We've actually driven into this park a couple of different times but have never been able to hike through. What a beautiful place. Jack loved the cave that the natural bridge formed. He came up with all sorts of creative things that they cave would have been used for long ago.


We explored on the trail and Nathan was able to capture pictures of some of the wild flowers found along the trails.

Jack and Nathan standing just outside the cave. Jack was a little hesitant to walk all the way back in the cave, but he did. He had lots of questions. There was a sign posted outside the cave that we read to him and he thought it was pretty cool that people used to sleep, eat and have fires inside the cave.

This is on our way out of the park. The kids did such a great job on the hike. They enjoyed running in the open grass. Jack is so good about holding Maddie's hand and helping her along.

We will definitely be going back for a hike soon!

On Sunday, we went to "Treinen Farm". What an AWESOME place. We went to explore the corn maze and found that and much, much more. We were very impressed with all the activities for families to do. The corn maze was so much fun. Jack had a blast following Daddy through the trails and looking at the map. In order to get the next piece of the map you had to find it in a mail box hidden along the way. There were 8 pieces of the map hidden amongst the corn. Nathan did a great job of navigating.

After the corn maze, we checked out the other fun things to do. They had huge drainage tubes set up as slides, pedal tractors, animals, a tractor tire maze and pumpkins. Jack had so much fun sliding down the slides. Jack and I got into the slides that were next to each other and raced down, he won!

Nathan was excited to try out our new backpack carrier for Maddie. He loved it and so did Maddie. She was comfortable enough to fall asleep half way through the corn maze.

We're already looking forward to our next hike and adventure outside next weekend at Devil's Lake State Park.

Kindergarten Here We Come

It's official, we're parents of a kindergartner! Jack's first day was yesterday and he had a great time.

He was excited to meet his teacher, hang his back pack in his locker and see his friends.

Jack was so brave. Nathan and I drove him to school, took a couple of pictures in front of the school's sign and took Jack to his classroom. Jack got to hang his back pack in his locker, put his lunch in the "green bin" and head outside to see his friends. At first, not recognizing anyone, Jack was a little nervous to run and play. I spotted a boy that Jack had played hockey with this past winter and pointed him out to Jack. He was off and running!

Nathan and I stood there for a second and watched Jack play, I then proceeded to cry, cry cry. I really did think I would be fine, but I have to say, it's a bit emotional.

Jack's second day was great. He was excited to go to music class and do some art projects. Today was his first time going to "kids club". It's an after school program that the kids go to until their parents pick them up. He was able to play with his friends and explore the school a little.

Our little boy is growing up very quickly. We're excited to hear about all the things he's going to learn and we know he'll have lots of fun!