The End of Summer :-(

I'm finally doing it ~ blogging! It seems like such a good idea and I don't have to fill in boxes with emails that I'm never sure anyone wants, plus I can post as many pictures as I want ~ yeah!! So, anyway, enjoy and I will be customizing my "blog" after today, but I wanted to get this first one out there for you to enjoy!

Well, it arrived so late (or so it seemed) and now it's over already. We said farewell to summer with a bang (or something like that). On August 27, my mom and I took the boys up to the Minnesota Zoo. It started out sprinkling so we visited the indoor part first. The boys pet the sharks in a small "petting" area and we went through the jungle type display. Then we wanted to see them feed the sharks so we came back to where we started and the boys pet the sharks some more. After the 2nd petting I said something about the sharks in there and Brayton said "SHARKS?!! I didn't know they were sharks in there!" LOL

The feeding was very interesting because in the tank there were also stingrays. We could see the stingrays swim up flat on the glass and then it seemed like they were flapping their "wings" and creating lots of bubble and going out of the tank (we were below). While they were feeding they explained that the stingrays slap the wall below where they feed them begging for food. VERY COOL!

We ate lunch and then toured the outside exhibits. Brayton didn't see much as he was very concerned about where we were going and what was coming up next. . . The newest addition to the MN Zoo is the Russian something or other. They have displays of what the land looks like and animals you would find there ~ most of the animals were sleeping and not very exciting. We took our time walking around the rest of the zoo and the whole time Brayton kept asking if he could go back to the bear exhibit in the Russian part because he didn't get to crawl through some tunnels. We reluctantly went back because we were that close, no sense in denying him that. Boy were we glad we went back ~ the bears were not sleeping and one kept swimming back and forth looking at the people (us) on the other side of the glass. Once in awhile he would see a person he didn't like or something and he would hit the glass. It was very funny and interesting to watch. One little girl was so excited he was coming by she was jumping up and down . . . he did NOT like that and really scared her and her friends. In fact, her one friend had a snow cone and she squeezed it so hard her snow cone was on the ground and the paper was all curled up in her fist when the bear was done terrorizing her (needless to say, we got a good laugh).

As we left the zoo there was a group of girls getting their picture taken and it looked like a good idea (something we don't normally do) so we decided to take one too to remember the day!

I might make a suggestion that you don't sit on a fountain for a picture because you will get a wet butt! :)

For Labor Day weekend, we went to a fairly new campground right outside of Preston, MN. We LOVE Valley View campground! They had activities all weekend and we had to keep track of our schedule so we wouldn't miss out. Needless to say the boys were tired each day.

Their first "event" (as Brayton called them) was a balloon relay. They had to pop the balloon between them with it off the ground. Yes, that is what the one lady is doing with the boy next to Taite & Brayton. T&B won second and were content with an Airhead for a prize. At this campground everyone gets a prize for participating, even the adults!

The boys were in their first potato sack race. They didn't win and Brayton was more than happy with his Airhead. Taite thought it was wrong that the sack was too short on him. . . They were the same sacks the adults had to use!

That same day we participated in the Golf Cart Rodeo. This is where some of the permanent campers set up a course to drive through with flags ~ the driver is blind folded and the person giving the directions is not. If anyone has an old golf cart they want to donate to a good cause ~ this is the place. I'm pretty sure after Taite and I went, there will be an age minimum and they will only volunteer the older golf carts. At one time we were on a side of a hill and I couldn't direct Taite down because I was laughing so hard. We were disqualified because we missed too many flags. This event started out slow and actually took place for about an hour and a half! A good time was had by all, well, at least everyone in our little group :)