Banning State Park...The Beauty of Fall

Let me begin this blog with a heads up...there will be a lot of pictures! Last year, Casey and I missed the leaves on the trees by one week. This year, we were not going to let that happen! We decided that we would go to Banning State Park about 2 hours North of Saint Michael. Even though we woke up at 5, so we would make sunrise, I sure am glad that we did, because it was the only sun of the day. The day itself wasn't as nice as we would have hoped, but it was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on. All of the leaves were yellows, oranges, and
reds, and the ground still had a bit of snow from the day before. It was a little colder than I would have wanted, we were dressed for it, and had a wonderful time. Here are two of my favorite pictures.

We of course brought the pups, and they were wonderful. Aspen stayed by our side the whole time and Kodi just kept trotting slightly ahead leading the way. I tried to get a good picture of Kodi, but unfortunately, he is not very photogenic when he is excited. His ADD gets in the way, and there were a lot of distractions with the off trail climbing. There was only one close call for Kodi. During our off trail climbing, we encountered a road block and Kodi just jumped up on the rock. Well, once he was on top of the rock, he began sliding down. Luckily, with Casey yelling at him to "come," and me turning my head because I can't watch (some mom I am!) he managed to not fall off the cliff. Aspen wasn't as adventurous as Kodi, very unsure of her footing, being, for lack of a better term, a girl. She was still great, and I think this is one of the best pictures of her.



Since we bought our camera, I have wanted to learn how to use it. I thought that the 2 hour car ride was a great time to start doing so. I figured, if we bought this nice camera, let's actually use some of the functions. We knew that there was a river and a waterfall, so I read up on slow exposure. While there were many pictures of a target dog I had in my purse, the practice paid off! I was rather proud of myself for learning how to do it. While the pictures aren't perfect (we had to deal with a broken tripod, and I held my hand as still as I could) they will do.

We hope that everyone is enjoying they weather, wherever they may be. We are taking advantage of living with seasons. It may be cold sometimes, but there are still enjoyable things about living so far North! We hope to go back again this Winter to snow shoe.
Until Next Time...Enjoy Fall!

Learning How to Garden...The Northern Way

This spring, when we were re-landscaping our front area, I just had to have roses. I love everything about roses and wanted a couple of rose bushes of my own, that I could cut flowers an place on our table, and that I could simply enjoy for the couple of months that they would bloom. They grew quite a bit this past season, but I need to keep them alive (and warm) for the winter. This weekend it is supposed to snow, yes SNOW, so I had to get a move on trying to keep them alive. After many questions and research as to how to keep them alive I went to work yesterday. Here is what one of my beautiful rose bushes had grown into.

Then, came out the gardening shears. I had to clip all of the buds, which are now in our house decorating our dining room table. Then I had to trim the plant, so all of the fairly new stems were gone, and it looked a little healthy. After that was finished, I began to pull all of the leaves off of the stems! After being pricked with the thorns several times, I finally finished! The end product was rather bare and a little depressing knowing that winter is approaching, but I felt very accomplished as well. If I can keep these roses alive, I will be able to say I can garden!! Too bad I won't be able to tell until next spring...Until Next Time...

Marathon Number 2

Sunday, Casey ran in his second Twin Cities Marathon, which I have a feeling may become a yearly ritual. We woke up at five to drive down to the cities in 40 degree weather so Casey could run from Minneapolis to St. Paul. It was a perfect day for the race! It was a little overcast, but the sun peeked out a couple of times, shinning light on the beautiful course. I would love to train to run it one year... One thing I missed was the company this year for the race. Last year I had Pops, Mama Smith, and Jamie to bear the cold rainy weather with, but this year it was just Aspen and I standing cheering the runners on (dressed properly for the cold, which made a HUGE difference). I was very proud of myself for finding the two meeting spots along the course, but failed to find the GU that he had packed to throw to him! Aspen was an angel, which I was very pleased about considering our last race with both dogs, and she received many compliments as to how great she was. She just sat by my feet, looking for some chereois as a treat. Casey ended up beating his time last year by five minutes with a time of 3:22, so he was very pleased. and was even able to give two thumbs up as he was crossing the finish line. I was most pleased at the fact he finished and he wasn't a complete waste for the rest of the day. He actually stayed awake until ten! He did lay on the couch the whole time watching TV, while I decorated our house for Halloween, but he was stilll awake for me to talk to and admire my superior decorating skills.

The other exciting thing that happend after the race was I was able to meet one of my favorite television fitness trainers! That's right, Jillian Michael's was at the race answering fitness questions and taking pictures. Casey isn't fond of her method of training, but I think she's awesome! We even have her ifit boot camp work out for our treadmill. I was so thrilled to just meet her, partly because of the famous part, since I watch her on TV most Tuesday's but mainly because I think she is so down to earth and doesn't sugar coat stuff.
Well, the weather has finally turned cool, and will not becoming warm again for another 7 months. I will be packing away most of our warn weather clothes, and bringing out the sweaters. The leaves are changing, with the beautiful reds and oranges. We hope to go hiking this weekend, so hopefully I will have some pictures of Northern Minnesota's beautiful foliage. I think that this updates everyone on our adventures for this past week.Until Next Time...Go Gators! (It wasn't a coincidence they are Gator colors.)