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!