Berries and a Beach with the Fialas

I knew we had an exciting day ahead of us so I got up first and made breakfast. Bacon, garlic spinach, eggs and toast.

I wasn't sure what was cooking, but it smelled great. I think I'll have to make Brooke some breakfast soon to make up for it.

We had to meet up with Tyler, Emma and their kiddos at eleven to go berry picking. We took a quick trip to the farmers market beforehand.

Meadow is quickly becoming a professional piggyback rider.

We headed to The Berry Patch after the farmers market. This makes it three years for me. We came at the perfect time as raspberries and blueberries were ready for picking.

The best part of this place is that they don't mind if you eat berries as you pick.

We went with 5 pints of raspberries first.

I was picking on the good side and filled up our pints quickly.

I think Brooke might have found a new profession.

Olive was eating faster than filling her basket.

The farm was closing in a half hour and we still had to pick a buckets worth of blueberries.

We spent a little too much time padding our raspberry pints.

Meadow didn't like when I would reach in the bushes to get blueberries so I took her out of the Ergo.

That's when she discovered the ground was littered with one of her favorite fruits.

She was quite good at finding the ripe ones and wiping off any debris.

We didn't have time to fill the bucket, but ended up with 6 pints. Meadow thought they were all for her.

The next plan was to head over to our favorite city outside of Minneapolis, Marine on St. Croix, for some ice cream.

Tyler is a traditional fella and needs to eat lunch before dessert. We picked up bacon wrapped brats at the general store.

The kiddos were more interested in all the motorcycles.

It must have been ice cream o'clock.

Meadow didn't eat much of her lunch. I checked the General Store for baby food. All I could find was some yogurt. Meadow didn't want to eat that either so I was forced to finish it for her. I wasn't in much of an ice cream mood after that so Scott and I shared a cone.

A scoop of strawberry for me and some crazy mash up of ice cream sandwiches and M & Ms for Brooke.

Meadow finally learned how to do a high one. Wait...I think Emma just made that up.

We went in search for a bubbler, but found the creek that flows into the river instead.

Well we saw the waterfall under Judd Street and wanted to know where it came from. We crossed the street and saw that it meandered under the Brookside Bar & Grill.

Tyler was really determined to see where the water was coming from.

Then we crossed into Wisconsin to do some swimming on the St. Croix. Apparently I'm not the only one who thought this was the Mississippi before moving to Minnesota.

I guess I might have thought that too, but then realized that wasn't possible based on how the Mississippi heads into the Twin Cities.

Originally Emma wanted to go berry picking during the week. It didn't work out with my schedule so I said we should make a day of it on Sunday. It was a good thing because this turned out to be a pretty awesome summer day.

Meadow didn't like the water at first. When June joined her then she thought it was fun.

The best part of this beach is that you have to walk down a long dike to reach it.

It does tend to have more than a few podunks. I guess Hudson is a podunk town after all.

There's Meadow. Always having more fun in the sand.

Scott and I swam across to the island while they watched Meadow.

Meadow didn't seem to miss us at all.

"Isn't playing in the sand fun June?"

When we first swam across we were both out of breath and didn't think we'd make it. That was until I realized the water was only waist high. The way back seemed much easier.