Winter HIking and Dodging Bikes at the Minnesota River Valley National Wildlife Refuge

Scott was nice and let me sleep in today. I was surprised they were able to stay quiet this time.

Meadow and I perused old blog posts. She was very interested in all the shenanigans.

We hadn't had ebelskievers in awhile so I put it on our breakfast menu for this week.

We also had eggs on avocado toast.

I always got frustrated making these. Good thing Brooke is better at it.

Meadow had been inside literally all week since we got back from the cottage. I thought it would do us all good to get some fresh air. I'm so glad this winter isn't like last years where we can actually enjoy the outdoors. I do wish we had more snow though.

Brooke wanted to go for a hike, so I came up with the idea of going to the Minnesota River National Wildlife Refuge. 

We started our hike near where 35W south and the Black Dog Power Plant meet. It's interesting how both this NWR and the National Scenic Riverway along the St. Croix still have large power plants within their boundaries. In this case the land is actually leased to the Fish and Wildlife service by Xcel Energy. I hope that one day we can clear lands like this of industrial uses.

We would walk a few feet before Meadow would get distracted by the river again. Or maybe she was just testing out new boundaries.

I couldn't help but laugh every time.

I decided we had to get creative to get away from the buzz of the highway.

Eventually a piggyback ride got us moving.

Yes Meadow, that's the same river we saw earlier.

Every time she fell and got back up Meadow dusted the snow off her knees.

After awhile she started purposely falling just to play in the snow.

Face first snow angels. Classic.

Apparently this is fat tire bike central. We had to dodge them every so often.

Maybe we should get a couple of fat tire bikes and put bigger tires on Meadow's bike trailer.

Someone we passed suggested just throw a child carrier on the back of one.

If it had been colder this winter we may have crossed to the island.

We decided against crossing a creek to the next island.

We decided to head back, cutting through the woods as much as possible. At this point Meadow fell asleep. Her only nap for the day.

The fat tire bikers pretty much turned everything into an obstacle course.

Give a kid a box and she'll entertain herself all day.

Instead of making a meal we ate the Mexican-spiced turkey, yellow rice and black beans from the night before.

Then we picked out our meals for the week and went to the Seward Co-op per usual.

Have you seen the photos of what a weeks worth of groceries looks like around the world? My brother and I saw the exhibit a few years ago. This is what a weeks worth looks like for us. Not even close to what the American family had. We scored that giant bag of fruit in the back for $5.00. It was marked down because of imperfections. 

Since we had late lunch and we weren't really hungry for dinner I made some popcorn.

Meadow and I enjoyed it while watching Downton Abbey.

I think Meadow was more into the popcorn. I don't blame her. Downton has gotten tired if you ask me. Brooke still loves it.

Meadow prefers football.