The Earliest Family Bike Ride on Record

Today was supposed to get up to the upper 60's. I thought we should go for a bike ride. Scott had to do some work with the neighborhood first.

I was busy cleaning out a garage. Fun.

Meadow and I had a simple breakfast.

Now that Meadow is older she really doesn't need to have her chair lean back so far. I really should have adjusted it last year. Except now it will be hard to have a backpack on with her. I wish my handlebars were taller so I could have a front basket.

I came back with some things that the neighborhood didn't need. I thought these would be nice at the cottage.

Meadow made us some cakes and pies while we ate lunch.

Our little family and our not so little home. I should be in this picture.

Bike rides aren't as thrilling as they used to be I guess.

We rode up through the neighborhood toward the east-west segment of Victory Memorial Drive. Each tree is planted for a soldier that died during WWI.

I don't think I ever knew that.

We decided to head towards North Mississippi Regional Park. Now that Meadow doesn't nap anymore we can start going to the free family Sundays.

Apparently we weren't the only ones with this idea.

This area is still so clearly shaped by the tornado back in 2011. It's been nearly five years.

I asked Meadow if she wanted to go inside the building or to the playground. Of course she chose playground.

On our ride back we saw a sign for an estate sale across the border in Brooklyn Center.

We couldn't find the house. It must have ended around this time.

On the way back we took the Shingle Creek trails to Humboldt Industrial Area.

We didn't plan on there being a train in the way.

We should've known better since we saw the train at the last crossing. This rail yard crosses three intersections and only has one overpass.

The trains often like to stop, blocking the intersections.

Back at home I started going through our seeds to decide what to grow this year.

Summer is coming.

I sang some songs to Meadow when I put her to bed. She decided to do some dancing. Brooke wanted to see what all the commotion was about.

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The 8th Installment of a Thing We Call Northwoods New Year's Eve

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This summer we decided to go to the cottage any weekend we had nothing else going on. This week, due to fires in the Boundary Waters and Canada, the air quality was pretty terrible. We debated if we should still go, but it looked like it would clear up by Saturday. So we took the chance. And by terrible, we mean the worst air quality we'd ever seen. Along the way we decided to stop at John and Heidi's Happy Daze . We've passed this place probably 100 times. It was about time to stop by. I ordered the prime rib sandwich special. Yummy. The sandwich that is. Everybody's food was really good, but Brooke's was the star of the show. I want to get back here asap. Now if only this pesky smoke would go away.

To Chippewa Falls for the Northern Wisconsin State Fair

I saw that the Northern Wisconsin State Fair was happening and we didn't have anything else planned. We booked a campsite at Lake Wissota State Park and we were on our way. We hadn't been to a county fair yet and this seemed like it might be even better. We set up camp first in case we would be back late. This was a good excuse for a quick camping trip. Plus we'd never been to Lake Wissota State Park before or Chippewa Falls, really. Since 1897 Chippewa Falls has been hosting the Northern Wisconsin State Fair. More of a super-regional county fair, Wisconsin’s other state fair started as a way for folks up north to avoid the grueling, long haul down to Milwaukee County. Our first stop was to fill up our big jug of lemonade. I think this is the 4th year of this big jug. Brooke brings a couple of our old lemonade jugs with just in case. Then you get the refill price.

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