This year Thanksgiving would be just us in our home in Minneapolis. After watching the awkward Macy's Day Parade the kids helped with making pie. I thought it would be fun to top the pumpkin pie with our two favorite states.

  With our busy schedules and the sun setting so early I feel like we hardly get outside when the sun is out. Today our goal was to spend time outside. We decided on Coldwater Spring as we hadn't been there in a few years. We weren't the only ones with this idea as the road was lined up with cars.  This is the opposite of our typical avoiding people during COVID mantra. But we were still able to generely avoid people. I convinced Theo to bring his doll carrier. He liked the idea once he figured out he could put his hands in his pockets while still holding his baby. Coldwater Spring was nearly empty, it seems every one else was at the off leash dog park.

  We're still trying to use up those apples. Apple pancake again. They will never be all eaten. It's like our fruit drawer has no bottom. PicassoTiles are still #1 in our house. The kids play with them every single day.  Although Meadow mostly plays with every day objects. I've never seen anyone get so excited to get a box. I try to sneak them out of the house, but she insists on making something out of each and every one of them.

 We randomly discovered Meadow was off school on a Friday and the weather was supposed to be unseasonably warm. An impromptu trip to the cottage it was. Gotta get those cottage visits in. It's just about the best way to have fun and avoid COVID. We passed the 200,000 mileage mark on our car this week. Luckily this little hybrid is still going strong. I had brought in the car because of noise and it ended up just being a damaged tire. After I got the car I noticed it was just over 200,000 miles. The mechanic took away the joy of the speedometer rolling over. Since there are many more waterfalls to see in the U.P. we headed back up. Our first stop was Ajibikoka Falls . Google maps took us down this unpaved road to a dead end.