Halloween

Pumpkin Carving

 

Megan and Kora went to a Halloween Party, but Jason didn't want to go so he wasn't in the picture.  He did decide to come with Kora and Megan Trick or Treating, but he wore his same costume as last year.  Megan is "Chicka" from the Five Nights at Freddie's video game.  Kora is the genie "Shimmer."  She really wanted to have the pink wig, but it was so heavy it wouldn't stay on.  She didn't end up wearing it very much.

Pumpkin Patch

We continued the tradition of going to the Pumpkin Patch with my parents and my sister and her kids.  Jason wasn't along this year because he was hunting pheasants with Jesse.  It was a pretty warm day for October 20.  The kids all had fun.  The rope spider web and the corn box were some of the favorites, except when Jakob got his leg caught in the web.  He was hanging upside down and couldn't get his leg out until Megan helped him.  Kora and Jordin also enjoyed the slides.   

 

 

 

  

I took Kora to a Pumpkin Patch closer to our house.  The weather

was much colder that day.  She liked the barrel ride and bounce

house the best. 

Kora's 6th Birthday

Kora had her birthday party on October 7th.  She wanted a Shimmer and Shine theme.  Kora invited some friends to come to our house for her party.  They played outside in the playhouse and dressed up in costumes.  They also had fun hitting a piñata.  Later in the evening, she got to go swimming with Megan and Jason and her cousins Jakob and Jordin.   

Duck Banding

On Saturday, September 16 we went to the area Refuge for their annual duck banding.  This was our second year doing this.  It was cool with light rain so there was a lot less people this year than last year.  Jason said he got to band 6 ducks, Kora did 4, and Megan probably banded 5 ducks.  All mallards.  We did see a female and two male wood ducks and a pintail.  The kids all enjoyed it.  They all had a share of feisty ducks that were difficult to hold and tamer ones.  Kora wanted to hold her ducks on her own.  She did pretty well with most of them.  She named each of the ducks that she held.  Lucy, Wild Lucy, and Sarah were the girl names.  Megan and Jason each got a duck that had a band on it from last year.  They took the old band off and put a new one on.

Megan's horse show

Megan has been taking riding lessons over the summer.  The ranch where she rides held a horse show on September 5th for everyone who took lessons.  Megan did barrels, key hole (go through the middle of poles and turn around and go back through again), and picking up candy off of a barrel while going around the barrel.  All the events are timed so you want to go as fast as you can without knocking anything over. She had fun and received a few ribbons for the events.  The horse she has been riding all summer is named Rosie. 

North Shore Vacation - Day 4

It rained most of the night on Wednesday night with sprinkles still in the morning.  It was also very windy overnight, so everything outside was wet and some areas inside our tent were also wet. We had to eat a cold breakfast inside our tent and then load everything in the rain.  When we got home, we dried everything out.  On the way back, we stopped at Two Harbors, which has a working lighthouse.  We didn't go inside of it, but we did walk down the break-way.  It was windy that morning, so the waves crashed against the sides, which the kids thought were cool.

shipped docked in the harbor 

North Shore Vacation - Day 3

We drove to Tettegouche State Park on Wednesday.  We stopped at Palisade Head on the way to the Park.  It is a tall cliff, that you drive up curvy roads to get to the top of.  There was a fishing boat on the Lake near the cliff which Kora thought was a toy boat because it looked so small from the top of the cliff.  We had to show her the people in the boat before she believed us that it was a real boat.  

One of the ships that we saw while at Palisade Head.

Jason picking juneberries.  Jesse was impressed on how many

juneberries there were on the North Shore.

We then went into the state park and hiked the trail to Shovel Point. 

Lots more stairs to go up and down.

I had to take a picture of them holding hands to show them

that they really do get along at times.

Peregrine falcon - view from Shovel Point. 

Several were nesting along the cliffs.

Views from Shovel Point.  Jesse also found that there were wild blueberries

growing all long the trail to Shovel Point which he, Kora, and Jason enjoyed.

Next, we hiked to High Falls, which is the tallest waterfall in Minnesota.  Along the way, we also saw the Two Step Falls.  The kids were getting pretty tired by the end of this hike, and they almost didn't make it to see the complete falls, (lots more steps). We encouraged Kora to finish the hike by telling her we had Twizzlers licorice in the car for her when she finished the hike.  That motivated her and she was all energized again to see the falls and walk back to the car.

 

On the way back to Gooseberry Falls, we stopped at the Black Beach, which is the only one like it. The rocks are all black from taconite waste that was dumped in the lake in that area years earlier.  This was their favorite beach of all the ones we stopped at.

Jesse enjoyed the cold water after another day

 full of going up and down stairs.

Jason found another cliff to climb.

After another thunderstorm went through in the afternoon, we were able to cook supper.  We had our s'mores right away this time so that we wouldn't miss out later if it started raining again, which it did.  We went back to the Middle and Lower Falls again in the evening so they could climb on the rocks around the falls.  It did rain again by the time we got back to the campground.

North Shore Trip - Day 2

On Tuesday, we drove to the Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.  We first hiked the Day Hill Trail which was a 1.5 mile hike that took us out onto a cliff overlooking Lake Superior. 

Before we went to see the lighthouse, we went to Pebble Beach which was a beach full of gray rocks of all different sizes.  They had fun throwing and skipping them in the water.  Jason found another rock to climb. 

Ellingsen Island - view from Pebble Beach

Lighthouse view from Pebble Beach 

Inside the tower of the Lighthouse. 

 View of Pebble Beach and Ellingsen Island from the Lighthouse.

Standing on the shore by the pump house near the ruins of the tramway.  There were many stairs to get down from where the lighthouse was to the shore.  The stairs followed the ruins of the tramway. 

In the afternoon, when we returned to Gooseberry Falls, we went to the beach there.  The water was too cold to swim in, but the kids had fun playing at the beach and wading a little.  There is no sand at the beach, but tiny rocks and areas of bigger rocks.  Jason climbed another cliff.  Some other teenagers were jumping off the cliff into the Lake.  So Jason brought Jesse up to see the top of the cliff and then Jason decided to jump off the cliff, which was around 8 feet high.  He said it was very shocking when he hit the cold water.  I didn't get a picture since I didn't know he was going to jump off until he did it. 

In the evening, we hiked to the Fifth Falls at the park.  This waterfall was further upstream than the others and you could only get to it by hiking.  We were lucky to make the hike in between rain showers.  Earlier, we did eat supper while getting a few sprinkles.  We didn't make it back in time to have S'mores before it was already raining, so the kids were a little disappointed.

 On the way back, we got another good view of the Upper Falls.

North Shore Vacation - Day 1

We went camping at Gooseberry Falls on the North Shore of Lake Superior, August 7-10.  On the way, we stopped at Duluth to see the Aerial Lift Bridge and the Duluth harbor.  We did get to see it move up and down to let a sailboat go through while we were there.

Standing on the Lift Bridge.

The kids all loved climbing on the rocks around the

Upper, Middle, and Lower Falls at Gooseberry Falls. 

Middle Falls

Kora sitting under an arch in between the Middle and Lower Falls. 

Middle Falls