Dylan

Dylans birthday weekend and we decided to make a weekend adventure of it and planned a trip to Sibley State Park to stay at a camper cabin. All week Dylan was asking if it was the weekend yet and counting down for the weekend. He was pretty excited.

We picked him up from school a little early. We had sent cookies with Dylan to school and were mobbed by the kids on the way in. All wanted to tell me what color of cookie that they got. It was great!

We arrived in time to get unpacked and watch the snow flurries from the cabin. Dylan picked out his bunk for sleeping and his bunk for his toys. We didn't arrive in time to buy any firewood from the Park so we decided on a dinner inside and played card games together before turning in for the night.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, though with an inch or two of snow on the ground (surprise!). From the moment Dylan was up, he was asking if it was his birthday yet and time for presents. We brought his gift and one his Aunt Theresa had sent to him, so we agreed to presents with coffee.

We ran into the Park Ranger out by the bathrooms and he told us where we could pick up firewood for a fire later in the day. We visited with him a little bit and decided to collect some firewood at the Visitors Center. After picking up the wood for our fire, we stopped at the Ranger station and visited a bit more. Dylan got himself a homemade cinnamon roll for his birthday as well as a new game for us all to play together. We checked out the campground and boat launch in case we wanted to bring the new boat for a weekend adventure some time.

We returned to the cabin and built a nice bonfire. Dylan had some adventure walks where he found more bathrooms, unoccupied campsites and tons of piles of Deer Poo! We cooked hot dogs over the bonfire (Dylans new favorite meal) and had Dylans birthday cake of hostess cupcakes and snoballs with candles.

We finished the night with family card games. I love that he is getting old enough to enjoy playing games with us.

I can't believe that he is five already. It seems to have flown by.

The boys picked me up at work just after lunch. Troy had dropped Bug off for his weekend adventure at Doggie Daycare, packed the truck and picked up the boy. We were heading out to our adventure to celebrate Troy's birthday and our 22 year anniversary.

We headed out to Glacial Lakes State Park amidst snow flurries excited for our adventure to begin.

We arrived at the campsite and found our cabin for the night. We were very pleased to find bunkbeds (Dylan especially), a table, screened in porch and deck. We unpacked the truck and set up our beds and camp before Troy and I walked around a little bit, since Dylan was so enamored by the cabin he didn't want to leave.

There was a deck overlooking the lake and gorgeous rolling hills due to the glacial formations. We cooked hot dogs over a wood fire and had baked beans and Troy's homemade potato salad. Though it was a day early, Dylan and I took the opportunity to surprise Troy with his birthday cards and cake of cupcakes and candles. He came into the cabin and we yelled surprise and blew horns at him. He was very surprised.

Dylan had too much fun with Troy's cards since they sang songs at him.

Saturday morning and we were all up early. We explored the area and cleaned up all the garbage we could find before searching for cool rocks and artifacts for Dylan to bring to the Science Museum for their exchange program. One of the rocks we found was slate and Troy had an experiment for Dylan to break off a piece of slate. He thought it was awesome the way it broke off and it could fit back together again.

We needed to meet the naturalist to get our Mn Parks Passport and join them for a walk. We weren't sure how far we would go since it was a good five mile hike to the top. We learned quite a bit about the glacier formations and the eskers as well as the erratics (which is a rock dropped randomly by the glacier). It was so cool just to see them. The hike was difficult given the terrain. The path was also very muddy in some spots and icy in others. So icy in fact that Troy fell a few times before we were back to our cabin.

We relaxed, had martinis and dinner before we enjoyed a fire and a little stargazing before heading to bed, a little early after that long hike.

Sunday we all slept in then packed among a beautifully sunny day. We got our DNR stamp in the passport and headed home. On the way we saw a sign for the Lake Maria State Park and detoured there for a stamp for that park as well. What a great adventure, we would definitely do that again.