Mother's Day

I had a WONDERFUL mother's day! It was an absolutely beautiful day - sunny and not too hot. I wanted to get outside, so in the morning we went to beautiful Minnehaha Falls. Here's the view from the top of the falls:

And here's the falls from the bottom!

We spent about an hour and a half "hiking" (walking, really; it was easy going!) around the falls. It was so beautiful and so fun. The girls spent a lot of time looking for interesting rocks... Ella managed to fill her pockets!

Part of the trail goes through a really swampy area that has a raised metal walkway through it.

It was cooler and pretty, but the ground was so wet and boggy. It was nice now, in May, but I bet it'll be mosquito central before too long. I'm glad we got in there before that happens!

On the way back, we stopped to splash around in the water for a little while and look for more interesting rocks.

Just about the ONLY thing I didn't like on our hike was the "army worms" (a.k.a. tent caterpillars) that were EVERYWHERE. GROSS! I remember these things from when I was little - we used to have to wrap the trunk of our apple tree in tin foil so that the army worms didn't totally decimate it.

The girls of course were just in love with them and kept going "Look! Caterpillar! Awww.... cute! Look, here's another!" I was like, yeah, there is no shortage of these things, you guys. Ella had a stick that she kept waving around, calling it her "caterpillar finder." The idea of dowsing for caterpillars made me laugh.

Anyway! After our hike it was time for lunch! We went to one of my absolute favorite restaurants, conveniently located at the top of the Falls: Sea Salt!

If you haven't been - it's delicious. I had a crab cake basket - the best crab cake in Minneapolis. Aaron had a grilled catfish po' boy, and the girls had fish baskets. SO YUM.

While we waited for our food, we checked out the rock samples we collected. Here are Maisie's finds:

And here's Ella's. Turns out she had a pocket full of little limestone pebbles. Not the most interesting geology, but she was happy with them!

After lunch, and naps, we'd planned on going to the rescheduled May Day parade & celebration at Powderhorn Park. But the girls were experiencing some tummy issues, so we decided to stick closer to home in case of urgent bathroom needs. They played outside while I did some yard work I'd been wanting to get done for a while.

It was wonderful, and exactly how I wanted to spend my Mother's Day!