Our First Visit to Oxbow Park

Oxbow Park is located just outside of Rochester and has a ton of outdoor activities: hiking, camping, fishing, picnics, nature center and even a zoo. We saw a black bear, cougar, fox, hawk, owls, bald eagles, porcupine, deer, elk, bison, lynx, chickens, pony (named Tony of course), turkeys, prairie dogs, badger, goats, wolf, skunks and otters. It's not the Minnesota Zoo or anything but it's charming, nicely landscaped and a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. 

Hello Mr. Goat                           Hello Mr. Jake

P.U. skunks!

My two favorite animals of the day - this deer and Tony

Mama and Daddy liked the bison the best. They were BIG!

1,2,3 Jump

Swimming is going well... swimmingly! I love blowing bubbles, kicking, paddling but my favorite thing is jumping off of the side to Daddy or Mama. I say, "1,2,3 Jump" and then jump up as high as possible and splash down. It's so much fun!

My BFF

This is my first real friend, Levi. He is the greatest and we have a lot of fun together! I guess we're pretty cute together too because our teacher's refer to us as the "Adorable Jake & Levi Show." 

"Balling"

We went bowling or as I like to say, "Balling" as a family for the first time and it was so much fun! We got to wear slippery shoes, play with a heavy ball, roll that ball down to try and knock over some illusive pins, and then hoot and holler upon completion (no matter what the outcome). What else can I say... family fun at its best man!

Trial Run

Explanation: New shoes

Daddy, Me, & Grandpa John Makes Three

Splash of Fun

I started my second round of swim classes at the YMCA tonight (I took my first class when I was one year old and now we're back). It's a parent/toddler class called "Aqua Tykes" I absolutely love it and cannot wait for our next class! My teacher's name is Olivia and my first reaction to the pool was pure excitement I even squealed when Daddy went under the water for the first time. I thought it was hilarious! Tonight I enjoyed kicking, jumping off of the side to my Mama, playing with the toys, noodles, and the whale kick-board. We get to go every Tuesday and Thursday for four weeks. Hooray!

Jay C. Hormel Nature Center

Our new favorite place has enjoyment inside and out with over ten miles of walking/running trails outside and an indoor interactive play area where you can see live animals (today we saw two big snakes and a chameleon!), a very fun preschool room, experience nature hands-on with the touch table, play games and read books. And its actually right here in Austin and its free! Now we've been to the Nature Center many times before but only to walk around the trails this time we went inside the building and found even more merriment.

"Nature Center, thank you for a great day we'll see you again real soon!" -Jake

Farming of Yesteryear 2013

Grammie brought a scooter for Grandma 2 but she let me have a ride on it when Grandma 2 chose not to come along because of the crazy hot weather. I loved beeping the horn and waving at people.

Rod is an actual fireman how cool is that and he let me sit in the fire truck! It was awesome until he told me to blow that horn. It was so loud that I wanted to get out of the truck and wouldn't get back in no matter what he or Mama said. Later that night I told her that I was sorry and liked the truck and hoped to get another tour someday. She said that she's sure I'd get another opportunity at some point.

Old school house, church, tractors, working water pump, wagon rides (thank you Grammie!), horses, small farm animals at the petting zoo, and blacksmith = a day full of fun. 

After all of that sun and fun I needed a nap and so did Daddy. I liked taking a nap in Grammie's camper. I thought it was funny that he took a nap with me in the same bed Daddy's so silly.

A look at last year... I'm so tiny!

A Lovely Idea

 

Dad asked us if we wanted to take our bikes up to the Arboretum and explore the grounds and I said, "That sounds like a lovely idea Dad!" So thats just what we did - here are a few pics from our beautiful day. Everybody loves the Arboretum but what I love the most is there's always something new each time we visit. This time we found a five and under playground which was totally awesome. They had a huge sandbox complete with working water faucets, log cabin playhouses, logs to crawl and walk on, a big children's garden, and fort-land (a designated area for building and rebuilding forts to play in).