After we’d lived in our house for awhile I found a list I’d made where I said my dream house was a cottage. I laughed, because I had accidentally made that come true. Our house, with its cedar shakes, half picket fence, and gardens IS very cottage like. It has a cozy fireplace, amazing gardens, and a […]

I forgot to write about our little overnight at the Whitetail Woods camper cabins on Mother’s Day weekend! If you haven’t heard of it, Whitetail Woods is a new park with camper cabins that opened up in Dakota County last year. They have THE MOST BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED little cabins, I pretty much wanted to hire […]

Our Ely Travel Guide the first is a new series of family travel-related posts, where we don’t just tell you about a trip we took but give you a game plan for how to plan a trip of your own. First up, Ely, Minnesota, an easy four-hour drive from Minneapolis-St. Paul. Why go to Ely? Ely […]

Every winter some friends of ours hike into a cabin at Tettegouche State Park, and I’ve always wanted to try it. Their trips sounded so magical — sipping coffee while big snowflakes fall outside, taking long snowshoe or ski outings on the vast network of trails, reading in front of the wood stove. Our seven […]

Previous post: Planning and prepping for taking young kids on a BWCA canoe trip On the days leading up to our BWCA trip with the girls, it seemed like an awful lot of work. Our trip was going to be two days (one night), which is the most gear and effort for the least amount of days.  And […]

There is a moment every year on our annual backpack-into-a-cabin-in-the-woods trip where I am utterly miserable. Typically the moment involves a wailing baby and an overtired me. But then the moment passes, and the memory fades, and I vow to do it again next year — but for more nights. This year had the moments […]