Willow Falls

More Minnesota

This is taken from a look-out place 177 steps up above Willow Falls. You can't really tell how pretty the view was, so have to take our word for it!
Here's a statue of Mary Tyler Moore throwing her hat in the air in downtown Minneapolis. If you're younger than I am you probably don't remember the Mary Tyler Moore Show though. We had people walk by snickering as we took this picture.
Willow Falls from the bridge.
We kind of liked Willow Falls! Sorry all the pictures just have us in them.
This is Willow Lake. It's in Wisconsin, but only about a 40 minute drive from Minneapolis. There were very few people there that day, probably because it was very cold. The cold weather actually worked to our advantage at the outdoor places we visited, since there were no crowds at all!
Charles at the Como Zoo.
At least we got to see a riverboat! They were closed for the season so we didn't get to go on a ride.
We crossed over this bridge on foot to St. Paul. It was so cold we had to go warm up in the Crown Plaza Hotel on the other side.
A view of St. Paul on the other side of the Mississippi River.

Minnehaha Falls

Minnesota Trip 10-10

Bridge over the Mississippi River. This was an amazing view.
This is the Longfellow House by Minnehaha Falls. Longfellow wrote the epic poem about Hiawatha which was based on local history.
You can't really tell from this picture, but Minnehaha Falls was the best part of the day! It's very impressive! There's also a beautiful trail that winds down from it to the Mississippi River. It was rather muddy today though, so we didn't make it all the way on the trail, but drove to the river instead.
Lake of the Isles. It was a quite cold today, but we took a walk on the trail anyway. It goes all the way around this very pretty lake but we just went a short distance. There area a lot of lakes in the state (the land of 10,000 lakes).
We went to the St. Paul Temple this morning. It's even smaller than Redlands. We thought there might not be very many people there because of the weather, but that wasn't the case! I think today was pretty mild by their standards.
The Mall of America is as big as we'd heard it was. This amusement park is in the center of it. The whole thing, not including the park, is about three or four times bigger than Ontario Mills!

Abby's Mission Departure 10-10

OK, I did this backward, so look at it from finish to start! Here's Abby walking into the MTC. She looked lovely, poised, prepared, and confident!
They just let you drop them off at the curb and go!
We got together at the park below the Provo Temple to say our goodbyes. Abby's friend, Rachel Moon came too, but she's taking the picture.
A last lunch at In and Out.
We took a walk along the Provo River while Joey and Abby went long boarding on the trail.

Kelsey and Abby Sunday after Abby gave her farewell talk in Sacrament Meeting.
Bella was cute brushing her hair and trying to carry this dress-up purse on her shoulder.

This is Abby's friend, Jamie, who drove out from Utah to be with us on Sunday.

The Friday that Carly and Rich were here we went to the gala event at David and Margaret.
Carly and Abby.

Audra with the chickens.
Doesn't Evan look cute with his new look?

General Conference Sunday October 2010

Kelsey, Skylee and Austin posing on the bars. If we ever move, we'll have to put up more bars, since all the kids love to play on them.
This is during the afternoon session of General Conference on Sunday. It may look like no one was listening, but we were doing our best! It was also family bonding time!
Afterward we ate and played with chickens.
This is what Suzie does when she wants to get our attention! She hops up on the window sill and makes scratching noises!
Katy and Lilly. Lilly is starting to fill out and looks a lot like the other Ellsworth kids, who are all very cute. She is also walking now.
She wasn't too impressed with the chicken, but she just woke up from a nap.