up north (day 3)...

bright and early (and the sun was shining!) on day three, we headed to itasca state park. When we arrived we decided to divide our day into three parts- hike to the ranger fire tower, pontooning on lake itasca, and walking to the headwaters of the mississippi river. It was a lovely day, and we were all exhausted by the end of the day! wild flowers on the "path" to the fire tower...
sophia was "too tired" to walk most of the hike to the fire tower...good thing daddy was there!

waiting to climb the tower...awww, what a cute couple!

here we are...look at that height!

we were exhausted by the time we finally made it to the tower...okay, a tad bit over dramatic, but it was still a challenge to get there!

made it to the top and everyone climbed on their own!

the view from the top of the tower...breathtaking and scary all at the same time!

gathering rocks from the mississippi river

later that evening we went for a boat ride and i was able to see my first loon...and we came upon a family of loons (mom, dad, and two babies)- wow!

loon on marty's lake (upperbottle lake)

s'mores before bed...

sunset on upperbottle lake....one of my favorite pictures!