rupprecht's valley ~

memorial weekend we went to the farm and

hiked into 'rupprecht's valley' [where tom

spent lots of his childhood and i visited once

twenty years ago].

the girls were really lucky, all of their rupprecht
uncles were in minnesota at that time so they
joined us for the adventure .....

i love tom with his purple and pink backpack ; )

they stopped different times to use their metal detector ....

they didn't find many 'treasures' but had fun trying! : )

the deeper we got into the valley the more it looked like
a tropical rainforest ....

it was a long hike, and even when it started to rain
the girls never complained or asked if we were almost there.
making it to the waterfall was exciting ......

and then to the cave!!

finding snail friends on the way back was also fun ....

and walking across the creek made us all feel
quite adventurious ....

tom (second from right) with his brothers and youngest
sister ~