I know that Minnesota can get a little rough in the winter, but we try to enjoy as much of it as we can and get outside every chance we get. Last week we journeyed out to see the Bartz brothers snow sculpture and the Ice Castles. It was great because this year they were only a few minutes away from each other so it was easier for us to get to both of them.

Bartz Snow Sculptures is a giant sculpture that three brothers {and some friends} work hard to create. They raise money to bring clean water to Africa, you can donate on their page. We loved the walking trail where they could answer multiple-choice questions about whales as we walked up to the sculpture. The kids loved choosing their favorite from all of the sculptures they have done so far and learning about the process of building something this huge and awesome!

We went to the ice castles a few years ago and loved it and this year was even better! The kids could have gone done the slides all night…..in fact, they kind of did. My boys were so happy to just go down over and over and over again and they all had fun crawling through the tunnels, winding through the ice castles and exploring any little cubby they could find to crawl in and through. As we were getting ready to leave, Maggie found the coolest thing. We went into this little igloo looking area and looked up and the colors from the lights above looked so incredible!

While there are so many other things to do in Minnesota in the winter {skiing, sledding, snowmobiling, ice skating…..just to name a few} these are two that we don’t get too do all of the time so we were so happy to get to experience them both this winter. If you haven’t seen them yet, there is still time to check out the ice castles but you will have to wait until next year for the Bartz Snow Sculpture because they tore it down today. Here’s to more winter memories! See you outside!