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so, after i wrote about turning 24 and feeling lucky, i climbed into bed and fell asleep.  in the morning, the mister and i woke up, showered, got ready, and hopped in the car for a drive to devil's lake!  it was a snowy and cold day, but we were excited for the prospects of winter hiking and spending the afternoon at one of our favorite places.

as expected, it did not disappoint!  we went to farm and fleet first (so we could pick up a few assorted things, including heavy duty hiking socks for the birthday girl) and then went over to the park.  we bought  a wisconsin state park sticker--meaning we'll just have to come back to visit and get our money's worth--and headed to one of our favorite parts of the park.

we did some hiking and i tried out my new camera, a birthday present from the mister.  i love it so much!  there are so many neat features and i'm looking forward to trying it out on vacation (which is in a mere FIVE days!).  anyway, eventually we decided to move on to a different part of the park... after pushing the car out of the snow it'd gotten stuck in, anyway!  we drove to a quiet area i had never been to before, somehow...  it was so neat and we enjoyed trudging through the snow, finding a neat clearing on the top of a hill.  it was an amazing day and i'm so glad we went.

here's to venturing back to devil's lake, and other wisconsin state parks, too--those we've visited before and those we haven't!  until then, here are a few of my favorite photos from the day.