Vacation Campsites

Because Blogger only lets me upload five pics an entry, I'll highlight the vacation in pieces:

Campsite #1 - Moose Lake, WI: Mosquitoes, loons, undrinkable water, 14 miles of gravel, gigantic thunderstorm. A nice spot by the lake, but the swimming beach was covered with goose poop...we probably won't stay at this one again!

Campsite #2 - Big Bay State Park, Madeline Island, WI: More mosquitoes, lovely walk-in site, AMAZING beaches on Lake Superior, company in the form of deer (see pic #2) and A BEAR!!! Fortunately, drinkable water, and plumbing in the bathrooms which the kids really appreciated. They tired of pit toilets on this trip.

Campsite #3 - Fenske Lake, near Ely, MN: A beautiful swimming beach, clean water, fewer mosquitoes, a fox, awesome hikes close by, plus Ely about 13 miles away which has a wolf center, a bear center, frozen custard, and the delicious Chocolate Moose.

Moose Lake was one we hadn't located or researched ahead of time. We just drove up there and picked a Chequamegon National Forest campground off the map. We aimed for a not-quite-as-remote campground first which apparently doesn't exist anymore (time to update our Wisconsin Atlas??!). I guess it shows you should do your homework!! If you camp there, bring some drinking water! It seemed like a popular spot for fishermen...less so for families.

Overall the vacation was awesome! I'll post a few more highlight pictures. I fully recommend a visit to Madeline Island, camping or not. And northern Minnesota...I'm in love! I guess the biggest drawback on this trip was M3's insistence on washing her hands constantly (she has grown into a bit of a germophobe), and both kids' hatred of pit toilets. I fully understand being afraid of them as a kid. They are unsettling even as an adult, despite the fact that the Fenske Lake ones were some of the cleanest we've been in. Fortunately, the kids don't mind pooping in the forest!! HA!! (Don't worry, I buried it.)

Summer!

Wow, I'm bad at posting! Sorry! Summer has begun, and as usual it is busier than I expected. I am teaching quite a bit. Mark is busy with his 3.5 summer students. M3 participated in a swim camp with the college swimming coach. She had a great time and learned a lot, and next year she wants to spend the night in the dorms! Eeeek! M & M both did a naturalist camp at our local "lake" and really loved identifying the plants and animals and tromping around in the mud.

Of course, we are having lots of time to play with friends on the deck:
...and for visitors (we're looking forward to more visitors this summer!!):
We are the pigtail trio (Mon, cousin O, and M3)!! (Apparently some of us are succumbing to the humidity worse than others. Ew.)

Talent in the family

I always look forward to summer laziness...and then summer always ends up being busy! Mostly because we take time to visit people or they take time to visit us. And that is the best kind of busy-ness, but it doesn't lend itself to spending time on the computer (not such a bad thing, in my case!!). So herewith, I will take a few days to try to get up-to-date with some of our summer highlights.

Up first, our first trip to Music in the Park all summer was to see cousin Aaron play!! How cool is that? He played acoustic guitar in a an Irish (Scottish?) music trio. It was possibly the first rain-free, truly beautiful Thursday night we've had, so it was extra special to be able to sit with Gina and Mitch and listen to Aaron. The kids had fun running amok with their friends, and then we all went to La Cabana for dinner. We rode the bikes home after dark trying not to get fireflies in our teeth.
Sadly, I didn't get a picture of Aaron playing because he was behind the music stand. I didn't want to make him nervous by stalking around the gazebo trying to get a good shot!

Ring around the rosy!
M4's hair's a-flyin'!!

Again with the busy!

So it's been almost a month since I put anything on here. You gotta problem wit' dat??! Two weekends in a row out-of-town: one in KC with the whole family as you can see from the sweet pictures here:




(I love this last pic; it truly displays the cousins' personalities! V doesn't want to be contained...she's always on the go, and O is just chillin'.)

And one in Chicago for Mark's 20th college reunion, hanging with the fantastic Navarro family and getting to see old friends and their children all grown up. Of course, I forgot my camera for that outing. Then we hosted two parties for new Chemistry babies and friends who are moving away (boo!). So now it really feels like summer! M3 is swimming in the mornings, and we have some art and science camp activities coming up. But mostly we're just hanging out...especially at our amazing new aquatic center!! I'll try to get better at posting!

Beach tour

Did I mention that the beaches on our vacation were amazing? In order of our visits to them:

Petoskey State Park on Lake Michigan:
Still Petoskey...I love this pic of the water splashing up around M4:
An extra scenic view of the shore of Mackinac Island on Lake Huron. If you go, definitely rent bikes to get out of town...a trip around the island follows 8 miles of shoreline:
This beach was a 1.5 mile hike from our campground at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Lake Superior. It was called Twelve Mile Beach. Twelve miles and NO people!!
And finally, Chapel Beach (still Lake Superior) was the last beach we hiked to. This was three miles from the trail head. That meant three miles back, but it was worth it! The kids did great! A waterfall from Chapel Lake falls right onto the beach, making a little river that heads out to the big water:So maybe the Michigan Board of Tourism should hire me; clearly I was impressed!

The Travelers...

They were playing "travelers." For some reason, this picture both cracks me up and makes me sad. I think it's because the poses are funny, but they also make M and M look a lot older for some reason. M4 also used the tricorn hat to play "President." It was hilarious!! He had his whole room set up; M3 made an "Oval Office" sign for his door; he also held "court." I was summoned for driving too fast, but there wasn't any clear punishment. Phew!

This week they are both participating in Mad Science camp and having a great time. M4 did not make himself almost throw up on the first day, which was a great relief.

Slip 'N' Slide!!

So yesterday I rediscovered a gift long sitting idle in the garage...the Slip N Slide!! (Thanks, Grandpa!!) M and M had mucho fun. Here are some action shots of all the trick sliding that took place:

Somehow M4 manage a sliding somersault...I never did catch it perfectly, though!

On the knees:
Backward!
Everybody's gone surfin'!!

Art Camp Finale

Well, the two weeks of morning art camp came to an end last Friday with a performance/art viewing. After a wicked afternoon storm, the skies cleared, and it turned into a beautiful night to visit the art farm. M4 insisted on wearing his tie for this special occasion:You can sort of see the lovely setting from this pic of M3 in the middle of the India-inspired dance she learned (it was a global theme). Yes, she's dancing next to a silo:
M4 decided against the tie after a while. Here he is singing a song in Spanish:
Here they are in front of a wall of masks that the campers made. The variety of masks made from the same materials is really quite amazing! They made a whole lot of really cool stuff!
When I asked M4 afterward if he would be interested in doing art camp again next summer, he took a VERY long pause before finally answering that he would. One small step for some kids, one giant leap for M4.

Lemonade stand...

M3 and M4 were very keen on having a lemonade stand Sunday afternoon. I was not too excited...something to do with exposing my children to random strangers passing by, I guess. Way to spoil the childhood fun, Mom! Anyway, Mark helped them set up, and they were very earnest and enthusiastic about shouting "Lemonade for sale!" to any passing car. They had several customers and made a few bucks! M3 also sold some of her drawings. I guess it was an art sale, too. I was so taken by their enthusiasm that I even found myself riding to the store to fetch them some ice with my new bike panniers. (Thanks, Mom and Dad!) They were just so cute in this endeavor, I couldn't stand it!! They are not jaded yet....

Lazy Days of Summer?

Today was the first day of no school. I was looking forward to the lazier summer schedule; getting to hang out with the kids. But...that doesn't really work when I have to teach at 8 a.m. Darn that work stuff! It just gets in the way. It will be interesting to see how the kids deal with being dragged to work with me all the time. When their other buddies are there, it's OK, but when they're not...well, we'll see. (Hey, that was all three uses of there/their/they're in one sentence! Probably bad English.)

First Days of Summer

School will be over on Friday! The past few days have been quite warm, so we broke out the sprinkler for the first time!
M3's friend B was over. I know this is blurry, but I just liked it because M3 is airborne.

Round and round they go! I love our new yard. And I also love my clothes line! Go figure...

Labor Day

We had a quiet weekend: dinner with friends, more moving and organizing, and a last dose of swimming for the summer! M1 always has to teach on Labor Day, so he truly labored. Hope everyone else had a lovely weekend!


P.S. Sadly, this pool had to be retired to the big inflatable pool in the sky...it had holes the size of Rocky Mountain boulders!