New and Blue!

Mark took M and M to Cedar Rapids to test for their blue belts over the weekend while I was at the Iowa City Yoga Conference. They did well and were awarded their blue belts last night! So grateful for this school and our teacher. I am continually impressed by Mr. Gibson. (Official way of addressing your teacher...even if you were in high school when he was born!) He always has such good things to say to them at the belt ceremony...and by good, I don't mean he just tells them how great they are. He tells them things like how important it is to learn to accept constructive criticism; that no one is perfect; he applauds their hard work. He really is an excellent teacher. We are lucky.

 

P.S.  Yes, M4's hair is in a ponytail.  Which opened up a whole new can of worms, but that is a story for another day.

Oh yeah, vacation...

'Twas so long ago now, but here are some photos from our kayaking adventure on Lake Superior.
 Checking out some caves along the shore of Madeline Island.

Floating snack!Do your best sand person imitation!

As you can see, it was absolutely beautiful albeit a bit windy out on the open water.  Lake Superior is so crystal clear, and the caves and rocks along the shore are beautiful!  Our rental guy, "Kayak Ed," was just a classic island dweller: he prominently displayed a newspaper clipping from the '60s heralding his Civil Rights protest arrests, and time was really quite malleable to him.  I'd be perfectly happy winding up like him, though, in my later days.

What would you do with a million dollars?

"If I made a million dollers I spend it on a bunch of kittens or cats!  I love cats so that's why I would spend it on kittens.  Well I would problably use it on kitty treats.  I would maybe would spend it on 4 kitty beds.  It dosent relly matter what I would spend it on.  So relly anything would be fine for me." - M4

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.)

First Day!

3rd, 36th, and 6th grade!

Only in one place...

...will you see sights like these:

We also saw the real largest bull and largest boar. Honestly, I was too horrified to take pictures of them. The poor things. On a happier note, we saw an ostrich and an elk with amazing antlers, too. Of course, they are meat animals, but disregarding that.

The Sky Glider is always a favorite.

You can't tell from this picture, but the cabbage is actually bigger than their heads.

We also saw baby ostriches (so cute!!), chicks, piglets, calves, lambs...baby animal extravaganza!

No comment necessary.

P.S. I will post some vacation pics soon. At the moment I am overwhelmed at the possibilities.

Faireality

M3 was inspired by this book:
to make some clothes (fairie sized) out of plant matter. Here are some of the results:




She set them on a photo in a book for the background. Pretty cool!