Category: Travel

Categories
Homeschool Mommy Diaries

Not Going “Back” To School And Happy About It

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Over the last few weeks I’ve watched on social media as various friends around the country go back to school. I’ve seen various comments from my mom friends – some are happy to be sending their kids back so they can have a little more breathing room. Others are sad summer as come to an end. My nephew, who is three days younger than Cara, starts Kindergarten on Monday and everyone in the family is rightfully excited about this milestone in his life. This would have been Cara’s first year in public school and the BIG year for me with all three kids gone at least part of the day. So much time for myself. Just me. Something I looked forward to from the day Rachel started kindergarten so many years ago. Society tells me that is freedom – that when my kids are not around I can have time to myself. That time “to myself” is to be aspired to and celebrated.

I’m so grateful we aren’t in those circumstances anymore. I’m grateful my kids and I have spent the last week exploring, hiking, biking, and spending time together, instead of me watching them leave for a school and activities that I wasn’t a part of. I love that we are just continuing our studies, and that nothing has really changed. Sure, they are getting older, but we move on to new and harder subjects when they are done with the old ones. Cara really “started” Kindergarten months ago when we deliberately began focusing on reading, counting to 100, and better handwriting because she was ready for it.

I love that my kids would rather be out hiking and enjoying nature than in a classroom learning from books. I love that they’ve learned so much history, geography, & social studies just by traveling to new and different places. This is what I craved for so long without knowing what it was.  Freedom from social norms, free to be who we were meant to be without social pressure. Free from soccer schedules, school schedules, and even work schedules. We dictate our time and how we spent it, rather than having it handed to us.

This is freedom. I love it.

Categories
WanderLog Wisconsin

Ashland Wisconsin, the Apostle Islands, and Cheese

Travel Dates: August 18-26, 2015

After we explored Michigan’s Upper Peninsula along Lake Superior for 8 days, we made it back into northern Wisconsin and landed in Ashland. We gambled on a first come, first served waterfront city park and totally scored. Kreher City Park has a beach, a couple dozen sites, and is right on the water with a bike path running through it.

We stayed here for 5 days and it was perfect. We caught up on work and school, ate at Buddie’s Burgers (twice), road the 10 mile paved Ashland loop, went to the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center where the kids earned their 75th Jr. Ranger Badge, and prepped for our upcoming backpack trip to the Apostle Islands.

Related blog posts:
Our Kids Earn Their 75th Jr. Ranger Badge
Sometimes We Just Need a Break

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We were up bright and early on a Sunday morning headed for the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and our backpacking trip. It was amazing and so worth the time to get out to the islands. As a bonus, we even got to visit the Michigan Island Lighthouse on our way back!

Related blog posts:
Andrew’s 8th Birthday on the Apostle Islands
How We Backpacked on the Apostle Islands with Kids
Backpacking With Kids: 3 Day Meal Plan & Freezer Bag Cooking

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We had decided awhile ago that visiting Wisconsin didn’t count unless we bought local cheese, so before we left the Bayfield area we made that a priority.

Tetzner’s Dairy is a self-serve dairy farm that sells milk, cheese, and most importantly, ice cream. You walk into the shed, pick out your products, pay with cash or check and then walk out. The ice cream was delicious and we made some amazing grilled cheese with the Bacon Cheese.

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To finish out the Apostle Islands, we went up to Little Sand Bay hoping to visit the Sea Caves. Unfortunately, we underestimated how tired we would be, and no one wanted to hike the 5 mile round trip it required. So, we hung out at the campground and realized we would have been better off staying closer to Bayfield instead of driving all the way out there. Oops.

We did go into the Visitor Center and watch a movie about a modern Ojibwa making a North Canoe. The movie was fairly dated, but the girls & I were fascinated since we are obsessed with anything Voyageur related. Andrew was mostly just restless.

SAM_4291 Leaving the peninsula we headed towards Duluth, but were planning on overnighting at Walmart in Cloquet, MN to put us close to the mechanic for an appointment to check our trailer brakes.

Not wanting to arrive at Wal-Mart before dark, we hung out at Little Sand Bay until 2pm and then stopped by both Amnicon Falls State Park & Pattison State Park ($10 for a day pass gets you into all the state parks) to see the waterfalls. They are both small parks about 30 minutes apart and easily seen on the same day.

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We had dinner in the parking lot, and then we drove to the Wal-Mart in Cloquet, MN ready to begin traveling up the North Shore!

Categories
Holidays & Bdays

Andrew’s 8th Backpacking Birthday on the Apostle Islands, Wisconsin

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Dear Andrew,

I can’t believe you are 8! Time is flying so fast and I love that I get to spend so much time with you. I would hate to miss any of your amazing moments as before we know it you’ll be grown and gone.

Eight years old is a special time in our family. You’ve been studying your Book of Mormon with dad and have made the decision to baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Although it won’t happen quite as soon as you’d like, we are excited to share this even with our family and friends who love and support you when we fly back to Utah.

You have a great attitude about life, and although your sisters frustrate you I love the way you play and try to get along with them. You’ve never been a high – energy child and I love that you are content to just sit and read for hours. You love to learn, try new things and are endlessly curious about how things work.

I can’t wait to start doing Cub Scouts with you as I know you’ll learn so many new things and we’ll have fun as a family supporting you!

We love you very much and are incredibly grateful you are in our family!

love,
Mom (and Dad)

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We had talked a long time ago about how birthday presents this year were plane tickets to fly back to Utah to visit family, but Andrew has been told he could have a pocket knife “when you turn 8” for at least the last year. Sam and I decided it would be great to have him open it while we were out backpacking on the Apostle Islands.

We were super sneaky to both buy the knife and get it into a pack and on to the trip without him even realizing what was going on. While shopping earlier in the week, Rachel also decided she wanted to get him something and found some Disney Villain playing cards and some Hot Tamales that we also packed in. Grandma and Grandpa Madsen sent him a sticker book, and cards from his aunts & uncles. Andrew was completely surprised by all of this which made it even more fun!!

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Since we were backpacking, and it was cold, the kids were actually dressed for breakfast for once. Andrew had requested packet oatmeal for breakfast since I never buy it anymore and was thrilled with his special breakfast.

Much of his birthday was pretty low key – we hiked to our next camp spot on the beach, the kids played cards and mom & dad took a nap.

His “cake” though ended up being pretty epic. I had pre-made some chocolate chip cookie bars and we toasted marshmallows (on sticks he had whittled with his new knife), stuffed them with Hershey’s chocolate bars and then ate them on the cookies. We also snuck in a number 8 candle and manage to stick it into the marshmallow. He was one happy kid, and I’m not sure we’ll ever eat another regular S’more again.

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My favorite part of the day was when Andrew said, “Mom, I really like DOING special things on our birthdays.” Me too, kid. Me too. Although I’m not sure how we are going to top this one next year!

Categories
Homeschool National Parks

Our Kids Earn Their 75th Jr. Ranger Badge

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I often lose track of how many Jr. Ranger badges my kids have earned which got me into a little trouble when we hit 50 and didn’t know it. 50 badges seemed like a good milestone for celebrating and the kids were a little disappointed that we had skipped it.

“How about 70? 75?” I asked instead. “We could have a party.”

Knowing we were getting close, I kept a little better track in the last few months and last week the kids earned their 75th Jr. Range badge at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center near Ashland, WI. I’m so proud of them. Some of these books are pretty easy, but others take quite a bit of work and effort to complete. (See our list of badges here.)

There was also those couple of weeks in Arizona earlier this year where they earned 3 one week and then another 5 two weeks later. I think we were all Jr. Rangered out after that for a little while!

I encourage the kids to wear either their badge covered hat or vest when we pass off a new badge. Sometimes they get embarrassed because complete and total strangers want to take their photos, but I find that most rangers really appreciate seeing kids excited about the program. Its almost like a “thank you” to them for all the hard work they do to educate kids about our nation’s awesome parks.

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Jr. Ranger badges also count as “school” for the day. Instead of doing their regular book assignments, we’ll count the badge as they often include history, geology, biology, reading comprehension, physical activity (hiking) and problem solving. Plus, we are usually outside exploring and getting my kids outside for school is always a plus!

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As an incentive, and encouragement to keep going we gave the kids each a $5 bill upon earning their 75th badge. This went over super well (I think its the most money they’ve ever physically had at one time), and the kids are still contemplating what they will be spending it on.

“How about we get $10 once we reach 150 badges?” they suggested.

I’m not sure we’ll raise the stakes that high, but I think $5 every 75 badges could go a long way to keeping them motivated!

75 National Park Junior Ranger Badges!

Categories
Daily Life Mommy Diaries

Sometimes We Just Need a Break

SAM_4270-EditFull time travel burnout is real. Our life may look carefree and happy all the time, but behind the scenes there’s hours of planning, stress over work, getting school done, and wondering where on earth we are going to stay that night. I also stress about “seeing all the things” so when there is a lot to do in area, I often get overwhelmed and just want to throw up my hands and give up completely.

We just finished touring Michigan’s Upper peninsula and it was a little stressful. We only know a few other full timers that have come through here recently (compared to Arizona where everyone hangs out in the winter), so knowing which campgrounds were the best and where we could reliably get Verizon signal was a huge guess. There were a few reviews from a local traveler on Campendium, but those didn’t include cell signal as I imagine they were on vacation and it wasn’t as important to them. There was also a lot of people in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore which adds to the stress.

All these factors contribute hugely to the fact that we are in love with Ashland, Wisconsin. We got here early to get a walk up spot at a small, city park campground right on the water.

The weather has been a bit windy, chilly, and rainy which contributes to staying home and getting things done rather than out exploring everyday. It also is a huge relief from the heat and humidity we had last weekend up in the Keweenaw Peninsula. Verizon signal isn’t amazingly fast, but its reliable so Sam is getting ahead on work. There’s enough to do here that the kids and I can get out once a day and not be bored, and we even had time to visit the local library which is one of our favorite things to do. Its the perfect arrangement of awesome.

We’ve also been watching these guys work on building a break wall out in the bay. The kids love looking out our rear windows and seeing these guys work throughout the day. I by “the kids” I mean Sam.

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I think I’ll go make some cookies and maybe we’ll have a movie night, just because we can.