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
Michigan

Michigan Upper Peninsula Pasty (PAST-EE) Taste Test

Traveling through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan without trying a pasty would have been a travesty. A pasty is a baked pastry, traditionally filled with meat, vegetables, rutabagas, seasoning and then baked to perfection. It is pronounced Past-Tee, but more run together, like Past-ee. Mispronounce it and you will be gently corrected. It has a crimped, curved edge which allows a person to eat it with one hand. And they are only commonly found in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The pasty came over from Cornwall, England with the influx of immigrants who worked in the mines. The pasty was easy to stuff in a pocket or lunch pail, reheat over a lantern down in the mines, and then eat one handed.

Different shops have a variety of fillings now – from the traditional beef and potatoes, to chicken & broccoli, and even fruit (although we were told a dessert filled pasty is, in fact, not really a pasty).

We had a few recommendations for places to try that we decided to do a little taste test and see which of the three restaurants was our favorite.

Muldoon’s Pasties & Gifts – Munising, MI

First stop, and we didn’t really know what to expect, but the line was long which typically indicates good food. We asked for ours to stay, and they gave us paper plates and silverware to go with our wrapped pasties. We ordered a chicken, a beef, an apple, and a raspberry pasty. Cara didn’t eat a whole lot (or really anything at all), so we basically split each pasty between two people. It was a good amount of food and they were delicious! Half of us liked the chicken better, and the other half preferred the beef. Both were great with gravy.

Their desert pasties were my personal favorite. Officially a pasty or not, they tasted like pie and were even better with ice cream! This was the only one of the three that served dessert so I’m glad we went back a second time for round two.

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The raspberry pasty of awesomeness:

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Jean-Kay’s Pasties & Subs – Marquette, MI

We stopped by Jean-Kay’s for lunch on our way out of town. We were greeted warmly by the owner who took our order. Real plates and silverware with pasties straight from the warming oven. Jean-Kay’s crust was the lightest and probably best we tasted. We ordered a traditional beef and then a vegetable pasty which had cream cheese in it. I must be partial to cheese because that was my favorite part – although it seemed to be clumped near the top and would have been better melted throughout the whole pasty.

Jean-Kay’s pasties seemed a bit smaller so we ordered a small potato salad (which was amazing) and cookies to go!

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Roy’s Pasties & Bakery – Houghton, WI

This was definitely the most “commercialized” establishment of the three. Roy’s is located along the waterfront in Houghton and is a beautiful building with large windows and views of the lift bridge and river (canal?). They also have a more varied menu. Unfortunately, they were out of their Turkey Cranberry pasties (which sounded amazing), but we ordered a traditional, a chicken & broccoli, and two breakfast pasties (eggs, potatoes, sausage, cheese, & onion). Since Cara was not looking forward to yet another pasty dinner, we thought the breakfast one would go over better with her. It did, but she still didn’t eat much. Silly girl.

This was the first pasty that didn’t come with gravy, but we found some hot sauce packets that looked like a good deal and tried that. Pretty good! The traditional pasty was decent, but the chicken and broccoli was amazing!! I think it maybe have been the addition of cheese, but we almost had to play rock, paper, scissors to see who got to finish that one off.

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Apparently breakfast pasties call for a little ketchup!
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And the Winner Is…

Choosing a winner is difficult when they are so unique despite their common heritage. The ultimate winners here are the participants! We loved seeking out a locally unique food and testing a variety. Now, we only tried three pasty places, and we were assured that at least two other places were better than the ones we tried. Alas, both our stomachs and our pocketbooks couldn’t hold out to try them all!

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.

Categories
Finances & Money

How Much Does It Cost to Live in an Airstream? May – July 2015 Summary

Airstream Living Cost July 2015

Wow. Its been awhile since I’ve done one of these posts. About time I guess.

Standard disclaimer that this is not ALL the money we spent for these months. Not even all our discretionary shopping – just the categories I feel that people would find most interesting. To learn how I work my budget see this post.

A couple of notes about May 2015 –

Camping Fees -We stayed for free at my brother-in-law’s house in Idaho for the majority of that time. We helped out with some purchases (he was also helping us weld a new battery box) and we just didn’t have him pay us back and allocated that money spent as “camping fees”. It was about $200.

We also reserved spots in the Florida Keys (Dec) and in Minnesota (June) for a total of another $480 – which we count when we spend it, not when we actually stay there. So, realistically our 17 days of free camping helped us spend a whopping $272 in May. I just didn’t want anyone to freak out and wonder where on earth we stayed for the 14 days we did pay for.

In June we spent quite a bit of time at my brother’s house in Minneapolis. To balance that out, the state and regional parks are not cheap and there’s very little free boondocking anywhere in Minnesota. We barely went over our $700 budget in July and I think that’s pretty accurate for the Midwest. We are currently trending to go over budget by quite a bit in August.

Laundry – I get a lot of people wondering how we keep laundry so low. Granted, I think I’m terrible at tracking it as I usually pay in cash. BUT, I think the biggest factor is that our kids literally wear the same clothes at least 3x a week. Its just not that much laundry. I figure if the clothes don’t smell bad and aren’t visibly dirty, why on earth would I wash it? Wear it again. My kids get in trouble if they are lazy and put their clothes away in the dirty clothes instead of their closet.

Same goes with adult clothes. I will often wear the same shirt/pants at least two days in a row.

We only wash our sheets 1 maybe 2 times a month (depends on how bad they get). We also wash our towels (5 bath towels, 2 bathroom hand towels, 4 dish/kitchen towels, and 4 wash cloths) about every other time, or half of them every time. When you shower every 2-3 days, washing bath towels every week seems overkill.

Its pretty regular that at least once a month we’ll end up at someone’s house and they’ll offer their washer and dryer for our use. Don’t mind if I do.

Groceries–  I bought two months worth of Shakeology in May (which adds up quick). We also stocked up in Pocatello/Idaho Falls at Costco and Winco before heading to said brother-in-law’s house in Driggs, ID for 10 days. Groceries are expensive out in Driggs.

I am wondering if NOT shopping at Costco would actually save me money since I probably overspend there every time anyway.
July spreadsheet