Back to Boot!!

It is a staple, a tradition and the older two have been planning for a year for Boot Lake.  We headed off on our Wednesday migration towards the Nicolet.  It was a different feel this year.  The park service had started taking reservations rather than first come first serve, it worked out fine in the end and will be even easier next year, but caused some last minute stress this year as we were not sure if we would find sites.  Also in the mix was a trip back to GB to visit Ella's School and meet with the realtor.  That too didn't matter much as the weather had been rainy and unexcpectantly cold.  We were left with two days of great swimming.  The kids played on the tube as Dave zipped them around the lake, made sand castles and wrestled in the waves.  We did load up the canoe late one morning and paddle over to a rope swing across the beach.  The kids were tentative but all giggles when they came off rope into the clear water.  I suspect that too will be a yearly tradition now.  It had a been a few days in camp so we also took that oportunity to suds up our hair and get our camp smell back to civilized amounts.   Just in time of course for the trip to the candy store.  The kids loaded up on candy including candy cigarettes and then spent time asking me to buy them lighters so they could light their own.  After looking for at the second store for a four pack of lighers, I bought them a single one to share.  Sophia and Ella then proceded to stand at the end of our campsite and light up their cigarettes to confuse our neighbors.  We continued our summer goal of making fire.  Both Merrick and Grace were able to get a flame going with flint and steel, but alas the two stick method has still alluded us. We spent alot of time worrying about battery life as I didn't have a nut tightened on the camper and ended up setting up with an incomplete charge.  We did get out to do a little fishing and Merrick scored a rock bass, but the wind was too much for canoe fishing.  We had a great family night around the fire playing "treasure island" in which someone has a theme and the others have to determine the pattern.  Merrick required people to bring something that started with the first letter of the month they were born.  Grace did one that was food but in the order it gets eaten through out the day.  Little geniuses!  Ella and Sophia had the tent to themselves.   We also picked up a big cast iron skillet and made a new favorite tradition of campfire pizza.  It wasn't perfect but it was good enough to know that next year we need enough supplies for two pizzas.

  

Welcome to the Rock

We backpacked on Rock Island.  We packed light and traveled fast.  We didn't need to do either.  We left early in the morning and headed to the tip of the Door to jump on the first of our two ferries that day to cross Death's Door.  Planning on eating on the largest island on our island hopping backpack trip, Washington Island, by noonish.  The meal was a little dissapointing, relatively dirty and run down. We were expecting more of the quantness or even touristy atomosphere as the rest of the door.  Island life is different.  We did make get to tour the lavendar farm on the big island and fill our post lunch gullets with lavendar ice cream.  The temperature was crazy hot and we were sweating like crazy but made it to the second ferry, Kardif, and left the car behind.  We were backpacking the other passengers had wagons, wheelbarrows, coolers and a shower tent.  It wasn't exactly what we expected but didn't detract from the beauty or wonderful history of the island.  We hiked the entire Thordarson trail that circumnavigates the island and is the namesake of the islands last private owner, an icelander, and inventor, with money and plans to create a viking kingdom on the island.  The island has a large viking hall that is open all the time with games to play inside, other smaller buildings contain bocce balls, frisbees, croquet and all manner of lawn games for people to use on the large open space.  It gives the island a strange feeling.  We hiked early to the light house for a tour and Sophia and Ella were sold on the idea of becoming docents in the future.  Planning on living in the lighthouse and giving tours to other visitors.  We made camp after a short hike (0.6 miles) from the ferry to the site near the beach.  Two wonderful afternoons playing in wonderful sand, unseasonably hot temperatures and crystal blue skies.  The lake is really shallow and warm in that area allowing us to walk out a great distant play in waves approaching 1-2 feet.  We had packed light so it was dehydrated meals and ramen noodles, but Amy carried in some smore supplies for the kids. The Sunsets were amazing and we walked to the open fields and watched the sun disappear into the lake.  There was a fly hatched and the fish were surfacing at the water and pinks and oranges darkened into the evening blues.  The kids played monopoly in the Viking Hall until is was too dark to see and we headed towards camp for a fire and games of memory/trivia about the trip as the racoons slowly circled our camp sniffing out scraps of nuttella. The hike was long enough (just barely) for everyone to add another hiking pin to thier packs and although we packed light we are fortunate that memories weigh nothing at all.

Potawatami State Park

 

The week found us at Bay Beach for our now obligatory summer trip on the Zippin Pippin, plenty of smiles and only the single back snapping abrupt stop at the end.  We also so found our second waterless waterfall of the season...making it really just a cliff.  Most importantly however we made it out camping!!  With a bit of luck, Amy found Potawatomi State Park had some openings so we dragged out the camper and flushed out the pink slurry of winterizer and headed north.  It is a great little campground with nice hiking trails and I think we did about a 6 mile loop from our site to a wonderfull pebble beach.  Ella caught one of the few Garder snakes we found basking in the sun. We skipped rocks until our parental fear figured enough time had passed without four kids careening a perfect skipper off another's noggin and then continued on the trail.  Kids were pretty wore out by the time we got back and a wrong turn didn't help the situation but there were plenty of smiles around the campfire.  We did try our hand at making fire from just a stick and board.  It was a sort of goal for the summer and although the summer is still not gone the task is a least making us appreciate the beauty of matches.  Campfires require smores, but Amy stepped it up a notch by creating Smoreos.  A new spin on an old campfire favorite now has oreo cookies in place of antiquated Grahm crackers.  We headed a little deeper into the Door to visit Ron and Jan at another campground and stopped at the iconic PC Junction.  The little train leaves the kitchen carrying our orders to the delight of the kids.  We also poked around a swam awhile at WhiteFish Dunes state park as Potawatami doesn't have a beach to swim at. The water was cold but the kids crashed in the waves and hardly noticed the dangerous rip tide sign.  On the way out we were sidetracked on a beautiful out of the way Cave Point.  This is a series of limestone cliffs overlooking the lake and some teenagers were jumping into what seemed to be dangerously high and turbulent water.  As we hiked the waters edge, scrambling over much lower shelves of dolomite we found an amazing area of beach where hundreds of cairns had been built on the beach.  It was breathtakingly beautiful with some of the spires taller than the kids.  We maneuvered through them and even added a few of our own to the impressionist version of the terra cota army.

A nearly three month recap

It was early May when I hit the publish button on the last post and it has been a whirl-wind since then.  We had a wedding, and a birthday, we packed and we unpacked, the kids have various team events and today gives enough pause for a little updating.  We are finding some time now to get back to doing what we love to do.  We have hiked to two waterfalls, that given the mid-summer lack of rain are really just cliffs, but still pretty.  We have not let the warning signs deter our hikes to get better views and have usually added a nice picnic to the tour as well.  There has been a plenty of ice cream trips and I think in at least each of the neighboring counties.  Spent some time back in EC to watch the Blue Angles and have a rendevous with the clans.  The kids camped in the front yard and spent plenty of time splashing about and running through the woods.  Grandprize even outfitted each of them with appropriately themed sunglasses, aviators.  There was a kite fest in town which is always fun to watch and Ella and Amy were able to try their hands at the trick kites with four line controls.  Sophia had her 12th birthday in the new house and her and Ella made a cake to celebrate the day.  Ella took fifth with her softball team and now only gymnastics and soccer are left, but those teams are about done too and we are changing our plans towards camping.  The kids are getting some reading done during the vacation and have a time sheet from the library with little goals along the way for various minutes markers.  One of the rewards is a trip to Texas Roadhouse complete with a mechanical bull...so that will be fun!

Summer Appears

The weekend started off with a solid party for Ella's 11th birthday, she had a few friends sleep over and they went to bed relatively early.  The early bed time is likely because Amy wore them out at the water park and after refueling their bodies the drifted off to sleep.  We were also able to enjoy the sun with a little rollerblading and the long smooth trail is certainly helping the confidence. Saturday was spent getting the house in order for another showing and the yard is really looking nice.  Saturday was a lazy afternoon hitting balls at the softball diamond and ending with some smore's around the camp fire. Sunday we hit the trail again, but not before watching Sophia's gymnastic team tryout.  She hasn't found out yet if she made it, but I was certainly impressed with her ability and think she has a good chance...in my biased opinion.

Busy times and bunches of fun

 

The last post had us sledding but now, spring is upon us now with temperatures teasing 70 degrees, daffodils and crocus fully in bloom and the magnolia tree starting to show it glory.  Clearly it has been a while since the last update, but not for lack of items to update about but rather it has just been that busy.  Amy even mentioned a few days ago, "do you remember when we used to do stuff?"  Much of our time has been spent on preperations for the big move, but we have still sneaked off a few times to show our faces to the world of entertainment.  We spent an evening at the circus, complete with elephants and dancing horses. tightrope walkers and acrobats.  It was a great show!  We also found time to head to the Oshkosh mueseum to see the lego exhibit.  The artists ability to create with the colored blocks was amazing and well worth the trip.  There has been an Easter egg hunt and all the egg dying that goes along with it, baskets were hid and eventually found in coat closets and showers,  foil wrappers littered the house and the ears have all long since been gnawed off of each rabbit.  We have had three birthdays in the family and a handful more scattered throughout the immediate family.  I awoke to a kitchen decorated by elvish girls during the night.  Grace and Merrick both celebrated another year with a new doll and a new bike respectively.  Showing the house for prospective buyers has required us to vacate to neighborhood parks and even tried our hand at kite flying.  The wind was swirling and attempting to keep four kids' kites in the air might require a more consistent breeze in both direction and speed.  We have wandered around on the woodland trails abit as well, Osprey point has become a nice close excursion and provides plenty to find.  The spring sports of soccer and softball are closing in rapidly and with the wedding, honeymoon, moving out, moving in and all else that will go with a new house I can't imagine our scheduling will get any easier.  Life of course is what happens while making other plans, so we will continue to plan and reflect on the life that exists between all of the calendar reminders!

Slidding on water in all its Forms

We have all but given up on winter adventures.  We did sneak out a couple of weeks back to take advantage of a sunday morning snowfall of about 2 inches and do a little sledding.  Although the conditions were great for Grace and Ella and the hill was nicely populated it was still the only winter outing and has the possibility of being our first and last snow event of the year.  With that in mind Amy decided a trip to the Dells was in order and following her lead I couldn't have agreed more.  We set it up as a surprise, packing the kids gear the night before and loading the truck with out them knowing.  The plan was to get them home from school on Friday and under the guise of going out for dinner to just keep driving until we got to the water park.  That was the plan....late Friday morning Grace went home from school with a fever and "growly in the bowely"  We monitored her closely all afternoon and decided she was good enough to push on.  With everyone about to put on their jackets and leave for the weekend, Merrick puked all over the kitchen and then several additional wretches into the trash can.  Ten minutes later he said he felt alright and was jumping around so it was back to Plan A.  We were on the road nearly an hour before the kids started asking questions, they had seen the gear loaded in the back of the truck and thanks to the intrusive nature of Google's ad campaigns Ella had seen a couple of advertisements on the home computer for Mt. Olympus water parks...the little sleuths put it together that we weren't likely driving all the way to Oshkosh just for Culver's burger basket.  With a long but uneventful drive to the dells and a brief check in we donned our suits and headed to the green tubes of glee.  The air was hot, humid and heavily chlorinated.  It was exactly what we needed.  While the laughs were many the photos are few.  We road the Boa, Anaconda, Diamondback and the Cobra.  The cobra likely saw us least, but the others were crazy fast.  The Lazy river and the hot tub also saw a little attention from the kids.  We played in the park until it shut down for the night.  We had packed about 3 months worth of junk food and we did our best to plow through it all. We found a breakfast spot and filled up for another day of laughs.  We spent a few hours in the morning at the water park and then after lunch headed back to the indoor dry park.  The kids road a free fall ride about 20 times in a row and until the older two were told that they were on it long enough that they had grown too tall to ride.  I don't recall but it is possible that Amy and I dozed off on park bench.  They also spent some time in the foam ball area.  We hit a nice brew pub for dinner and then it was back to the water park.  We were pruny and chilled and ready to call it a day.  The room had acquired a unique smell that was exacerbated by the high temperatures and humidity, a less than subtle mixture of feet, junk food and processed junk food in a way that only little bellies can.  We hit the dry park once more before heading home near lunch time.  Just in case the kids might forget the trip, Amy also swung into the American Girl outlet on the way home and it was as if their collective heads were about to explode from pure bliss and endorphine overload.  Grace summed it up best as she was tucked in Sunday night, "I say all weekends are long, but this was the longest weekend ever!"