Madeline Island

This is my final post about our trip up north this summer. We left the cabin and took a day trip to Madeline Island in Lake Superior. We boarded the ferry.

(You can click to enlarge the pics.)

The girls were so excited that we drove our car onto a boat!

We visited the Madeline Island Museum and learned about the history of the island.


We then spent the day at Big Bay State Park. The weather was like this when we arrived:

Within no time, it looked like this:

It was utterly magical!


The water was frigid (being Lake Superior), but it was crystal clear and so inviting... we decided to brave it.


It was such a peaceful day. We collected rocks (which we later polished in our tumbler), played in the sand, and splashed in the water.

The girls slept through the entire ferry ride on the way back, and most of the ride home.

A sign of a terrific journey!

Pivit

Willa has been working on her reading and writing lately. She came over to me recently to show me something she had written. I was very excited to see it and gave her heaping amounts of praise to encourage her.

I saw that she wrote "Pivit." She then said, "It says 'Private' and I'm going to put it on my bedroom door." Sigh.

Jia also showed me something she created recently: a "Fashin Magasin" that is "Only for Fansy Pepole."

Jia's love of fashion design is still going strong. Here are some of her latest designs.



Aren't they great!

Student of the Month

Jia was chosen as a Student of the Month for the first month of school again! Along with her kindergarten cousin Han!

On the way to the ceremony:

Here she is with the principal, who read the following statement from her teacher:

"Jia is a responsible first grader. She works hard and has a great enthusiasm for learning! Jia works well with others and can always be counted on to help her classmates. Jia loves to learn and it shows in everything she does!"



Yay Jia and Han!

Crystal Cave

We recently went on a day trip to visit Crystal Cave. The cave temperature is in the 40's, so we came prepared.


We climbed down about seven stories and saw lots of cool formations:

Bats (which we love for their bug-eating capacity):

They were surprisingly tiny:

Fossils:

Headache rocks (perfect for passing kids, but not adults):


And a place for wishes:

Our favorite part was when the guide held an ultraviolet light up to certain minerals and they glowed in spectacular colors: bright red, green with red dots, brilliant purple, and a phosphorescent one even continued to glow green after the light was turned off. It was a great adventure!

Letterboxing

We went letterboxing for the first time recently. It was awesome! We recently purchased a GPS device for geocaching, but had yet to figure out how to use it. It was a beautiful day, so we decided to try letterboxing instead. Letterboxing is similar to geocaching in that there is a hidden box at the end of the journey. A journal and stamp (typically custom or homemade) are in the box. You bring your own journal, stamp and stamp pad along. When you arrive there, you stamp yours into the letterbox journal, and write the date and your team name. Then you use its stamp in your own journal. We got our clues on how to find the letterbox from www.letterboxing.org.

We chose one in the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

The clues led us on an adventure where we found markers along the trail, such as a stairway, a trail number and a bench dedicated to a certain person.

From the bench, we had to walk 75 paces and then look for a lone pine tree in a group of oaks and elms. From there, we went west into the forest uphill 25 paces until we found an oak tree wrapped in vines.

There it was!

The letterbox was placed in 2006 and the last entry in the journal was from about a year ago.

We decided we were team "Treasure Trackers." We used Jia's chop from China as our stamp. We had it made for her there.




Stamping our journal.



We continued hiking and visited the Nature Center.


Jia's first shot of us!

We'll take some time to figure out our GPS device soon, but we'll definitely do this again as well!

Willa's First Day of School! Again.

Part II, The Sequel, Ditto, etc. Yes, Willa started a new school today. The same thing occurred at this time last year (due to a bad teacher who was fired the day we left). Poor kiddo. We're SO thankful that she is an extremely adaptable kid.


We had signed her up for a certain program at her old school. Right before school started, the director decided to switch it to another program that the school offered (one that we deliberately did not choose or want). We decided to give it a try to see whether Willa would like it.

Last year, she raced out of class every day saying, "Mama, I had the best day ever! Can I go back again tomorrow?" This time, she said, "Well, it's good." (She's such a sweet, positive kid.) She loved her friends in her class, but the program was very academic and she wasn't allowed to play with them, or at all really, except for recess. The majority of the class signed a petition asking for changes, but in the end, it wasn't enough. Thus far, a quarter of the class has left, including us.

Which brings us to her new school. She had a great time! I'm so happy and relieved for her. She cheerfully told me, "It's better!"

We ended her school experience with some drama. She normally eats lunch at school, but I picked her up early and we went out to lunch. When we were finishing eating, I looked at the gas station across the street and saw that it was in flames! I grabbed her and we quickly got in our car and sped away. As Willa said, "Hope no one gets hurt!" Nothing like some excitement to top off the day!

Apple Junction

Last weekend, our financial planner hosted a day at a local apple orchard. It was gorgeous out. We decorated pumpkins, went on a wagon ride, launched apples from a sling shot, did a corn maze, had rubber duck races, climbed hay bales and more!







Joe launched an apple into that small target - a seemingly impossible feat - twice! (And won free apples!)

Rubber duck races!

A corn maze adventure!




We love fall in Minnesota!