Camping Weekend

We celebrated Memorial Weekend by attending a Family YMCA camp called Camp Icoghowan.  The "island" camp is in Amery, Wisconsin which is about an hour from our home in Woodbury, MN.  

We had a GREAT weekend!  There were so many fun activities planned that you could choose whether or not to participate in....I think we tried most all of them :)

Here the boys are geared up for the climbing wall.  

Macallan didn't make it too far off the ground! :)

Jacob made it to the top to ring the bell.

Mitchell and Maverick gave it a try too :)

They had a lot of fun structures in and around the woods that the boys enjoyed exploring.

 The treehouse was a big hit with the boys!  Families could actually sleep up here if they wanted!  We didn't do it this year, but I can see it in our future!

Mitchell actually took this picture of Jacob.  Hmmm...maybe he's a little photographer in the making.

We even had some "adult" time where the camp counselors took the kids to play games, while the adults could choose how to spend their time.  Jacob decided to do a high ropes activity called "The Leap of Faith".  He was secured by three different sets of ropes as he climbed the pole on the left, stood up on top of it and jumped off to try and touch a blue buoy.  Maybe it doesn't sound that tough, but of the 15ish adults that tried, only 3 or 4 succeeded, including Jacob!

Climbing up...

Balancing on the top is the hardest part!

This is definitely a look of relief when he was done :)

Our family was in charge of the flag raising on Memorial Day.  The boys were very helpful :)

Some of the families gathered to watch the flag raising in front of the lake.

After the flag raising, the morning activities began!  There were some anxious campers!

Each morning, there is an optional activity called the Polar Bear Plunge.  Yep, exactly as it sounds. You can CHOOSE to JUMP into freezing cold water!  From the beginning, Mitchell kept saying he wanted to do it.  We made him watch the first morning with the understanding that if he was still interested, we'd let him do it the second morning.  Well, not only was he still interested, but he also talked a new little friend (Lincoln) into joining him in the plunge!

Look at these SILLY boys before their jump!

Guess who didn't want to be left out?  Yep, Maverick decided he needed to jump too!  We let him strip down to his underwear and suit up in his life jacket.  Honestly, I didn't really think he'd do it!  Maverick is a popsicle in cold weather!

Oh - by the way, the water temperature was a balmy 55 degrees!

So, they agreed to count to three and then jump in.  One, two, three....and the only jumper was little Lincoln! 

Followed by Mitchell...

 ....and Maverick continues to consider whether he can really make himself do this!

Maverick is STILL considering!

...And he finally did it!

Mitchell and Maverick absolutely LOVED playing games with all of the other kids.  One of Mitchell's favorite was a game kind of similar to dodge ball called "Gaga".

It was a BUSY weekend, but we did have a little rest and relaxation time too :)

As you can see, the chairs were REALLY comfy :) 

We had a REALLY great family weekend at the camp.  Zero electronics for the entire weekend, LOTS of time together, trying new, fun things outdoors!  We're planning to go back next year!

School's Out for the Summer!

Well, we did it.  We survived our first school year in Minnesota.  I luckily stumbled upon this preschool last January, months before we had actually moved.  It turned out to be the perfect school for us :)  We have lots of friends that also attend the program, we love the teachers and most importantly...there is absolutely no separation anxiety.  Each of the boys run happily into their classrooms and don't look back!  They have fun stories to share at the end of each school day and I enjoy 5 hours a week of ME time :)

Macallan starting attending the Mother's Day Out program on Tuesdays in February, so he didn't go the full year.   His teachers said he was  easy going and easily interacted with all of the other kids!  He napped well and ate well, and overall really enjoyed his days at school!

Maverick attended the Mother's Day Out program on Tuesdays too.  He was in an older classroom.  He did wonderful!  He never cried once when I dropped him off.  His teacher once asked me if it bothered me that he had no separation anxiety, to which I quickly answered "Nope.  I know he loves me" :)  His favorite part was showing off his art project when I picked him up.  He is SOOOOOO proud of his art projects!  He is very into pretend play right now, and loved to rope the other little kids into his play :)  He came home one day with a HUGE scrape down his face from another little boy, who was having troubles with hitting and scratching other kids.  While I was sad that Maverick was hurt, I was immediately thankful that he wasn't the one having problems with hitting/scratching.  The mom of the other child sought me out to apologize, and I told her not to worry...I've been there and done that, and honestly I would rather be in my position than hers!

Oh, Mitchell, Mitchell, Mitchell.  He finished his very last day in pre-school and is SOOOOO excited for Kindergarten!  His teacher had nothing but GREAT things to say about him!  He gets along so well with all of the other kids, apparently some of the kids get really excited when he chooses to sit next to them during snack time :)  He "passed" all of the pre-school criteria with flying colors and she said the only thing she's worried about for him in Kindergarten is that he might be a little bored.  She said that she just knows that she's going to be reading about his successes in the newspaper someday and she's going to be so proud to have been his pre-school teacher.  As you can tell, his parent teacher conference couldn't have gone better...it was definitely a "parental payback" day!  We sure are proud of our little guy!

What to do this summer?

Here's our summer checklist!  We didn't quite make it all of the way through our winter list. We have absolutely no excuse since winter was SO LONG!  I think we'll do better on this one :)

Exploring Minnesota

It's SPRING in Minnesota, and we're so glad to finally have nice enough weather to get out and explore a little :)  We moved here in mid-July last year, but literally spent the remainder of the summer unpacking, working on the house and getting settled.  We didn't take much time to explore, so we're really looking forward to getting out and doing some fun things with the boys this year!

Jacob has been working like a dog....for weeks, MONTHS on end.  Since Jan 1, he's probably averaged 70 hours a week.  I guess that's expected for a public accountant, but that doesn't make it any easier on him or us!  Recently we were at one of his work functions, and four of his co-workers separately mentioned that they felt bad for Jacob's workload.  SOOOOO when Jacob said he was going to take a Friday off to do something fun as a family, we jumped for joy :)

We decided to take a little trip to Taylor's Falls, Minnesota.  It was about an hour drive north to the cutest little, quaint town.  We lunched at a fun restaurant called "The Drive In Restaurant", which the boys loved!  It was an outdoor eating establishment with a 50's style.  They are only open for the summers and we literally caught them on their FIRST day open this year!


Mitchell really did like it, even though it doesn't quite look like it here!
 

The boys all enjoyed their corndogs.  Macallan was grateful that it was on a stick, so that he could explore a little while eating :)

 

Jacob had to step away to take a few calls, but Macallan wouldn't let him venture off too far without a visit :) 

 They had a really cute little pond structure that the boys enjoyed climbing around.  Not a single foot entered the water, which was a bonus. :)

Maverick is REALLY into pretend play right now, especially super heros.  His favorite line is "I'm NOT Maverick, I'm SPIDERMAN!"

 Daddy forked up a few quarters for gumballs.




 After lunch, we headed over to nearby Interstate State Park.  Mitchell wasn't too excited about the prospect of going to a park without a playground.....UNTIL he stepped foot inside and saw all of the rocks he could climb on!  He LOVED it! 



At church they talked to the kids about how God has given everyone spiritual gifts.  Since then he has been on the hunt for his gift.  After a few minutes at the park, he was CERTAIN that his gift MUST be rock climbing! :)

We hiked on the trails and climbed on the rocks for hours!  Of course, stopping for a few water breaks along the way! 

It was a GREAT little getaway!