Day 1932 | Strawberry Picking

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I was getting worried that we were going to miss strawberry picking this year, but today was the day. I motivated the house to get out before the heat kicked in and it was a perfect picking outing. Big, beautiful berries, no bugs, and so many to chose from that the boys didn’t even get bored. We went for one bucket and left with two because we couldn’t leave after just 15 minutes!

The strawberry shortcake tonight was probably my best yet. I didn’t even get a photo if it because I was so excited about it. I just love strawberries.

Day 1928 | A Glimpse at Our Weekend

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As promised, here are some photos from the weekend. As you can see, we spent a lot of time crawfish hunting (or at least that’s what I managed to get photos of). We are so grateful for the invitation to share this special place with dear friends. I can’t imagine a better escape from our house and the reality of the past three months.

To top it off, we even got to visit Eagle River on the way home. Chris used to visit Eagle River every summer with his family. The walk down memory lane was the perfect end to a lovely weekend and a nice way to spend Father’s Day

Day 1927 | A Weekend Away

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We haven’t left the house in months. Months. This weekend we busted out and visited a really lovely lake house with some of our favorite people (just one family…don’t worry!). I can’t even express how much I needed this break. The change of scenery, the sunshine and water, the laughter, the freedom for the kids…is there anything better, really? I’ll post more photos, but this one sums up the weekend pretty well for now.

Day 1926 | Early Father’s Day

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Chris was off work today and we’re traveling this weekend (woohoo!) so the boys and I decided we should celebrate Father’s Day a few days early.

Along with some other sweet gifts, the boys made Chris a graphic novel called “Super Dad vs. Fox Pox”. They worked for days outlining the story, drawing the pictures, writing the text, and then coloring the graphics. It was a team effort through and through and it was so fun to see their excitement for the project grow. They were just so proud. I’ll post photos of the full book at some point but for now, enjoy the cover with these three smiling cuties.

The boys have no idea how lucky they are to call this man their dad. His never-ending energy for their antics, his overwhelming interest in all their favorite things (video games and Harry Potter, mostly), his contagious sense of humor. They’ll understand some day. For now, I’ll just appreciate him enough for all of us.

Day 1918 | Family Adventure Challenge: Part Two

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We did it! We completed the Virtual Adventure Challenge by wrapping up a 2.4 mile hike this morning up and around Mt. Simon. It was a beautiful morning for a hike…a beautiful weekend for the whole challenge, to be honest. I’m seriously so glad we motivated ourselves to do this. I think it really proved to the boys (and us, too!) that we can do longer bikes/hikes/canoe trips. Both boys declared that they could have even biked longer and are now considering a bike ride to see Grandma about 115 miles away. Haha.

details of what we needed to do on each stage of the challenge:

Stage 1: Run/Hike. 1.5-hours on roads or trails You must visit the following during this stage:

  • One hilltop or other high point

  • A water feature (river, lake, marsh, pond, creek, fountain, puddle, etc)

  • Additionally, you must include at least one substantial bushwhack to get from one trail/road to another. Bonus kudos for planning a route to find your hilltop and/or water feature during the bushwhack!

Stage 2: Bike. 2-hours on roads or trails You must visit the following during this stage:

  • One bridge

  • One hilltop or other high point

  • One point of interest (historical marker, monument, interesting tombstone/tomb in a cemetery, ruin, other curiosities or oddities)

Stage 3: Non-Run/Bike Discipline. 1.5-hours of something that is not running/biking.

  • Could be paddling, roller blading, swimming, strength training, rock climbing, horseback riding, scootering, skateboarding, stair climbing, etc, or any combination of those activities!

Here are some extra photos from the weekend (some are repeats from yesterday).

Day 1917 | Family Adventure Challenge: Part One

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Today was a first for our little family: our first adventure challenge! Chris’s friend from high school puts on an adventure race in Wausau every May, but it was cancelled this year because of Covid. They decided to put together a virtual event instead. See all the details here. We’re sad they couldn’t host the real event, but we’re a bit happy, too, because it means we could participate (we never would have been able to pull off the read deal!).

The basics of the challenge are that we have to bike 2 hours, hike 1.5 hours, and participate in another outdoor activity for 1.5 hours–all in a 48 hour window. We decided to take on the bike and canoe portions of the race today and we had such a lovely time. We ended up biking 11.4 miles all around Eau Claire trying to cross as many bridges as possible. Total bridge count? 16. No too shabby, right? We took a quick lunch break and then headed out for the 1.5 hour canoe trip down the Chippewa River (which ended up taking over 4 hours by the time you account for coordinating the logistics procuring a canoe, parking cars at both locations, and what not).

It was the perfect day for this outdoor adventure. The boys were such good sports…in fact, I don’t think they complained at all! We’ve got our hike left for tomorrow but that will feel like a walk in the park (literally) after today’s activity level.

Thanks for putting together a virtual adventure challenge like this, Tim and Anna! We appreciate the extra motivation to take advantage of this beautiful weekend.

Day 1916 | Last Day of School

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The blog break is over. How could I skip the last day of school photo from the craziest year of school yet?

Yes. They are wearing pajamas. That’s what happens for homeschool last days of school, I guess. Who was I to say no, you know?

It’s been a challenging but rewarding few months for us. I can’t even imagine where we’ll be in another three months, but I’m fully confident our little family unit will be laughing and making memories. I guess that has to be enough for now.

Day 1915 | Feels Like Summer

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We’ve been spending a ton of time outside over the past week. It’s a nice reminder of why we live here and deal with the never-ending winter months. We’re welcoming summer with open arms more than ever this year.

On a serious note, the state of our country is really messing with me right now. I feel confused and frustrated and sad and disheartened just about all the time. I’ve been dealing with these emotions surrounding Covid for the past three months. When you add the weight of what white privilege and silent racism means to me, it’s almost too much to bear. A friend posted the graphic below (I miss you, Melissa!) and it really spoke to me…

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I like controlling my little life (I’m sure that’s not surprising to any of you that really know me). There’s no controlling what’s going on right now—on a bigger scale or even in our little world in Eau Claire. I’m sure there’s something to be learned here about letting go…about focusing on things I can control…about making a difference in whatever small way I can. To be honest, though, I feel so underwater with everything I’m doing to keep our little family unit functioning at full-power that I have little time or energy left to dedicate to anything else. Ugh.

Why am I getting into this right now? Two reasons:

  1. I just had to get it off my chest, you know?

  2. I’m going to take a break from the blog for a bit.

It’s been a LONG time since I took an official blog-break and it’s time. It’s the last official week of school and it’s going to be a hot one weather-wise, so I’m going to focus on being present instead of capturing moments. I’ll be back soon (don’t worry!).

Sending love to you and yours tonight. We could all use some extra love these days.

Day 1914 | Vertebrates

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We’ve been talking about ways to classify animals this week. Today’s lesson was vertebrates vs. invertebrates. I found this fun lesson online which uses a pipe cleaner inside a play doh animal to act as a backbone. Then you make another version of the animal with no pipe cleaner backbone. The takeaway? The backbone makes the animal much stronger which allows vertebrates to support larger bodies. Pretty cool, huh?

Day 1913 | Curbside Library Pick Up

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After weeks of waiting, we finally got to pick up our library books today. It was a beautiful day for a productive bike ride. Have I mentioned how much I love living downtown? I do, for the record.

Side note: for some reason, my post from Tuesday didn’t work. I can’t believe you thought I missed two days in a row! Sorry about that. Here’s a link to the post in case you want to see what river-wading in our neighborhood looks like.