Recyclables Project

Lincoln had a school assignment to create something from at least three recyclable materials.  We needed to work on it one day when he had a cancelled chess tournament.  That gave us the idea to make a chess set!  We had a really fun time making it together.  His favorite part was that the kings were made out of glass because they are the most fragile piece.  I forgot to take a picture of it before he took it to school, but we got it out again yesterday to play.

Camping at Point Beach II

On our geocaching trek we found this pump. Jeff walked back a little early with an exhausted Harrison and drove back to pick up the rest of us.  We tried something different and cooked up one of our regular recipes (yellow curry chicken) in the dutch oven instead of camp food.  It was delicious and a big hit!  I even brought egg rolls, which cooked up great in a little foil over the fire.  The kids entertained themselves playing ladder ball and digging giant holes in the ground in the shape of a body.  Jackson, Harrison and I zonked out in the tent and didn't wake up until morning!

Jeff and Lincoln snuck in to town to try to find internet.  They were unsuccessful at that, but had a nice evening together.  I woke up while they were gone to someone messing around in our campsite.  I was sure it was Lincoln and stuck my head out to ask him to quiet down.  It was our raccoon friend again trying to get into our bucket.

In the morning we had a yummy french toast breakfast at our friends site.  I only lit the bacon/sausage plate on fire over the citronella candle once.  Jeff and the kids spent the morning enjoying the beach again while I had some quiet time to pack everything back up and into the car.  That actually worked out quite nicely!  We took home great memories and lots of mosquito bites.

Point Beach Camping Part I

We have been talking with our neighbors about all of the best places in the state to go camping and were thrilled with an invitation to join them for a few days at Point Beach.  It is about two hours north of here and a lovely spot indeed!  We got off to a little bit of a late start and everyone was getting hungry long before we were to arrive and make dinner.  We pulled off to pick something up and Lincoln said, "I'm not wearing any shoes."  He didn't bring shoes camping.  Aargh.  Luckily there was a Wal-Mart at right there where we were stopping, so dinner was Wal-Mart deli.  Yum?

Our friends were already at the campsite, so they helped us set up our tent (I can start to help, but I'm too short to do the huge middle part of the tent!) and get a fire going for marshmallows - but mostly to keep the abundant mosquitoes at bay. We were so grateful for their citronella candle and mosquito coil that they let us borrow.  We caught a raccoon trying to get into our cooler before the sun even went down.  It visited us again after we were all in the tent and broke a hole in the bottom of our trash bag.  I'm sure he was disappointed at what dropped out.. a poopy diaper.

Everyone slept well through the night.  Harrison had a few minutes of fussiness at one point, but it was short lived and he snuggled up next to me until morning.  I woke up at 4:45am when the birds started chirping and a little light began to make it's way through the tent.  I snuck off to explore and found the beach.  I wish I'd had my camera as I saw a rabbit on the way and watched the sunrise over the lake.  Beautiful!

Jeff made us all some blueberry pancakes and we fed a few blueberries to the chipmunks.  We opted for a morning jaunt into town to see the woodtype and printing press museum (I might have had some influence on that decision!).

Across the street there was another small historical museum complete with an ice cream shoppe.

After a quick lunch we took off for the beach.  It was getting nice and warm outside and a dip in the water sounded just perfect.

But it was cold.  Very cold.  I never braved anything past knee deep.  

 Lincoln spent nearly all of his beach time building in the sand.  He said that it was his number one favorite part.  

 In the late afternoon we went geocaching and did a little bit of off-trail exploring trying to find a few treasures.  The kids were getting tired, but we found a few things and had a real adventure doing so!