June Adventures

Oh my, June has zipped by and we're almost halfway through July! Time to catch-up:

Caleb built some alternative energy models for the Human Ecology Fair at school. This is a hydroelectric generator. When they ran water down the chute, it generated enough electricity to make a buzzer go off.

We spent Father's Day at the Boerner Botanical Gardens. David's dad and wife came to visit also.

I took five boys with me on our annual camping trip....

....where they got to make ice cream, along with spending a day playing on the beach, general hiking around, and all around fun.

Caleb left for a week to camp with his Boy Scout troop.

I turned 39, and to celebrate....

....we went to pick strawberries....

....and peas....

....and made a lot of jam.

Camping

Another season has also started for us: Camping! We went camping this weekend in the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest.

We stayed at the same campsite that we go to in late June. I've never been there this early in the year, and the trillium and solomon's seal were blooming all over the forest floor. It was beautiful.

We enjoyed playing in the spring forest.

Calvin worked on improving his whittling skills.

We got rained on after supper on Saturday, and Connor really really wanted to go home, but we stayed and were able to roast marshmallows over the campfire. In the morning, after a good night's sleep, he was happy.

Summer Camping

We had our annual group camping trip on Monday. It was wonderful. We camp in the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine Forest. Tuesday we spend the day at the beach in Elkhart Lake. Wednesday we go on a group hike before heading home. This year it was really hot and we didn't get rained out. This is the best group of families to go with, and the kids are fantastic. We had 21 kids this year, and all get along really well.






I'm already revising my camping checklist and looking forward to next year.