End of summer

So we had a wonderful time camping this summer. We went to 2 state parks and the rest of our time camping was spent at the Campground where Joshs grandparents are.

The pictures are the last state park we camped at, Brunet Island, some friends of ours suggested it to us and we loved it. Great fishing, great river and wonderful camp sites. It was so nice to camp right on the river.

Now we have all our camping stuff put away and are ready for fall.

The boys caught alot of Bass.

Kayaking, isn't it beautiful!

 Getting ready to leave.

Saying goodbye

 And then the following week the boys started school.

Daddy took them to their first day!



Im happy in the fall we have such beautiful places to visit.
Rusk county, Blue hills

The chair lift rides at the Blue hills were so fun and beautiful!!

Now  we have to visit the pumpkin patch and have some caramel apples, yum. 

A note on my youngest at school-

Thanks so much for all the lovely posts on FB and emails. It was such a hard couple of weeks for him, thankfully he is doing much better and does not cry anymore. He is trying half days right now and that helps, he does part of the day at school and the rest through the virtual school in our district. 

Breaking my heart

This year we have decided to send our kids to public school again. This was a bit of a hard decision, but at the time I made it I felt that we had to do it this way for this year. The boys and I enjoyed homeschooling and them being home all the time was hard, but we enjoyed our time together. After our homeschool was done this spring I felt like this was something I wanted to keep doing, but maybe try something new, like going through the public school online or Classical Conversations, which I was quite sure we would do one of those choices. Then some things changed that and I decided to send them to public school.

And now two weeks into public school my youngest is breaking my heart, he is wanting me to come to school for lunch and recess and asking why I can't stay longer or be in school all the time, which I am a sub so I will be there sometimes but not all the time. He doesn't like going, he is crying every morning when I drop him off. Saying school is too long and he misses me. 

The teacher has told me he is behind, we never did the math they are teaching now and it is just alot different then homeschool. To be completely honest I know school is nothing like it used to be, but thinking more about it I do think they are expecting too much these days from our kids. 

The struggle is my kids are hard to teach at home, I love teaching and getting curriculum always made me so excited. But the boys would always have a hard time "working hard". They would do some of their work and then give me such a hard time to finish it, I would have to not do so much in a day just so they didn't get too frustrated and not do the work at all. I will say my oldest worked harder than his brother. And so he is doing ok in school right now. 

Its just really hard to see my youngest struggle every morning and cry. :( 

We pretty much decided to keep them in public for this year. Its so hard to know what is right, we have been praying about this and talking to friends.

A visit from Aunt T. summer 2017

My Aunt T. came to visit this summer and she even spent the night. It was a nice time with her. She got plenty of four-wheeler rides, got shown every animal around, and she even got to ride a bike. 

Aunt T. lovin every minute of it!

The boys showing her their frogs and turtles.

Aunt T.s new bike I found her at a local bike shop, it is a 1960s Shwinn and I knew she would love the red color. 

She enjoyed riding around the yard. 

Taking a break with Sadie.

My aunts and I went to Duluth for a day. It was very fun and I enjoyed the time with them. The first stop was in Superior at the Fairlawn  mansion, it was beautiful and neat to see the inside.

This was one of the many rooms in the mansion. 

Aunt T. trying to pet the birds in Duluth, haha. 

And to end with a random Llama from the fair, Josh said he looked so cool he wanted me to take a pic.

Camping and some more camping

Camping, O how we love camping and thankfully we have been doing quite a bit of it this summer.

Heading out to our first trip camping with Joshs family. 

Cousins playing games with great grandma.

My oldest the snake catcher. He must of caught at least 10 snakes that day.

 Our next trip Amnicon Falls.
We enjoyed out time here, but we did like Pattison State park better.

Went on a small trip to Lake superior since we were about 10 minutes away. 

Having a fire, one of our favorites of camping.

Daddy fishing. He didn't catch much....

Continued from Joshs family trip....

My oldest and granny playing trouble, they had such a good game grandma had to go buy her own trouble game. 

Grandparents with grandkids.

The whole camping family. 

Aunt Laurie bought the boys new shirts for camping. 

Fire and smore time!

Daddy making jiffy popcorn, yum!

Our last night before heading home.

KEEP CALM AND CAMP ON!

After we got home I knew the strawberry season was almost done, so the whole family got in the car and went strawberry picking, so much fun. This was the first time daddy could come with. These boys were a great help. 

Having a good time!

More from Amnicon falls. 

Memories were made! <3

kayaking: our new sport

Josh surprised us with kayaks one day and we absolutely love them. 

Here are a few of our adventures.