Governor Dodge State Park

We were planning to go to Sutter's Ridge-- a place with pick your own apples and pumpkins, corn mazes, farm animals, and that kind of thing-- with the same friends we went to Old World Wisconsin with last Friday. But we learned that they aren't open on Mondays. The forecast was for another unseasonably hot day, so we decided instead to go to Governor Dodge State Park, where there are lakes with beaches and trails, one with a cool waterfall you can hike to and play in. After Friday at Old World Wisconsin, I felt like I could take on anything! So we packed lunches, met at our friends' house and were on our way (it's less than an hour northwest of here). My friend was watching three of our other friends' boys for the day, so we had twelve kids in all and two adults- an adventure!

We first hiked a half mile down to the waterfall, and the kids played there for a while. It was kind of magical. Then we hiked back up and drove to a beach for picnic lunches before having fun in the sand and water. With it being a Monday in late September, we had the place to ourselves, but the temps were in the upper 80s today, so the water was refreshing. The whole day reminded me of when my dad used to take my siblings and I to Greenbriar Lake, Cunningham Falls, and other wonders of nature to explore and hike and swim <3

What a fun and fulfilling day! We are blessed!

Southern Wisconsin Open karate tournament

(Sorry about the poor video quality)

Jack participated in the Southern Wisconsin Open Tournament on Sunday- as a black belt candidate, he was required to. Fortunately, his karate coach allowed him to come after religious ed., which his teacher didn't want him to miss (his- and Abigail's- teacher is Mike). So, we were only melting there from 11-3:45 instead of 9:45-3:45. The gym was sweltering, and I was carrying Joel in my Ergo much of the time, which didn't cool things down for either of us. But Jack did great with his form and sparring, earning a 3rd place out of eight and 3rd place out of 6 in 10-year-old brown belts. And we enjoyed watching all of the competitors- some people really get into it with their screaming and facial expressions. I'd never stayed to watch the weapons black belt division, and there is some amazing talent- handless cartwheels and backflips, all while spinning bo staffs, kamas, and swords!

Old World Wisconsin ~ a {hot} trip back in time

The first Catholic Church in Milwaukee (It was moved a couple of times and decommissioned before it ended up here) If we hadn't pre-registered for Old World Wisconsin's homeschool days nearly a month ago, I'm not sure we would have stuck with our plan to go there yesterday- besides being very tired after an especially rough night and having an hour & 20 minute drive to get there, the temperature was forecasted to be mid-90s- on the first day of fall! But we forged ahead and met our friends and a bunch of other pain-inflicting homeschoolers for a trip back in time.

Our friends hadn't been there before, so we wanted to show them some of the cooler attractions that we'd remembered from our previous visit, but it also would have been nice to have ventured to some homesteads we hadn't seen. Mostly, I was just trying to keep the hungry, hot, tired little people (I'm not including Joel in this because I don't think he made a peep the whole time we were there) from whining too loudly by slipping them the few snacks and juice boxes I had grabbed before we left the car. Opal kept lying on the ground, and when I felt her head, she was burning up D-: That she had left the house wearing long sleeves had slipped my notice, but she also had Poor thing. A friend had some Ibuprofen, which I crushed up and gave her a small amount of. An hour or so later, she had perked up considerably. But by then, everyone was voicing their distress at the heat. It was HOT. Fortunately, there were cold water fountains at every tram station.

Everything seemed to take longer in the heat. Our group FINALLY got through everything we wanted to see and had lunch back at the picnic area at the entrance at around 2:15! We had planned to stop by to visit the Wards afterwards, since we were most of the way there, and we did. However, we only got a short 35 minutes to visit before we had to head out in order to get to Jack's karate on time (we got stuck in a lot of rush hour traffic but still had 5 minutes to spare!). Poor Joel had had enough of the day's activities and his car seat by then and screamed much of the way back despite siblings who were doing everything they could to calm him. What a long and draining day. I am so thankful for the weekend and a chance to recuperate! Happy fall, everyone!