Sunday: last day

Today was the last day before school.  It was a pretty normal day; we worked with Lego, had rest time, went to church.

We also started a Lego D&D campaign.  So far we woke up not knowing who we were and killed a skeleton.  It was a nice, gentle way to get started.

While my to-do list stayed only slowly inched up in number over the summer (63 in June and 83 two days ago), it suddenly exploded with 103 items today.  Several are on the shorter side, several are on the longer side.  I also have quite a bit of 'real' work I'm hoping to do tomorrow, so I don't expect all that much will get done.  But everything is in order, like I do during the school year, and I'll slowly check them off the list.

Yes.  I keep track of how many items are on the to-do list.  It's rather weird, but it also helps show me how things are going.  There are a few items, now at the bottom, that have stayed on the list since I started tracking.  I sometimes think I should take them off but still think they would be good to do so I don't.

Friday: Traverse City

Since the boys have a rock climbing competition tomorrow, we decided to come up to Traverse City a day earlier and make the trip worthwhile.  We left around 9am, because I was anxious that we wouldn't be able to eat lunch and get to our 1pm appointment in time.  (Spoiler alert: we had a little extra time.  The boys ate faster than I expected and there was no traffic, but it was just right in the end.)

Our first stop was Wheels on Rails, where you can use special rail bikes to bike down a decommissioned railroad.  Overall, I'd say it was a great excursion!  Since we only had three people we also had one of the guides sit with us (they're bikes for four people), so we got some extra info about the area.  The weather was beautiful.  The way out was on a very slight downhill, but made pedaling very easy.  The way back was a little harder, but between the four of us we moved right along.  I'd say the "worst" part was that a 1hr45min trip was advertised and it was really about 1hr15min.  I'm glad we didn't do the shorter one.

After some melty ice cream, we stopped at a rock shop in downtown Traverse City.  It was a bit disappointing, and seemed a bit expensive for stuff.  We walked around just a little bit and then headed to another rock shop a mile away.  This second one was much better and the kids were excited to expand their collections.

I took a short nap at the hotel and we walked to dinner.  The boys are calling it the best pizza they've ever had!  It was stone fired and it was very good, but I was a little surprised by their enthusiasm.  We ended the day by going to a nearby beach.  There were a few rocks for Isaac to look through, and the kids played in the sand for a while.

Thursday: shoes

Today was a rather busy day.

We had treats with Pat.  We tried a new rock climbing game.  We went to Target to look for shoes.

Do NOT go to Target for shoes.  It was a mess!  There was no organization and there were random shoes everywhere.  That being said, I managed to find a pair of shoes that Isaac kind of liked.  But then he didn't love them and we decided he didn't actually need new shoes.  Sigh.

We also went to meet the teacher tonight.  Joshua's room took all of about five minutes.  We spent a bit longer with Isaac's teachers.  His homeroom/science teacher is a rock climber too.  We had to waste a bit more time because Joshua had a piano lesson so we visited all the special teachers.

Wednesday: would you rather?

This morning we biked to Joann's and the shoe store.  We didn't come home with any shoes; Isaac did like the fit and Joshua wanted non-tie shoes and most of them stopped at size 3 when he needs a 3.5.  Maybe tomorrow!  (Maybe not.)

We also went to Craig's Cruisers to finish up using some tokens from earlier in the summer.  We had a lovely time and got exactly 750 tickets, so we were able to get some medium interesting prizes.  On the way home Isaac came up with this horrible would you rather: would you rather run into yellow lights at every stop light or have extra long red lights?

Tonight I was trying to finish up a quilt.  Tornado had claimed it though and wouldn't move.  I started the sewing machine - no movement.  I started sewing - no movement.  I put some quilt on Tornado - he nestled deeper.  I finally had to stop and work on something else because I couldn't do anymore without blatantly moving him.

Tuesday: shoes

 We did our school shopping today.  We did a pretty good job of shopping the supplies that were left over from last year, so we only needed a few things.  We also took a look at the shoes, but Isaac didn't like any at Meijer and Joshua didn't like the bottoms of the one pair he was interested in.  The whole shopping trip, while long, was much better than last week's trip which was timed poorly and took forever due to a pillow snafu.

At rock climbing, we also looked at new shoes.  Both kids have mentioned that theirs might be getting a bit small.  Well, Joshua could move into Isaac's, but Isaac didn't like the size up in the shoe he is currently wearing.  So we didn't get any new shoes here either.  But there's a plan for when either of them decide they need new ones.

I also used some of my birthday tickets: Joshua made his own lunch and I got to sleep with all the lovies.  There were so many I had a hard time getting a good picture.  (Night-sight doesn't work on selfie mode.)

Monday: birthday

Today was my birthday!  The kids do such a good job being excited for me.  (Ben does too, but he is excited for birthdays like I am.  The kids are super excited.)

In the morning we picked up Aunt C to try a new hiking trail, and it didn't disappoint!  Sanctuary Woods, which had over 170 stairs, was a beautiful place.  Normally the trail would be about 3/4mi, but we took several adventure trails and went further.  The claim to fame for this trail is that you can see both Lake Mac and Lake Michigan at the same time.  This is true, and we found the place, but it wasn't well marked nor was it all that free of trees.  It would be interesting to go during the different seasons to see what it looked like.

This is the place to see both lakes.

I've found Tornado sitting like this twice in the past two days.  The first time I just laughed at him, but the second time I took a picture.

Joshua had a friend over in the afternoon.  Isaac and I played a game of Dominion, and I also took a short nap and did a little work.  Larry and Cheryl took me out for dinner - they were a little slow and it was a little cold, but it was also a lot of fun.

Sunday: screen time day

Today was the only weekend day in all of August that we were mostly not busy.  So we had a screen time day.  We usually have one a summer and I wasn't paying attention to the schedule well.  We still went to church and went to visit Great-grandma, but otherwise the kids could have screens whenever they wanted.

Speaking of Great-Grandma, today I brought over our quills and so she and Ben could try those out.  I think they were on their last legs, but they worked well enough.  And we played some Uno, as normal.