Hi! Welcome to my blog! My name is Jane (PlainJane) and I am the blessed and happy wife to Jeff and doubly blessed mama of two perfectly wonderful daughters. Please join me as I share our Lifestyle of Learning through Christian homeschooling and homesteading on our little hobby farm with our prairie girls.
Amber (Bookworm) is our dd15/10th grader.
Our perfectionist and over-achiever. She loves reading, playing violin, all things vintage, riding her Paint horse, and being a farm girl.
Anna (Ladybug)
is our dd12/7th grader.
Our "girls just want to have fun" girl. She loves to play and has a great sense of humor, but also enjoys cooking, music, and riding her QH pony.
We have been out of town a lot this month on vacation. Now, I gotta say while growing up, my family usually took a yearly big vacation for 2-3 weeks at a time, driving usually to Florida, but sometimes out West; but for us now, our "vacations" usually consist of a couple of nights away within a 4 hour drive, but it is still nice to get away just the same. It's just harder to leave when you've got animals and besides, we really start missing our babies (animals) after a couple of days.
Here are a few picutres of our trips...
First we went to our favorite Wisconsin Dells waterpark resort (we use to go once or twice a year, but have been away for 3 years, so this was a real treat).
The girls at the largest indoor wavepool in America standing under a banana tree. This is my favorite building - all glass so you can even get a tan indoors with a tropical theme. I love palm trees!
We love the wave pool - our favorite. Actually Ladybug & I aren't much for the wild rides - just give us a wave pool, a lazy river, and a indoor/outdoor hot tub and we are happy campers. Bookworm and Daddy prefer the scary & fast slides.
Our girls LOVE to climb. Here they are going up the 32' indoor wall. Bookworm went up to the top 3 times! Ladybug went up a respectable one and a half times.
The girls coming out of a tube slide. I went once and that was enough for me. Between climbing all those steps just to get up there (becoming out of breath due to my asthma) and then going down in the dark at break neck speeds - it's more than my claustrophobia can handle. lol
We really enjoy going off-season when most kids are back in school, almost all the children there are either preschoolers or homeschoolers and there are no lines, plus more modest dress too. The rates are cheaper too, but the only drawback is that all the lifeguards are exchange students, so they don't have enough staff to have all the waterparks open at the resort. We couldn't go on everything we wanted too - but it was still a lot of fun for the money. I even met another homeschool mom in the hot tub that lives an hour away from us. lol
When we returned home, we put in our first week of school and then it was back to vacation time. lol This time camping on the North Shore of Lake Superior.
On our way up, we stopped at Split Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior. VERY FUN & EDUCATIONAL. We watched a 22 minute film and took the 45 minute tour. It was soooo interesting! Highly recommended! (Most of our trip up was rainy, but was starting to clear by the time we got here).
Our Campsite at Temperance River State Park on the North Shore of Lake Superior. You can see the Lake behind our campsite through the trees and we could hear the waves crashing 24 hours a day. It was pretty chilly, but we came prepared and warmed up quickly when hiking and climbing on rocks.
Morning sunrise on Lake Superior.
The girls hiking on the Superior Hiking Trail.
An infamous "Superior Hiking Trail" sign. Not too many of these signs left since people like to steal them.
Smore time!
Ladybug named this friendly chipmunk, "Chippy", a constant visitor at our site, it didn't look like this was the first time campers fed him. It would come right up to our feet to beg for food and I think if we had been sitting, it would have jumped in our lap.
On the way back home we stopped at Gooseberry Falls State Park - this is one of several of the falls there. We hope to stop by there sometime again. They have several beautiful stone CCC buildings there from the 1940's. A pretty park but quite trendy - not exactly wilderness anymore.
Oh, and I almost forgot, here is the Temperance River. We were walking on the stones here, trying to cross without getting wet - well, wouldn't you know, my feet slipped out from under me and I fell in. LOL. Thankfully it was a very shallow part of the river - only about 3" deep.
Thanks for visiting!
If you would like to be a part of Show & Tell Friday or would like to visit others, please hop on over to our hostess, Mary's blog, for details and Mr. Linky.
It looks like you had an awesome time. I just checked out a few books on camping from the library today, so now I know who to bug with all my questions about camping. :-)
When you camp, do you stay on site or leave for breaks of time to do other things? Do you go off to dinner or cook there? Just wondering. :-) Tell me all, Jane! I want to know how to go camping. I've been 2 times, once as a child and don't remember anything but rain and being uncomfortable!
Jenn
We love to go places after school starts back. We went to a park the Wednesday after Labor Day and didn't have to wait in line for anything. It was great!
Looks like you all had a fun time on your vacations :) Love the pics!
Corey
I used to visit my grandparents in Wis every summer. They lived by Green Bay, but I had aunts and uncles in Milwaukee, we would make trips to The Dells. I love it. Ever been to The House on the Rock? Or the Domes in Milwaukee ?
Kristy
How about you take an adventure to my place!! there is so much excitement with moving, packing and you can be one with nature too...that is if you wanna consider that cardboard boxes do come from tree's.lol.. And need critters, I got 2 dogs, a cat and a hermit crab.
Good for you Jane! It looks like you had a great time. Email me with where your fave place is? We're always looking for fun places to go that are fairly close. Take care!
I've enjoyed your pictures and getting caught up again with what is happening with your family. I like that ladybug and my daughter mountainprincess are developing a friendship on their blogs.
Your vacation post makes me pine for a trip to Wisconsin - one of my favorite destinations. I'm having a hard time to get hubby to go back, though . We went quite a few years in a row to celebrate our anniversary. But I'm still working on him. :)
The girls at the largest indoor wavepool in America standing under a banana tree. This is my favorite building - all glass so you can even get a tan indoors with a tropical theme. I love palm trees!
We love the wave pool - our favorite. Actually Ladybug & I aren't much for the wild rides - just give us a wave pool, a lazy river, and a indoor/outdoor hot tub and we are happy campers. Bookworm and Daddy prefer the scary & fast slides. 
Our girls LOVE to climb. Here they are going up the 32' indoor wall. Bookworm went up to the top 3 times! Ladybug went up a respectable one and a half times. 
The girls coming out of a tube slide. I went once and that was enough for me. Between climbing all those steps just to get up there (becoming out of breath due to my asthma) and then going down in the dark at break neck speeds - it's more than my claustrophobia can handle. lol 
On our way up, we stopped at Split Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior. VERY FUN & EDUCATIONAL. We watched a 22 minute film and took the 45 minute tour. It was soooo interesting! Highly recommended! (Most of our trip up was rainy, but was starting to clear by the time we got here). 
Our Campsite at Temperance River State Park on the North Shore of Lake Superior. You can see the Lake behind our campsite through the trees and we could hear the waves crashing 24 hours a day. It was pretty chilly, but we came prepared and warmed up quickly when hiking and climbing on rocks.
Morning sunrise on Lake Superior.
The girls hiking on the Superior Hiking Trail.
An infamous "Superior Hiking Trail" sign. Not too many of these signs left since people like to steal them. 
Smore time!
Ladybug named this friendly chipmunk, "Chippy", a constant visitor at our site, it didn't look like this was the first time campers fed him. It would come right up to our feet to beg for food and I think if we had been sitting, it would have jumped in our lap. 
On the way back home we stopped at Gooseberry Falls State Park - this is one of several of the falls there. We hope to stop by there sometime again. They have several beautiful stone CCC buildings there from the 1940's. A pretty park but quite trendy - not exactly wilderness anymore. 
Oh, and I almost forgot, here is the Temperance River. We were walking on the stones here, trying to cross without getting wet - well, wouldn't you know, my feet slipped out from under me and I fell in. LOL. Thankfully it was a very shallow part of the river - only about 3" deep. 
Jeannie 
