Dog Duty

At the end of the summer, we had the opportunity to dog-sit for four days. It was the first time ever. The dog is Daisy, our good friends' dog, who needed someone to watch their dog while they were on vacation.

Daisy was very sweet, but it felt weird to me to have her in the house at first, as I wasn't used to having a dog roaming around. The kids each got paid $10, since they equally did their parts of taking her for walks, cleaning up dog doo, and even cleaning up some throw up and the one time she peed in the house. (That pee accident was at the beginning when we didn't realized how often she should go out to pee.)

All in all, she was a very good dog. She always went potty outside, minus the one mishap, slept in her kennel all night (a big one for me), and didn't get into things she shouldn't. She had lots of energy and I enjoyed having the kids go and take her for walks so they had an excuse to get out too. The funny thing was, since I am the mom and in charge in the kitchen, I was even the one who mostly filled Daisy's bowl, she did tend to gravitate toward me. Pets always know who the mom is!

And what did we learn from this experience? That we still don't need to get a dog! The kids still want one, but since no one has time to take one for a walk or clean up after it, that settles it. We're perfectly happy with our cats!!

We took her to the park one day. She sat in Erik's seat like she owned it!

Karissa gave her this stuffed dog.

Erik and Luke were curious.

Erik thought her bed was pretty comfy!

She ate the cats' food, which they weren't thrilled with.

They enjoyed watching her from a distance.

She was pretty cute!

We finally tired her out!

The best moment between Daisy and Luke.

It seems all my kids liked her kennel!

Blessings

Victoria started early morning seminary this year, along with high school. For the past few years, I have felt very anxious about her starting seminary because it starts at 5:50 am and I wasn't sure how I was going to get enough sleep to thrive as a mother, nor how she would get enough sleep to get through the school day and her dances classes.

I was anxious the past year about her starting high school here because it's the second largest high school in the nation, at over 6,000 students! It's basically a small college campus, with three high schools sharing the campus that would allow students to take classes at any of the schools, thereby giving them more variety and greater options. Everyone is assigned randomly to each high school, but siblings may go to the same school, unless they choose to be placed in the "pool" for another random assignment. Victoria goes to Salem, so that 's where all my kids will go, but our next door neighbor goes to Canton. Basically, Victoria's locker is in Salem (no one uses their lockers because they don't have time to if they have classes in other buildings), if she were to be on the cheer squad, for example, or any other sport, it would be at Salem, and her diploma will say Salem on it. Orchestra, choir, band, and clubs are joint between all schools (they call all of them together The Park) and anyone can eat at lunch at any of the schools' cafeterias and can have a class at any school. They can also go to any dance, but I believe they buy tickets through their own schools. You can imagine how big and daunting The Park is, especially if it's your first child, or your first time attending there!

 The biggest worry I had was that she was going to get "lost". Not physically, but just be alone, which is kind of humorous now, maybe even before, because she is so social. The concern was that she dances at a private dance studio off campus (which better than the one on campus, or so I heard from many reliable sources) and doesn't have time for any clubs or sports at the Park, which EVERYONE said she needed to do. They all said if "she doesn't get involved in a club or sport at the Park, she won't have any friends there. Orchestra doesn't count.  No one has classes with any of their friends because it is so big and everyone's classes are at each school, never all at one location". I worried about her having friends to eat lunch with, about walking around and feeling like she belonged, and seeing any familiar faces.

On the other hand, I kept having thoughts like: she is so social, she has been involved in choir, orchestra, dance, church activities, and school here since kindergarten. Surely she will know someone somewhere!

When she got her schedule, imagine our surprise when we discovered that she had all of her classes in Salem, except for orchestra, which we already knew would be in Canton, and most of them on the second floor! The other surprise, which now I am calling blessings, is that her best friend is in two of her classes, plus she has other friends/acquaintances in the other classes! She has lunch with a good friend from church and they have brought together other people they know who eat during C lunch to become one big group!

Their mascot is a Rock!

The final blessing, that was on my mind the longest, was seminary. Not only is it a blessing because she is studying the New Testament more intensely through seminary, which will bless anyone's life and their parent's who get them there, but the week before it started, we learned of a new change. Our Stake is one a many that is trying a new schedule. T,W,Th the students meet at the church for the usual 5:50 am class. M and F they are doing an online study at home. She doesn't have to wake up quite as early, it takes about 30 minutes to do, and I believe that she does get more out of it because she has to read, watch some videos, and write short answers to questions that are thought provoking and enlightening. She would rather meet every day with her friends at seminary, but I think she'll appreciate this way in the long run. They have the option to do Friday's on Saturday, which she does before dance so she can get even more sleep on Thursday night, and her siblings enjoy listening/watching the short videos she watches as part of the lesson.

New hard cover scriptures for seminary!

My personal blessing is that I haven't felt this good in a long time! I'm only getting about 7 hours of sleep per night, which normally doesn't go far for me, but I hardly feel tired and I definitely feel more positive. The hours I spend in the car each night driving kids around hasn't bothered me as much and my body is finally back to normal after a few months of aches and pains after my fever.

I am counting my blessings!!

I frosted her hair at the end of the summer. It was painful for both of us!

But worth it!

Then I trimmed it while she did her face mask the day before school started. 

Steelers' Style

Karissa is on Varsity this year for cheer leading. She's enjoying it just as much as ever and wins everyone over with her animated smile and facials. I've had a few comments from people saying how much they enjoy watching her because she looks like she's having such a great time. It's a good thing too, since the team is lacking and has lost every game by many points. At least the cheerleaders give us something to smile about!

Last week was Homecoming. In typical Steelers' fashion, the day was packed with extra practices, a brunch, lots of candy, and an entertaining half time routine. Unfortunately, this year, Jason and Victoria couldn't join us because they went to Ann Arbor for a BYU admissions meeting. (Yes, Victoria is old enough to start thinking about college now!)

We lost the game, but Austin and Erik had fun collecting the candy the cheerleaders threw at the crowd during half time and I enjoyed watching Karissa cheer, dance, and stunt. She's on a squad of 23 girls and they have 6 stunting groups. She's always the flyer on the far right side.

Here's their half time dance, Hawaiian theme. It's far away, but she's mostly on the right in the white shirt.

It's so fun cheering with her best friend Olivia! They nicknamed them Lilo and Stitch for the Hawaiian theme.

Sideline cheer, Karissa on far right.

Sideline cheer, Karissa in middle back.

Love this Steeler girl of ours!

Now she has a different smile since she got braces on Monday! She only has the wear them 20 months, so that shouldn't be too bad. She had a hard time adjusting the first two days, but is handling them like a pro now!

She really didn't want to have her picture taken, or show anyone them at first...

End With a BANG!

When we returned from our trip to the UP, we picked up my mom from the airport for her annual "back to school" visit. It's become her tradition to come here when school starts. It's nice because I have to get my classroom ready and help my kids prepare for their first day, plus the first day is always a half day for them, so it's nice to have a family member greet them when they're done with school while I finish up with my first day with new preschoolers.

We decided to spice this Labor Day weekend up with something different, since our annual Stake Picnic was held earlier in the summer. My friend gave me the idea of following my dreams (and Karissa's and my mom's) and going to see Hamilton!! It's not in Detroit anymore, but in Chicago until January. Jason helped me find $92 tickets and I had a free stay at a Marriott, so it couldn't have been better! Since no one else in my family cared to see it, they were just fine with the three of us going on the 4 hour drive on Saturday and coming back Sunday. Jason will take the rest of the kids to the BYU game in Toledo at the end of the month.

Living it up in the city!

Our drive was fast and smooth. We parked around the corner from our hotel in downtown Chicago and were able to walk to dinner at Mercadito (yummm!) and walk to the production of Hamilton, which was even closer! Our seats were amazing, for how cheap they were, the show even better than I imagined, our free suite luxurious, and our free breakfast the next morning divine! That made my summer! I had been trying for lottery tickets to see it for almost a year, to no avail, so I was pretty stoked to make it happen without breaking the bank.

Mercadito

My first glimpse of it!

We made it!!

On Labor Day we tried a new activity that Karissa did as a Beehive activity recently: we went to Ann Arbor and floated down the Argo Cascades in inner tubes. It was super fun and adventurous! There were little cascades every so often that we'd splash down, and then float to the next one on the current. Next time we want to try kayaks there.

I didn't get any pics of the cascades themselves, but you can see the white water from the first one in the background here.

Finally, school started, and we survived the first week. Victoria started early morning seminary and high school. It's hard to believe that she's at the phase already! She has an awesome schedule for her first year there and is loving it. Karissa is enjoying her second year at East as a 7th grader, Austin likes being a 5th grader (the last grade in elementary school here), and Erik is in my favorite grade: 2nd!

Hooray for school!

The UP

We took our camper up to Munising, MI, which is in the Upper Peninsula, last week. People who live up there are affectionately called "Yoopers" (saying the letter U and pronouncing pers) and they call us who live in the mitten "trolls" because we live "under" the bridge that leads to the UP. Kind of some fun trivia.

The Mackinac Bridge to the UP.

We went right up to the tip top, on Lake Superior. And yes, our campsite was a throw away from the lake- so cool! We got there with the sun still shining (after going to church first) and enjoyed the sunset as we finalized our pop-up camper set up and ate walking tacos for dinner.

As we were setting up camp, I snapped a few pictures of the gorgeous view. 

That land is Grand Island in Lake Superior.

That's how close we were!

The next day we explored the area and the Pictured Rocks park base with the Coast Guard base. We did a quick hike to Miner's Falls before going on our Pictured Rocks boat cruise, which was our main adventure for this whole vacation. It was a 2 1/2 tour of the amazing Pictured Rocks that are along a quarter of the peninsula and were created by different sediment through the years. We learned that Lake Superior is the biggest lake in the world by surface area, but not with the biggest volume, it's third in that category. A lake in Russia takes first in volume, followed by a lake in Africa. All the Great Lakes combined, with a couple of Lake Eries, make up the size of Lake Superior, it's huge! 1,333 feet deep is it's deepest point.

Miner's Falls

Starting our 2 1/2 hour tour. It made us think of Gilligan's Island 3 hr tour. We could have been shipwrecked too, as ships are shipwrecked in Lake Superior.

The start of the rocks.

My favorite part! That's all from sediment!

A lighthouse on Grand Island.

 About 20 minutes after our tour started, it started to rain. We were sitting on top for the better view, so we got wet and cold, but it was worth it! We did end up going inside at the end where we had an okay view, but had the heater and it was dry!

It rained the rest of the day, so we made our spaghetti under the awning and ate inside the camper. It gave us a good excuse to play a lot of games that evening!

Game night in the rain!

The next day we went to a bear ranch. They had the cubs, the yearlings, the females, and the males all separated and had two gates between us and them, but it was so fun to observe them, especially the cubs! The were crazy little guys, like our cats, but a whole lot bigger! The kids got to feed some apples to the grown bears. We saw some scratching their backs on the trees, as is typical of bears.

Yearlings digging around a tree.

Cub

After wards, we drove to Tahquamanon Falls and hiked to the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls. These falls are the biggest falls in the U.S. east of the Mississippi, after Niagra. In the Lower Falls the kids could wade in the water. Erik wore his bathing suit and brought a towel, which was good because he fell in first thing! The girls brought their towels, which was also good, because they  fell in a little later. Austin was the only one not prepared, but lucky for him, didn't fall in!

We ate out one time for some local tastes of pasties (a cross between empanadas and pot pies), white fish from the lakes, and wild rice (also from the lakes).

The Upper Falls

That evening we grilled chicken, but it had to be super fast since, as Jason grilled it, we watched the storm rolling in with pink lightning and everything! It blocked the sunset, but was spectacular to watch! We had to run in the camper after stowing everything quickly away before the downpour.

Karissa made this mermaid sculpture in the sand at our camp.

Storm coming in.

Our final day we went to Kitch-Iti-Kipi, which is the biggest natural spring in Michigan. It was gorgeous and amazing! The trout in there were huge! The water is 45 degrees year round. Brrrr! After that we went to Sugar Loaf mountain for a "real" hike. It was like being out west again, hiking up a rocky mountain. We all had a blast! We really miss hiking up mountains. 

Look at that spring water!!

The bottom of the spring.

The raft went across this cable and back. 

The sand billowing up is where the water comes up through.

Where they're hanging over was the middle of the raft where you could see down into the spring.

Feeding the fish.

Lake Superior waves.

The flowers were brilliant in all the little towns around there.

Climbing rocks on the hike.

The top view on the side.

The main view

Twin shirts

Carefree!

Another Karissa sculpture.

Grilling!

Awesome sunset!

The best!

After we broke camp and left, we stopped the deer ranch. They were so adorable! We fed them apples and they were so friendly! One of the babies, Abby, was teething and was sucking on all of our fingers. It was super cute, though she did make Erik bleed. 

Oh deer!

Abby sucking on Karissa's fingers

Abby

Buckaroo and his doe. He was super friendly and his antlers were so velvety!

Feeding a deer a little too closely!

Buckaroo was licking his ear!

Lake Michigan on the way home.

After we returned to the Mitten, we noticed how much faster life was away from that haven. It was a very relaxing vacation!