Great Wolf Lodge and Hippie Trees

 Sunday Tyler and I went to Ward Council and then we quickly loaded up the kids and headed to Traverse City for our stay in Great Wolf Lodge. On the drive there we did no electronics so we listened to "Robin Hood." It was a dramatized version so I thought it might captivate them but I don't really think that they knew what was going on. Regardless they mostly behaved themselves and it was a fairly easy drive there. Before we got to GWL I thought we should stop and see the world's 3rd largest cherry pie pan. Unfortunately there was nowhere to stop and take pics and when Penny saw it she said, "That's it!? That's stupid." They were all underwhelmed at my random stop and disappointed that there was no pie in it.

After arriving and checking in, we quickly changed and headed to the waterpark. We had some fun in the pool- the kids liked climbing on the snake and we played some basketball too. I tried to shoot a basket backwards and almost hit a lifeguard. That would've been embarrassing. We swam in the pool, the kids did the lily pads over and over again, Penny went under the giant water bucket with Tyler (and got knocked down), we floated on the lazy river (me avoiding being sprayed by water and the girls trying to get sprayed) and we had all kinds of fun until the kids (and us parents) got too hungry. So we walked through the frigid hallways to our room, changed and headed to Chili's for dinner. The kids literally attacked the chips when it came to the table so apparently they were ravenous.

After dinner I wanted to go miniature golfing and everyone complied. The weather was nice and we had the course to ourselves so we could take our time without worrying about someone waiting on us. It ended up being a really nice time, with minimal fighting and a friendly competition between Tyler and I. Tyler won by 5 and then the competition became less friendly ;) 

After mini golfing we had to take the traditional picture of all the kids in their wolf ears before going to bed. The kids had a bit of a hard time falling asleep because they were all looking forward to more good times at the GWL. Plus the hallways were pretty noisy and our sink kept making this crazy vibrating sound.

The next day the kids spent the first couple hours of the morning "wanding" aka doing the Magiquest. This was not my favorite thing. It meant traipsing up and down the stairs to find all the things while wearing a mask (because Covid).

Even though I work out, I apparently don't work out enough. I was really struggling to breathe by the end of it and finally coaxed the kids away from wanding with doughnuts. We took the doughnuts  back to our room to change and headed to the waterpark. Whereas before only the older kids had done the waterslides and lily pads, this time Penny got brave and went on both a waterslide and the lily pads. The kids absolutely love the lily pads and it was fun to watch them go on them over and over again. It's like a live version of Wipe Out.  

Eventually the kids got hungry again so it was back to our room to eat some lunch. When we finished lunch they decided to do some more of the wanding. I felt blah so I wimped out early on and made Tyler take over. Then we squeezed in another trip to the waterpark before we went to the lobby to play BINGO. Tyler and Ben won the first two rounds of BINGO so when Ben was about to win the third round, we told him not to say anything so another family could have a chance. The sweet boy kept quiet and a couple other families had the chance to win some prizes. Unfortunately Penny was not game with other families winning and was really upset that he didn't howl a BINGO and give her a prize. Lucky for this poor loser they gave everyone a prize in the end.

When BINGO ended it was dinner time so went to a place called The Little Fleet. It intrigued me because it had a few yummy sounding food trucks to choose from. It was a nice atmosphere and a beautiful day to be outside but quite honestly I was not super impressed with the food, especially for the price. The chicken nuggets Penny got looked like frozen ones from a store, the lemonade was watery and did not have enough sugar in it and my pulled pork sandwich was not super flavorful. BUT it was a super trendy/hipster place so I am sure it totally upped our cool factor.

For dessert we decided to go to Moomers because it had been recommended to me by a friend. I got a super delicious cow pie! Really it was 2 sugar cookies with cinnamon ice cream in the middle and I am such a sucker for cookies and ice cream. The ice cream place is right next to the dairy farm where they get there milk. Thankfully they do a good job hiding the cow smell which just left us with a really pretty views of a field, a farm and a herd of cows. We even got to watch the farmer feed his cows right before we headed out. 

Our last adventure of the day was storytime at GWL. This is always my least favorite thing because you have to sit on the hard floor and listen to the story of "how the GWL was created" which is the same story each time we go. But at the end one of the characters comes out to take pictures and since we have to get our traditional picture, I bear through it. They were told they could take off their masks for the picture if they wanted but only Lucy heard those directions so everyone else remained mask. Although Steven never wears his correctly because it fogs up his glasses.

For our last morning at Great Wolf Lodge the kids finished their quests for Magiquest. The girls and Ben finished earlier and started to get bored so we went back to the room and rotted our brains with Teen Titans Go for a bit while Steven worked on finishing his quest. But soon we had to check out of our room so we went to find Steven and in doing so discovered one of the characters out and about to take pictures with. 

As they were waiting on Steven and the boredom was growing, I decided to cave into one of Penny's earlier wishes and took her to build-a-bear. Earlier she had complained that everyone had a build-a-bear but her. This is mostly true- Steven doesn't have one but he has never wanted one. Her pure joy in making and getting one made it totally worth the cost. Plus it entertained her the whole drive home which was a definite bonus. She chose the girl wolf and named it Violet Fuzzy Hatch. And when asked to put a wish in it, she wished that her and Lucy could ride a unicorn.

When she finished making Violet, Steven was done with his quest so it was time for us to leave the Great Wolf Lodge. Usually when we go to the GWL it's winter and freezing outside so we never have gotten a chance to properly explore the city in it is in, Traverse City- which is a popular tourist destination. We decided to remedy that and went on a little hike to the Hippie Trees. The Hippie Trees are basically a collapsed Willow Tree that has been heavily graffitied. People graffiti it because they believe that it's roots are the portal to Hell and the graffiti is like an offering to it!? People are weird. It's near an abandoned mental hospital and I think that was sort of the origins of all the lore around it. For us it was just fun to see all the colorful painting and the kids really enjoyed climbing on the fallen limbs. Hopefully we didn't bring back any negative mojo from it ;)

I had Tyler pose by the limb that someone spray painted Trump's name on. Apparently they were trying to send him to Hell.

Steven stepped on a snake and so of course Tyler had to pick it up to make sure it was ok.

Afterwards we picked up lunch and ate it by the beach. It was super windy and all the kids were mad at me for making them eat outside because their food was blowing away. Then I did another mean thing and made them pose in the sand by the lake which meant now they had sand in their shoes. Goodness life is hard. We did discover a large dead fish in the water so that was fun. Tyler also had some fun skipping stones so not everyone had an awful time. Too bad the water was too cold or they might have enjoyed it more.

Our last destination was at The Cherry Republic and the was a poor choice because I now have a new addiction- Cherry Chocolate Covered Pretzels. Oh. My. Gosh. They were so amazing. I finished the bag in 3 days and that was with me exercising self control. The kids also got some yummy cherry licorice and cherry gummy bears and Tyler got a ton of different kinds of cherry soda. Everything was so expensive, otherwise I might have picked up some cherry salsa and pancake mix and other intriguing things. Maybe next time.

We hit one more store up in the downtown and the girls loved checking all the things out but the boys, not so much. So after that we took a picture at this awesome wall and considered our exploring done. I think honestly everyone was just ready to go home. It had been a good trip but they were all beat.

The rest of our week was just trying to catch up on our homeschooling, while the kids worked hard on teaching me patience. There are never any perfect homeschooling days. With 4 kids someone always seems to be having a rough day but we are chugging along. I worry often about my curriculum and if they are learning it or if they are getting all the things they need to. I just don't want them to get behind. But I am a worrier and I don't think I will ever not worry. 

Our school days also seemed to be longer this week and it could've been because we were squeezing a 5 day work week into 3 days but it could also be because I'm needing to take more time with the boys to work on their math. There was also Steven's orthodontist appointment at lunchtime Thursday which stretched out the day- they want to do another round of braces for $6000. We're going to pass for now. And then Friday I had my dentist appointment where they yelled at me to floss again (I DO!) and stabbed my gums to death. These things kept our week busy and we didn't have any time to do extra fun things or hang with friends. But hopefully next week we can squeeze in a visit to the apple orchard for the start of Fall.

Also Lucy finished the newest Dog Man book this week and both her and Ben were inspired to make all the Dog Man characters from the book. They spent a couple hours on their creations so I figure that was good art for the week.

 

Funny/sad note was Lucy got mad at Penny this week for drawing eyelashes on her Melvin character and wrote "Penny is Fat" next to the eyelashes with a drawing of angry eyes. Sisters.

Lucy also created a bunch of papers that said "You're hired" and her and Penny were trying to hand them out to us so they could hire us to clean their room. They were really disappointed when no one wanted to be hired.

Summer Fades

 On Sunday we had in person church which meant we actually had to look put together for once. It was fast and testimony meeting and with only 25 people in the group, basically everyone bore their testimony- including me and Lucy. It was one of those Sundays where I just kind of knew that I was supposed to bear my testimony and I actually gave in to the prompting instead of giving in to my anxiety. Hopefully it made sense but even if it didn't, it did seem to inspire Lucy to bear hers. When I came back down Lucy asked me if they had asked me to go up and I said no. She then asked if she could go up too and told me what she wanted to say. It was a sweet and simple testimony in which she said that she knew the church was true and that she knew her Heavenly Father loves her.

Here's a cute picture of Penny with her hair all done for church:

Monday was Labor Day and I thought it would be fun to go on a family bike ride somewhere new. A friend suggested we go on the Air Line Trail and since we drive under the bridge on this trail often, we decided to try it out. It ended up being quite the adventure. As we started down the ramp on the bridge I started to say to Penny that I felt a little nervous about her going down- especially since she has no handlebar breaks- and at that moment she veered right into the wall of the bridge and crashed. There were 2 really nice ladies that offered tissues to clean up her wounds and they kept telling her how brave she was. She really soaked up their words and we walked down the ramp. Then she got back on her bike and kept going. I was proud of her for being brave. Not too long after that Lucy's tire went off the path a bit and she crashed. She scrapped her knee up good but she was brave too and we continued on a bit longer before we decided to call it a day and go back. On our way back we saw a muskrat which Penny thought was pretty cool. In the end we had rode 4 miles and were grateful that despite all the kids' swerving, they hadn't hit any other bikers.

When we finished the bike ride I had the opportunity to clean the house with no kids! I haven't been able to do that for awhile and it was amazing! I'm grateful that Tyler took out the kids so I could do that. That evening we went to my friend Melissa's house for a BBQ; Caroline's family was there as well. It was a nice evening with friends and we even got some puzzle time in. I have a good group of friends here.

Tuesday, I melted down a little with homeschooling. The kids were just giving me attitude and not putting forth their best effort. I had been trying to be so patient but I ended up snapping at Steven in the afternoon. Tyler came up mid my yelling catastrophe and sent the kids upstairs so I could calm down, ha. The rest of the week homeschooling went better but I am sure we will always have difficult days sprinkled in their. A lot is dependent on the kids attitudes and honestly, how hard the boys math is. I don't always have the time to help them with it when they need it and I don't always understand it either. 

Tuesday evening I had my first Bunco since March. It was really nice to have a sense of normalcy. The only thing we did differently was we each had our own set of dice to roll and our own little box of candy to eat while we played. We had a lot of fun goofing off and making manly voices to announce how well we were or were not rolling but I sadly was not a winner. 

Wednesday night I had the young women over at my house to paint rocks. We only had 4 girls show up but it was still a good time. I really enjoy the artsy things and I had fun joining in. I made the cactus, doughnut, face and "hi" rock. 

Thursday the kids went to the dentist in the afternoon. They supposedly don't have any cavities but I always wonder. I think they like to wait until they're real bad so they get more money but that's just me being negative. It was definitely a different experience going during Covid. We had to call before we could go in, then we all had to cram around the 2 chairs in the waiting room and then when we went back we were still basically clustered together. Also no prizes which is lame. The kids really struggled with sitting still when it wasn't their turn and I am pretty sure Covid has ruined their ability to sit still. They had the same struggles at church Sunday.

Friday we took a break in the morning to go on a nature walk and hide some of the rocks that my young women had left. Steven complained the whole time that it was cold and also told me that school was too hard and I was teaching him eighth grade stuff. He just doesn't like that he actually has to think ;)

Friday afternoon we had the Mays over to paint rocks with the leftover supplies from the Wed night activity. Their rocks were definitely not as fancy as the young women's and they finished a lot faster but I think they had a good time hanging out.

Homeschool Begins

This week we started homeschool. Sunday we spent a good amount of time setting up rules and rewards and talking about how the day would go. The kids will earn screen time based on getting their work done, their attitude while doing it and how much effort they put in it. They can use the screen time that day or save it up for the weekend. Then we also have a punch card that they earn punches on by doing some form of exercise and doing their daily chores. When they get a certain amount of punch cards filled, we are going to buy them another remote for the xbox so they can play games together. I am all about the bribery here. These incentives seemed to help but of course there were still issues, I expected the first week to be rough.  

Monday morning the boys and I started our first day of school off with a run. The girls joined us for our cool off walk. I took a shower and then we had to get our traditional pictures. Except this year I decided as their teacher, I should be part of them too.

After the pictures we dived right in to school and overall it wasn't completely terrible. Oddly enough, Steven had a great attitude for the first day and was my easiest kid and Ben, on the other hand, got super emotional over everything and was my toughest kid. The girls were mostly ok and they were done by 11am (they took a good snack/wiggle break halfway through). The boys finished around noon and also took a snack break and some wiggle breaks. We pretty much followed that same timing the rest of the week so I am hopeful that we can continue to start our days at 8am so we can be done by the afternoon. I know that will be harder when it gets darker and colder outside.

After homeschool I was able to do my usual house cleaning and pick up my groceries. I was happy to see that I could still fit all my usual Monday things in after homeschool. That evening Grams and I went shoe shopping with Lucy because her tennis shoes were getting holes in the toes. Then we stopped at Dairy Queen for ice cream. I got a Snicker Doodle Cookie Dough Blizzard which was pretty dang good. 

On our second day of homeschool Ben did a lot better but Steven's excited attitude about homeschool had already faded and he was back to his usual antics. Steven just really struggles with putting effort into his work and listening when being shown his mistakes and how to correct them. He just wants to rush through it all and be done, regardless if he is doing it correctly or well. That caused him to not earn as much screen time as he could have. 

After homeschool that day we had to take Grams to the airport so she could fly back to Arizona. I definitely felt her absence after she left. I miss having someone to watch my silly shows with me, Tyler certainly doesn't, and I miss having someone to talk to during the day and run errands with me. But she will be back next month so at least it's not goodbye for too long.

The rest of our week with homeschooling was pretty much the same sort of issues. Just trying to get the boys to really try- read directions and instructions and put forth their best efforts. Trying to get Ben to keep his emotions in check so that he doesn't get upset (or freeze up) when he doesn't understand something. The girls had similar issues with getting frustrated or upset when something felt like too much work or hard so got to work on them too.

The positives for homeschooling this week were- the less stressed schedule, having the boys come with me on my runs, teaching Ben how to play the piano, doing a read aloud with all the kids during lunchtime, having the boys do coding lessons with their dad, having Steven help me with dinner, snuggling on the bed with the girls to do a reading lesson and having "recess" with friends. On Thursday we did a beach day with a few friends and that was a lot of fun. On Friday I had a lady from the neighborhood over, she has triplet boys Penny's age (they were in Jr Kinder last year in the class next to Penny's). It was nice getting to know her better and fun to watch Steven playing games with her boys and entertaining them.

The only other thing that happened this week was tie dying shirts for our yw's activity Wed night. This was a lot of fun except I had another annoying moment with my counselor. I had told her not to bring a back up snack to the activity that night and that it would be ok if the girl in charge forgot the snack. The girls would survived with no snack, honestly. When I got to the activity she came up to my car and excitedly told me that the girl in charge had remembered to bring a snack which is great. BUT then she tells me that she had brought a back up snack anyways even though I had told her not to. I do not know why she can't just listen and leave the snack thing alone. And then to just admit that she went against my advice when she could have got away with not telling me that she had done that. That was the real kicker. Ugh. I'm so frustrated with her.