Little Princess Came Home

I finally got to talk to my girl about her experiences in Colorado, Utah, and Idaho, and she absolutely loved her trip.

She fell in love with USAFA and hopes so badly to attend that school and serve our country.

She loved seeing the stars in so much more glory that we can see them from our home area.

She had so much fun interacting with extended family.

And she loved, loved, loved spending time with Pixie (who loved, loved, loved having her little sister stay with her).

Out to dinner with extended family

At the Idaho Falls temple

Hanging out in Pixie's apartment . . . just before they set up the camera and film themselves playing a game in which they spit water on one another while giggling maniacally

Little Princess flew home alone, and she was a champion traveler.  She asked for help when she needed it and handled difficulties with panache.

She spent the next day sleeping, waking to attend dance practice, and then sleeping again.  But she's recovered now, and I've enjoyed every minute of listening to her recount her adventures.

As for the rest of us, we focused less on book work (math, handwriting, and grammar happened every day) and got outside in some way each day.

 

Monday's adventure:

Ladybug noticed fruits on the ground.  I used Google Lens to look it up, and we found out they were ripe persimmons--totally edible!  

Some of us liked them better than others. :)
They were sweet and soft--like a ripe plum in texture, but sweeter.

Lola climbed the persimmon tree to both pick some and shake the tree so that more fruits dropped to the ground.

Tuesday's adventure:

We went back to the same location, but we walked an extra half mile one way so that we reached a bridge that we regularly pass under.  We waved and waved at the drivers below, and we got some of the sweetest responses from the drivers.

Our favorite reaction was the young couple that waved enthusiastically at us through their open sun roof.

There was plenty of road construction, and we watched heavy machinery rumble around for a good while.

Lola found a fungus! 
Again, we used my phone to find out it is called the Jack o' Lantern mushroom.

Wednesday's adventure:

We went to another trailhead of the same trail in order to see different sights.

This part of the trail runs through a suburban neighborhood, and the kids loved finding the original railroad tracks that the trail was built over.

If there's a wall to walk on, they will do it, but Toby walked on the ground!

And then we spent 20 minutes picking seeds off the kids' clothing and out of Theo's fur (Beowulf got Theo to walk on the wall with him).

Thursday was all about dance and Civil Air Patrol.

But then we went to the kitten farm on Friday!!  (It's a pumpkin patch, but we call it the kitten farm because they take in litters of kittens each fall, care for them and allow them to visit with the patrons, and then adopt them out after Halloween.)

Oh yes!  It was a day off school for The Munchkin and Sugar Bear, and they came with us to the pumpkin patch. :)

And then pictures that Nature Angel took--so much better than mine (I say with maternal pride).

See the tiny kitten under Little Princess' chair!  It snuck over and was eating leftover tuna off one of our picnic plates!

This week we finished reading The Princess and the Goblins.  The kids begged me for a sequel, and I ordered it from Thriftbooks after the kid went to bed last night.  It will appear under the Christmas tree in just a couple of months.

Little Princess did a few homeschool assignments while she was on her trip (she had quite a few hours of down time to fill), so she and I will have a meeting tomorrow to go over what she did and didn't do and assess what her goals need to be for the rest of the month.  

The rest of the kids and I will pull our regular bookwork back out again, too, but I sincerely hope to get outside the way we did this past week.  

I've put outside time on my priority list!