Here are just a few things I’ve been loving this summer: Poetry by Billy Collins Herbal Armor Bug lotion.  We are a non-DEET bug spray family, and by chance I ran across a container of Herbal Armor while on vacation a few years ago and bought it.  This lotion is…

Last summer we happened to be visiting Temperance River Sate Park, and noticed some campsites that were right next to Lake Superior.  We made a mental note to try and camp there this summer.  Way back in January, during a painful cold snap,  I realized that I should probably try…

I learned all about the nesting habits and behavior of robins.   Barkers Island, an island in the harbor of the St. Louis River that stretches from Duluth across the front of Superior Wisconsin was not always an island.  Barker, who owned a dredging company had a bad business deal…

We were getting in the car to run an errand. The Banana:  Are we going to mail something? Me:  Uhm, not today. The Banana:  Oh.  I thought you were maybe going to mail a letter to Old Grandma. Mr. SP:  Uhm, you can’t mail a letter to Old Grandma.  She’s…

This year we went group camping with neighbors and friends not in our neighborhood at Copper Falls State Park in Wisconsin.  I hadn’t been to this state park since we lived in Wisconsin and I was very, very pregnant with Mr. SP.  I really enjoyed it then, and I was…

I’ve been camping with my family ALL WEEK.  It’s been glorious, and I have so much to share, so many pictures to edit and post, and so many stories to tell. For now, though, I’ll leave you with just this one picture of a small boy who really, really loves…

The day after we arrived home from our trip to North Dakota last month, a pair of robins began building a sturdy and strong nest in the most advantageous of all places:  the vine growing outside my bedroom window.  We were all so excited, and did our very best to…

They built a few really, really tall towers last week.  What goes up must come down.

It’s one of those times when a picture (or two) is really worth a thousand words, at least. I looked over and this is what I saw, completely unprompted.  In fact, I’m pretty sure they didn’t even discuss it.  

We had a glorious time for quite some time.  The kidlets wanted to go to a sandy beach, but the evening was dwindling already, so I didn’t want to drive all the way to the quiet end of the point like I normally do when we go to the sandy…