Preschool Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Maddie, Will & I (Becki) went on a field trip for preschool last week. We headed out to Shady Knoll Farms to see their pumpkins, run the mazes, feed the animals & pet the bunnies!

Here's Maddie feeding the sheep & goats. She has grown to love feeding the animals over the past year.

The kids loved the horse & cows.

Checking out the ducks & geese.

Running through the haybale & corn mazes

Maddie with her friends Katie & Molly

Measuring up...
Maddie wanted nothing to do with the scarecrow, while Will loved it & cuddled right up to him!!
Will was being a little pill! I barely got him to cooperate for these pictures!!
And then you have Maddie, who wanted her picture taken, but was afraid of sitting on the edge!! Either way, we love them regardless of their moods & quirks! It was a beautiful fall day and all 3 of us enjoyed our time at the pumpkin patch!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

We headed out to Country Corner (Alpha, IL) to pick our pumpkins this past weekend. We had beautiful weather (dare I say a bit too warm - 80!!). We told the kids that we wouldn't be doing any of the extra things this time. We surprised them with news that we would be driving to Chicago in the next few weeks to go to the zoo, stay at a hotel and swim, and lots of letterboxing! We told them that to do our trip to Chicago, we'd need to save our money from the pumpkin patch. They agreed that the trade would be worth it!

The next 2 pictures are from the jr corn maze...I love Will's hand in his pocket! It didn't move the whole time he was running around!

Snakes!! Why'd it have to be snakes?

Matt & I were able to get away to Galena for our annual Christmas ornament shopping. Every year we head to Galena to shop for the kid's Christmas ornaments - something to represent what they did this past year. We also eat at our favorite restaurant, Vinny Vinucchi's! We left after dropping the girls at school. Thanks to a handful of letterboxers, we were able to find some new boxes in the Galena area...

Driving along the scenic drives of Blackjack Road & Stagecoach Trail, we found "The Big 4-0", "ACL Mystery" (2) and "Miners Chapel Cemetery" (2). We were blessed to see a part of Apple Canyon Lake that we had never seen before!

We laughed when we read this sign...right above a parking lot!

Finally in Galena, we found the Galena Library box and headed to lunch! YUM!! Matt then replanted the missing "Lifetime of Memories" boxes while we made our way to Seasons Remembered to look at their ornaments. We enjoyed our time of looking around and reminiscing about the past year with the kids.

We drove down to the starting point of the "Fever River Trail" series. It is listed as 3-6 miles. we started out on the bike path and quickly found the first box while observing a natural spring. Onward towards box #2. We quickly had to make a decision since our tunnel on the path was flooded! A bit of weedwhacking, we were up and over and back on the path. We started walking - looking for a rushing stream (we chuckled...due to flooding, the water wasn't moving!!), a pond and the 1 mile marker. While on our way to the marker, we were surprised to see a car approaching (on the bike path!!)!! We don't mind walking, but we debated for a long time about whether to go back and get the van or not. We opted for not. We finally found the marker and continued to the next clue...only to find the tree and the loose bark...and no letterbox! A bit further back, we stopped and talked with a walker...we asked her if the trail looped back. She told us that it dead ended a few miles up. Sooooo, after seeing that the second box was missing and knowing that we would be walking another 2 1/2 miles to the end of the trail...and another 3 1/2 miles back...we opted to head back to the van. We later found out that a small portion of the bike path is car accessible since there are a few houses back there. Unfortunately for us, cars are only allowed where we had walked and no further. Now tired, hot & frustrated, we started walking back. I noticed a small garden snake (dead) on the path...and pointed it out to Matt. Let me backtrack a few hours to the Miner's Chapel Cemetery. I have a FEAR of cemeteries with overgrown brush! So many snakes!! So, I ran/tiptoed through the cemetery...to which Matt couldn't stop laughing! Now we are back on the bike path - seeing the dead snake. It wasn't but 6 inches long...but it was a snake!!! For the next 1/2 mile, I saw at least 5 more LIVE snakes!!!! Needless to say, I jumped every time (probably with a slight shriek)! I don't think I took my eyes off the path the whole time. I'm still freaking out about them! I was VERY happy to get back to the van!

We crossed over the river to Dubuque to look for a few new boxes. Our luck continued to go downhill...we attempted Camp 17, only to find the park closed due to flooding. We found the park for "Golf Disc Course", but had no luck with the first box, so we left to find the other box in the area while we had daylight. We ended our day at Swiss Valley Nature Center. It was a nice short hike to end our day. This park is beautiful and so peaceful! Yet again, another new place on our map thanks to letterboxing! We found the box and headed back home.

We ended our day with 7 found boxes and 8 fails! Rotten luck! We are heading back to Chicago in a few weeks with the kids. We are hoping to hit the 900th box during that trip!!

Katie - the Author

While going through some papers the other day, I found a piece of scratch paper that Katie had written on. It was titled, "if I made 27 books, I would call them...". I glanced through the list and chuckled at a lot of them. I asked her if I could share them on our blog.

1. Dixie and me
2. My Life
3. May is like...
4. My stubborn brother
5. Bloopers
6. fairy friends
7. My imagination
8. superfragilistica
9. I can, can I?
10. My sister's "ucky" charms
11. I can see you! (this one had a pic of an eye (I) and water (sea))
12. My life #2
13. Mister taco
14. 1:15, I am late!
15. superfragilisticaladooios #2
16. how I made banana day
17. Meet the chipmunks
18. Meet the chippetes
19. fun in the sun?
20. the book of manners
21. Is it true?
22. Is it false?
23. Get chippete!
24. Get chipmunk!
25. game time!
26. Can you help me?
27. Whew!

Iowa City

Ugh...Iowa City!! We have 4 boxes left! So close...but again, so far!! We got home from Chicago late Sat. night and the kids arrived home 7:30 Sunday morning. We got ready to head to church and then left for Iowa City. Our plan was to get the last 4 boxes and end our day at the kids museum.

We drove to the Lake MacBride Nature Center to find 2 boxes. The kids loved seeing all of the raptors and finding fossils while enjoying the view of the lake. One of the boxes ended up being a bit of hike, but it was a beautiful day and the kids enjoyed finding caterpillars and leaves, among other things!

Kids checking out one of the owls.

Will - trying to encourage the caterpillar to climb into his hands. Maddie used her new spoon to hold it.

Found this shelter along the path.
Alex - showing off her new leaf collection. "I'm going to make a leaf book when I get home"

Will - using his "walking stick"
Both of the remaining boxes are on the bike bath in Iowa City so we headed down to the city to find the remaining one. Halfway there, we were informed of an accident by one of the youngsters....Great!! Pit stop to get that cleaned up and than another pit stop at Walmart to get a new outfit (fortunately, we had jammies to wear until we got the outfit purchased!). I got back into the van at 4:00. The museum closed at 6, so Matt & I decided to forego the boxes and head to the museum.
The museum was fun - but we were all tired...esp. Matt & I!! The kids ran circles around us. We ate at the food court and headed home, just in time to get the kids in bed and get unpacked from our weekend of going, going, going. Hopefully next time we head to Iowa City, we'll be able to mark those last 2 off our list!!

Boxing in the Burbs

This past week has been a crazy one!! Matt & I set aside this past weekend (over a year ago!) to head to Chicago. After setting that time aside on the calendar, Matt found out that Mark & Sue (fellow letterboxers from the east coast) were going to be in IL around the same time. Matt was so excited to meet with them along the Hennepin Canal - Wizard of Oz series. He boxed with them most of the day last Wednesday. Here is a picture of Matt with Mark & Sue...as well as some beautiful pics of the sunset & wildlife along the Hennepin.

Friday morning we dropped off the girls at school then hit the road to Chicago. We were optimistic about all that the day would hold. Matt had printed up a TON of clues - mostly quick drive bys - and he had promised me some shopping too! We got into the southern Chicago suberbs around 10:30 and started to figure out where to head for our first box. After trying to find one of the Twilight series boxes, we gave up. We later found out that we were in the wrong burb! It was craziness trying to locate that box and we are SO glad that we didn't have the kids with us because our nerves would've been spent! Onward & upward we drove. We were so excited to see the John Hughes series! We love his movies and it was so cool to be in the same areas where he worked with wonderful actors! Here is Matt standing on the stairs from Ferris Bueller's Day off...and again imitating Judd Nelson from Breakfast Club. We were also able to grab the Weird Science box. Lots of fun - of course, we'll have to pull out those movies to watch them again soon!

Another stop later in the day was "The Grove". What a cool place! Such a beautiful setting! We went inside to locate the box and found all of these animals! "Turtle Pond" was named after all of these turtles. Matt & I watched the turtles swimming around quite a while - amazing to watch! When we head back up to the Chicago area, we will be taking the kids here!! Once we got home, Matt realized that there is another box there too! So, we'll have to find that one when we go.

Matt & I thoroughly enjoyed our day - even with all of the frustrations! Luck wasn't on our side most of the weekend though. We missed out on a lot of boxes! We ended our day with a great steak dinner and shopping at the container store! : )

Saturday morning was devoted to a rock quarry tour that we had signed up for. It looked like a fun thing to do...however, after stopping and picking up breakfast, I suggested to Matt that I wouldn't be too disappointed if we passed up the quarry and worked on finding more boxes. We had such a nice time together the day before and we figured that we would be able to find some bigger series that day...hopefully it would be a more successful day than the previous one! Matt agreed (did I have any doubts!!) and we headed to the first box. After finding a few drive bys, we decided to head out to Palatine to find the "Cubs" series and "Trip Across America" in the same park. We knew that it was going to be a decent walk...but we were up for it (me being a Cub fan all of my life and both of us being geography junkies...we were excited!). 3 hours later, we had our 9 stamps!! It took us a lot longer than expected. We made mistakes, missed clues, etc. It didn't help that we were reading some of the clues in a backward route, so we are double guessing everything that we see. We are sure that we walked close to 6 miles that day! We ended our boxing at "A Good Year: 2010" by Atomic Beans. Due to light (or lack there of!), we were only able to get 4 of the 6 boxes. We ended our night with a wonderful dinner & ice cream with Atomic Beans! Thanks for putting up with us! Leaving the Burbs around 10:00, we arrived home at 1:30 am. Very tired and sore from all the walking (and sitting)! I was surprised to find out we found 30 boxes on the weekend...however, we probably tried for 50! It was a frustrating weekend in that respect. We're hoping to head there again before it's too cold and get a few more series with the kids...maybe visit a zoo or two also.