Apostle Islands Ice Caves~ Awesome Experience!!!

I would recommend going if you're ever in the area in the months of January through early March. It's a really beautiful and fun experience. We'll definately be making a day trip of it again next year, so feel free to come join us!!!!

Just A Few More....

Just around the corner......
.....were several of these enormous waterfall looking ice walls. Truly amazing to look at.

Back view of 1 of the frozen waterfalls.

Breathtakingly beautiful.....

More Apostle Island Ice Caves

Definately one of my favorite pics. The ice here froze so clear, it actually looked like running water. It was, yet again, just beautiful.

Climbing into a cave that held a special treat for us to see......

........the most tiny and intricate icicles. They were everywhere inside this cave.

It was so hard( even for us adults) not to touch them. They were just begging to be touched but we decided we were going to leave "no trace" that we were there so that others could enjoy these tiny little wonders. They were so small, they appeared that they would just crumble if you touched them. I had to zoom in quite alot to get even this amount of detail. I was wishing I had a better camera, but these pics are nice too.

More again.......

We loved looking at the rock. There's so many layers and it looks beautiful. This pic dosn't do it justice at all. It offered a great opportunity to teach and converse with the kids about the different kinds of rock and stone.

Haley kept climbing up this very slippery piece of ice to hold on to the rock and then she would try to move her way off of it, just holding on to the rock and trying to get in a spiderman pose with her hands and feet. I guess she was practicing for this summer's many rockclimbing ventures. She was so funny and kept saying,"I sure do wish we had ropes and a harness. We could totally climb this and Case!!! You could belay me back down!!!"

I can't believe how beautiful ice can be!!! We stayed a safer distance away from some of these ones though as there was evidence that some of these enormous chunks had fallen. You wouldn't want to be under one of them if it did fall.....

And Even More ....

I loved this specific area at the caves. This hole in the rock is so perfectly round and smooth and it was fun for everyone to climb through. We ate lunch on the other side of it. I think it's safe to say, we were definately the only people picnicing out there and on turkey wraps with blue corn chips and salsa, grapes and sliced oranges to boot!!!!
This place was just incredible.....

Jacob, taking a well deserved break. He did really well. Towards the 3 hour mark, he had a little meltdown, but soon fell asleep in the backpack on the trek back to the truck.

The caving crew. Dell has been working a whole lot lately and wouldn't have been able to go with us before the ice wasn't safe anymore , so 3 of the guys from HoneyRock, Case, John and Charlie, all went with us. I must say, I can't imagine having less than 1 adult per kid when climbing and exploring the caves. We all had a great time and look forward to planning a trip again next year with Dad.

More Ice Caves.......

More exploring.....

Inside a cave with the flash off.....

......same cave, flash on.

The kids exiting a cave.

More Ice Caves

Crawling out of one of the caves....
Boys crawling around in a cave and Haley inspecting the ice layers....

"This place is so awesome Mom!!!!"

Creatures of the Caves........

The Four Explorers.....

Apostle Islands Ice Caves

This was an amazing adventure. (There will most likely be several posts as Blogger won't allow me to upload more than 5 pics per post......so irritating!)

Anyways, these caves were vast and beautiful and were so much fun to explore. They are located on Lake Superior near Bayfield, WI. It is a very popular place to kayak in the summer, but we were able to really experience the caves by walking on the ice along the shore. (about a mile to the first ones) It was a beautiful day with hardly any wind at all. It was the perfect day and everyone had fun climbing and exploring.
Haley standing beside a huge wall of ice. I couldn't stop saying how awesome it all was. I can't wait to go again next year!!!

Inside one of the caves.

We all climbed up into that crack and went back as far as we could. Again, very exciting for the kids especially. The rock is just beautiful.

So beautiful!!!

NHL - Cousin Style

The families were together the night before mom had to go home from watching the kids while we were on the cruise. We all got out on the rink to play and try out all the new hockey sticks Namaw and Grandpa gave them all for their birthdays. Thanks Mom and Dad!! Huge hits!!!

So.......... Meet the teams...... Cousins vs. Dads
My niece Talia. She's so pretty!!!

My other niece, Kylee, the drama queen!

Nephew Timmy in goal. Not too many got past this little goalie!!!

Namaw pulling all the little ones around the rink. They were loving it and they all had a great time. Too bad we couldn't do it all more often.

Jacob's 3rd Birthday

Yes!!! You read it right!!!! My baby's cake really says that!!!!

You've gotta understand something though...... I really tried to get him to pick a theme for his birthday as all the other kids usually do. Like Jackson's 7th birthday was a Cowboy Waterski Party..... but somehow I managed to pull that one off. Anyways, I found a bunch of really cool cake ideas online. A gator, a tractor, a tiger, a cowboy boot....all the things he's really into right now and he didn't want a single one of them. So I said..."Fine. I'm just going to make you a bad bad boy cake."(pronounced buoy - that's what his cousin Talia calls him....bad bad buoy :) He was so thrilled and he just laughed and said..."Yeah!!! I want a bad bad buoy cake!!" So this is all I could come up with, seeing that a motorcycle has somewhat of a bad boy image and he likes them anyways. He loved it and it was a delicious, big hit at the party.... we had cousins, a few friends and 15+ college grads. It was a fun time. The cake was a Hershey chocolate layer cake, (made with my flax seed egg substitute so Jordy could eat it too) with chocolate pudding as the middle layer and cool whip cream cheese icing. It was very very yummy!

Happy Birthday To You....... Jordan was singing in Chinese!!!! Such a goof!!! We've been learning a little bit here and there as we will soon have Aunt Amber(from Taiwan) marry Uncle Bryan. I taught the kids to sing Happy Birthday so we could call him on his birthday. He's going to school over there to learn Chinese and is having a bit of difficulty, so for Christmas, we sent him the program we have..... no word on if it's helping yet!

This boy ALWAYS has his hands in his pockets!!! What you can't see, is that his pants are backwards as usual.

Some of the guys were having fun and putting cake all over his face......

........ and he was having so much fun! Happy Birthday my big little "Bad Bad Buoy!!!"

Busy, Busy

We have been so busy since coming back home from the cruise. There has been a full day, every day since we've been back.

There has been wrestling, guitar lessons,quilting class, learning to knit, Jacob's 3rd birthday party, leading a kid's program out here at camp, more tubing, new concepts being learned in school, downhill skiing, getting caught up for Bible study class,and there's a ton more things I'm forgetting.

But we are slowing down now with the exception of a few ongoing activities. Days have been full, but so very good. We are so very blessed. Blessed with health and energy, with family and friends, with amazing opportunities that teach us and shape us, with the freedom to teach and learn with our kids at home, blessed with the freedom of living a life, loving and worshipping our merciful God. Life is good.

I found this quote and it made me smile. It's so true. I'm thinking about embroidering it and sharing it with friends.

Thank God for dirty dishes, They have a tale to tell.

While other folks go hungry,We're eating very well.

With health and home and happiness, We shouldn't want to fuss.

For by the stack of evidence, God's very good to us.

Count your blessings, name them one by one.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Once again, the water was magnificent. I loved looking at the water and seeing all the different colors. There were so many shades of blue and green and I really wanted to go snorkeling or diving and really experience it.

Jamaica was very dirty. It was so sad to see all the trash and litter everywhere in what could be, an amazingly beautiful place. I couldn't believe how bad it really was in some places along our drive to the falls. It was sickening and maddening. There is no reason whatsoever for it and I really was quite aggravated. Thankfully, we arrived at the falls before I could get more perturbed. Dunn's River Falls was awesome. It is a 600 ft. waterfall that flows into the ocean. We walked down to the beach where we started our ascent. We had so much fun climbing the falls. We had a really fun guide and we were able to climb the more challenging side of it. The falls were just absolutely gorgeous. The water, the greenery, the vines, the exotic flowers all hanging above and around us while we climbed. They told everyone you had to purchase or rent watershoes to climb. Dell had appropriate shoes but I had flipflops. I decided I could do it barefoot and so I did. They tried to talk me out of it, but I had a feeling it was all just another scam to make more money anyway and it was. The rocks were very smooth and super easy to climb on. The whole experience was great and definately our favorite thing we did on the cruise. I'm so sad though because we had a waterproof camera and took tons of pics, but the cruise ship messed up the film while developing. So sad. I guess that's what we get for being impatient......
After the falls we went to Bamboo Beach Club and yes, I let them talk me into getting braids. They didn't have to do much talking though 'cause I always wanted to get my hair braided. So I did it and now I can check that off my list :) This beach wasn't great like in Grand Cayman and we were a little disappointed. We really couldn't even walk down the beach comfortably. We were told before we left the ship that there would be people asking us to buy drugs(among other things) and sure enough, they were ready and waiting for you if you ever walked away from the "club" and wanted to just walk down the beach. It was really ridiculous.

Here's a pic of the huts we would've had to walk past if we wanted to walk down the beach. There were so many people just waiting for you to walk past the sign onto "their turf." If we could've just walked a ways down past them, it looked like there were pristine, beautiful and vacant beaches down there. But,we decided we'd just not experience the unpopulated beaches of Jamaica and stay in our designated section of beach and lay in the lounger which may have been lame, but safe.

If you venture out on your own in these type places and don't make it back in time, the ship will leave you but if for some reason your on a cruiseship approved excursion, they have to wait. Anyways, we didn't want the hastle of the hagglers. They are very pushy.

So I liked and disliked Jamaica. I liked and appreciated the beautiful places we saw and experienced. But I couldn't help but to be saddened by the sight of so much litter and trash everywhere and the beauty of the place fading away from neglect and waste and that mentality of living being passed on to future generations. It's also so sad to see that the people that live there, either know no other way to live, or they just choose to live like that and if they choose, why do they choose that? Jamaica definately had beautiful places, but there was just so much needless abuse of nature that took away from the experience. I just wonder how many people really notice it. Was I the only person on the bus upset by it? I saw a few parts of a beautiful Jamaica, but I also saw more parts that were repulsive. You definately wouldn't have seen that on the Go Jamaica commercials or the Sandals resort brochure. I guess all I can say is, I definately saw the stain of sin from fallen man on display. The total disregard for creation and its Creator was evident in more places than not....... or maybe it was the area we were in....I don't know. Visiting Jamaica was bittersweet. It was sweet climbing a 600 ft. waterfall overlooking the ocean but it made me bitter when we got to the top and there was trash on the banks of the little river. So sad. So wasteful.....