Maple Syrup Season

I took the girls up to my parents' place on Sunday after church to participate in their first maple syrup experience. The drive up went fairly well, although Anna didn't sleep at all ... she was too excited. At least she's a very pleasant traveller, listening to music, looking at books, singing songs, etc. Unfortunately, Kate screamed for the last 15-20 minutes after Anna and I had been passing her all sorts of toys for about 40 minutes after she woke up; it was just too much time in the carseat.





Anyway, the girls (especially Anna) loved seeing the maple syrup production. She and Matt had checked out a book about maple syrup making from the library last week so she was all prepared for the tapping of trees and the boiling of the sap.




We stuck around for Monday and part of Tuesday, too, to give us a change of scenery for a few days. Grandpa gave me a break from cooking by making us some great breakfasts and a tasty lunch while Grandma was at work; Anna helped out with the dinner on Monday night.


Monday we spent the day either hanging out indoors or outdoors, depending on who was awake and also everyone's mood.





We managed two different hikes in the afternoon, one with Grandpa and one after dinner with Grandma. (Anna and Grandpa are walking across "Anna's footbridge" in this photo ... isn't it sweet?!)




Anna was certainly a trooper with the evening hike and powered through a three-quarters of a mile hike, talking with Grandma almost the whole way about a troll who lived under the "tractor bridge" and how he was following us and not obeying when we told him to go away ... ah ... imagination ...


We came back on Tuesday, stopping in Wisconsin Dells to break up the trip. We were blessed to find a great park just off the main highway and played there for awhile before we went to Culver's for lunch. I rarely eat out with both girls by myself and now I remember why ... it's a LOT of work to make sure everyone is contained and eating and then still get a chance to eat myself! After lunch we went to the outlet mall for a little bit, but had to head home earlier than I would have liked because Anna started to melt down from exhaustion. I figured the other customers at Gap would probably rather I take my screaming two-year-old out of the store ...

Overall it was a good trip, maybe even the best so far with both girls, although the last 20 minutes of the drive up and the last 20 minutes at the mall weren't quite my favorite :)