Homeschool Adventures | Amy Scott's Thoughts

November So Far… November 18, 2024

Filed under: Amy's Bookshelf,Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 2:23 pm

November hasn’t turned out to be a hibernation month like I originally thought it would. I assumed we would slide into a quieter schedule after all the hubbub of birthday month in October. But… November had other plans. I’m thankful to say we’ve found a good groove now that we’re in the latter half of the month, but I’m still waiting for my hibernation feels. I doubt I’ll find it with the holidays right around the corner… Maybe January will have the quiet, chill vibes I’ve been longing for?

Our first weekend of the month was a restful one. It was nice to recover from Fall Fest with a puzzle, cider in the crockpot, breakfast out at a local favorite (Berry Field’s pumpkin pancakes – yum!), lots of fall baking, and some LEGO building. The first full week of the month was filled with a co-op field trip and an out of town conference leading into multiple family birthday celebrations. After that, I moved into friendship focused week. Lots of good stuff happening here!

Our family enjoyed our visit to a hands-on pioneer farm with our homeschool co-op. We learned about pioneer school rules and pioneer chores and housekeeping. I’m so grateful for modern conveniences. I’m not cut out for farm chores and pioneer housekeeping. The kids loved getting a wagon ride and testing out many of the farm chores for themselves. Owen really enjoyed his time at the blacksmith forge. Graham liked fiddling with the tools. The farm animals were super friendly and the boys made good friends with Bacon Bits, the pig.

A highlight of our weekly family calendar right now is watching our good friend, Megan, compete on the Holiday Baking Championship on Food Network. It’s such a neat experience to personally know someone on television. We watch Megan bake on the edge of seats each week! Our family is a whole cheer squad. It’s a big deal and we take watching Megan very seriously. Can’t wait for week three to air tonight!

While the calendar has been full these last few weeks, it’s been filled to the brim with the people we love. We’ve celebrated three family birthdays this month. We had pizza and cake with Nana, we went to a trampoline birthday party for my nephew, and we had a surprise party for Jeremy’s aunt. I’ve also been thankful for time with forever friends. I got a red cup and talked books with Christy last Monday, I had a phone date the next day with my out-of-state friend, Maggie, and then dinner with Christa on Wednesday. I’m extra thankful this month for the friends and family I get to do life with!

November is over halfway over, but there is still so much fun ahead this month. It’s crazy to think we are breezing through November and while it hasn’t been the quiet month I expected, it’s been a good month. As we focus on gratitude this month, I am thankful for the people who color our days with love, joy, support, and a bit of excitement! We certainly keep things interesting around here!

Snickerdoodles were giving me all the fall baking feels.

Visiting a pioneer farm with our homeschool co-op

Nana & Papa had the boys overnight so Jeremy & I could attend a conference. The kids had a great time!

Wishing Nana a very happy birthday with her favorite dessert, German chocolate cake!

Piano lessons with Nana just got better! Nana gifted us a hand-me-down piano so the boys have a bigger keyboard to practice with. They get to bond with Nana over a shared love of piano!

A beautiful sight! Peppermint hot chocolate, Christmas books, and time with a beloved friend.

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Concluding October November 1, 2024

Filed under: Children's Ministry,Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Travels — Amy Scott @ 10:20 am

October came and went with a flurry of activity! What a fun month! The final week of the month was just as exciting as the rest of the month. We wrapped up homeschool soccer on the 24th. The boys enjoyed getting a better handle on the sport and playing with friends. Their coach was patient and kind. The overall experience was perfect for our family. It was low-key and the once-a-week time commitment was just right for our calendar. I’m actually a little sad that the season is over, but I’m also thankful to have our Thursdays back to normal. Owen is already talking about spring soccer!

Last Friday, we visited the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, WA. Originally, we planned to go on Graham’s birthday, but the weather was wet. I love the zoo, but I don’t enjoy it in the rain. We postponed to a dry day and it was worth the wait. We saw animals that weren’t out when we visited last year for Graham’s 8th birthday. It was to nice to feel like we’ve seen all that zoo has to offer now. We loved the snow leopard cubs and getting to see the maned wolf. We found a free-roaming peacock and got to watch zookeepers take a parade of flamingos on a walk through the zoo. The brown bears came right up to the glass and the elk were out this time. I keep waiting for our family to outgrow the zoo, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. We love animals!

Saturday was a full day at home and it was delightful! It was the perfect balance of productive home projects and restful downtime. We went all out with a full turkey dinner. We even had a Costco pumpkin pie that we had picked up the day before. It was like Thanksgiving! Yum! We also carved pumpkins on Saturday. Graham made a monster that looked like his Boo Bucket from McDonalds. Owen made a Minecraft wolf which he named Pupkin. Jeremy surprised us all and made Bluey. We’ve used homegrown pumpkins for carving the past few years and I actually appreciate skipping the pumpkin patch. I love pumpkin patches, don’t get me wrong. October is such a full month that it’s okay with me to skip one of the traditional outings so we can make space for something else on the calendar.

A surprise highlight of the week was Jeremy shooting a buck in our backyard. I’ve shared that Jeremy does archery in past posts. He didn’t get an elk this September, but he had a deer tag that was good through October. This buck had been near our house the entire day and Jeremy took advantage of the opportunity! We got home from a playdate right was Jeremy found his downed deer. Owen helped Jeremy gut the deer and was very interested in the whole process. It was a fantastic science lesson – one that will end in pepperoni sticks!

Yesterday was the final day of this special month and what better way to celebrate than as Ender Dragons from Minecraft. The Ender Dragon appears at the end of the game which fit perfectly with the end of a very Minecraft-themed month. Fall Fest is a community event that our church hosts and Jeremy is responsible for each year. We went down to the church yesterday to bring Jeremy lunch and to help with the final preparations. We came back down fully in costume to enjoy the event with our community. Because it was a rainy Halloween, the event was a big. Gotta love being inside on a wet Halloween! Jeremy and the team added a maze this year that was a hit and the kids came home with a ton of candy which is fitting since dragons love to hoard treasure!

To recover from the big event last night, we have a puzzle on the table and spiced cider warming in the crockpot today. It’s nice to be snuggled warm inside while it’s dark and wet outside. I’m thankful it’s a quiet day to rest. I’m a little sad to see October in the rearview mirror, but… I’m also ready for November. In fact, I just might go put on some Christmas music to welcome the new month! : )

Minecraft Wolf Pupkin and Boo Bucket Monster

Dragons protecting the treasure in the castle maze

Sir Jeremy – the knight in blue jeans and sneakers! We had a medieval theme for Fall Fest this year.

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October is the Best! October 23, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Travels — Amy Scott @ 2:24 pm

Some people wait all year for the Christmas season. For me, I wait all year for October! Excuse my redundant exclamations, but you just can’t beat October. It’s the best! The flavors, the outings, the birthdays, the weather, the colors!!! It’s all my favorite! I’m truly my happiest self in October. This October has been no exception. It’s been a truly amazing month.

I’ll try to keep this post brief so that I don’t overwhelm you with all the October awesomeness, but I can’t keep it to myself! I hope you enjoy this recap of our autumn activities and celebrations. The major highlights since I last wrote were visiting GG, another birthday celebration for the boys with my side of the family, a family vacation to Sunriver, celebrating Graham’s actual birthday, and launching rockets with our homeschool co-op! Never a dull moment in October!

Sunriver Resort is one of our favorite places to visit. The Cove (the indoor/outdoor swimming complex) and the miles of paved bike paths make Sunriver endlessly fun. We never run out of things to do there! In fact, there is never enough time and we are always hopeful that we’ll visit again. Our big adventure day was visiting the John Day Fossil Beds and going on a fossil dig in Fossil, OR. Behind the high school in Fossil, you can dig for fossils and keep what you find. We found so many leaf fossils! Jeremy and Owen would have dug for fossils all day. I enjoyed the Journey Through Time Scenic Byway as we made our way down scenic backroads. Jeremy joked on his birthday in March that this was the year he’d find a fossil and we made that dream become reality! My favorite part of our vacation was our bike ride by the river with all the beautiful fall color. The boys will tell you that the Cove was their favorite part. They also enjoyed doing some shopping in Bend with their birthday money. It was such a great trip!

Graham’s birthday was Saturday. We had planned to go to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle for his birthday, but the weather didn’t agree with us. Instead, we went to see The Wild Robot in theaters. Graham was allowed to pick two movie treats which made his day (we usually only allow one treat). After the movie, we had a pizza dinner with all the grandparents in attendance. Graham wanted everyone to have their own pint of ice cream as his special birthday dessert. It was a very fun day to celebrate our now nine year-old!

Jeremy and the boys have been working hard over the last week to create rockets for our homeschool co-op rocket launch day. We met yesterday with our group to launch rockets together. It was a wonderful afternoon! Jeremy was great at helping the boys assemble their rockets and he was also super helpful on launch day. I was nervous that the weather would cancel this outing, but it turned out to be the perfect October afternoon! It was warm enough you didn’t need a coat, blue sky, little wind – it was just right for launching rockets. It’s always a joy to share these experiences with other homeschool families. I am so thankful for our co-op community!

With a little over a week left in the month, we still have a lot more planned. Can you believe it? We cram a lot into October. I’m looking at my November calendar and it’s intentionally going to be quieter. It’s all a balance! I love getting in as many outdoor outings as possible in October. The fall color just can’t be beat and I know the rain will arrive and stay in November. The seasons changing reminds me of God’s faithfulness and the blessings that arrive with each anticipated change in the weather. I am equally happy with a cozy, gray, rainy day indoors as I am with a day of chilly blue sky and sunshine. Each has a purpose. Each season is meaningful.

Graham’s first biome project in science!

Another weekend, another party! This time with donuts!

The only ones at the Cove! A perk of traveling in October.

The Painted Hills in the John Day Fossil Beds

There is a light snow on the golf course in this picture. It made for a steamy outdoor swim.

The birthday boy at the movies to see *The Wild Robot*

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Happy October! (aka Birthday Month) October 9, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 2:07 pm

October is here! Hip hip hooray! It’s my absolute favorite month of the year! I am an autumn enthusiast. Fall outings are the best and it’s birthday month for my boys. It feels like the whole month is one big celebration filled with fun. It’s hard not to love a month that feels like one giant party!

Last Thursday was a great family day. Jeremy and Papa were able to watch the boys at soccer in the morning and then our family took off for an afternoon spent at some local farms. We visited Rutledge Family Farm and did their corn maze. We found all the checkpoints in the maze and played their Who-Done-It game for the first time. After learning Clue this fall, the kids loved the mystery in the corn maze. They also loved all the extra games set-up outside the corn maze. Our next stop was Lattin’s Country Cider Mill and Farm. We always enjoy looking at the animals and grabbing a sweet treat from the bakery case.

Sunday, we hosted a Scott family shindig to celebrate the boys’ birthdays. We did an ice cream sundae bar this year. The kids each got to pick their favorite flavors of ice cream and I had fun trying to come up with as my toppings as I could. The kids enjoyed playing soccer with our extended family. The ice cream helped them all cool down after a good game. Then it was present time where Nerf guns were the theme this year. Of course, new Nerf guns meant a Nerf war with the cousins was next on the agenda. Add some pizza and another round of soccer and you have one epic birthday celebration!

Monday was another big day – Owen got his braces off! After a year of being a metal mouth, he is finally in the home stretch of his orthodontic journey. He still has his lower palate expander in – it should come out next week when he picks up his retainer. It’s been a wild ride and I’ve been so proud of Owen through it all. Monday night, we were able to see the northern lights from our backyard. We missed the big event in May and we’ve been hopeful that another opportunity would happen. It finally did! It was such a neat experience. I couldn’t stop taking pictures!

Yesterday was Owen’s 11th birthday! Jeremy was able to take the day off. He joined us in celebrating Owen all day long. Our morning was spent at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery. We visited the hatchery as a homeschool co-op field trip a couple of years ago and Owen wanted to see the salmon again. It’s a fascinating place to explore during the fall salmon run. In the afternoon, we met up with our co-op at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. It was a day filled with fish and wildlife which perfectly reflects Owen’s love of nature. Dominos pizza, Safeway chocolate cake, and a big bowl of popcorn completed Owen’s birthday celebration.

Every day feels like an adventure in October! I’ll be back with more autumn activities and birthday celebrations soon!

Blackberry Cobbler! Gotta love fall flavors!

My first time seeing the northern lights! So beautiful!

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Autumn Adventures! September 28, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Travels — Amy Scott @ 1:41 pm

Autumn is my favorite season. I could be done with my blog in just that one sentence. But… that isn’t how I roll and you know it! Autumn is my favorite season for adventuring. I love fall activities and there is a sense of making the most of the good weather before the rain settles in for what feels like forever. Late September and the month of October hold my favorite traditions and outings! Lots of fun to be had!

Jeremy wrapped up his hunting season on Thursday, September 19th. He is more in sync with our family schedule again. It’s good to have him back! We planned a family adventure for the next day after hunting season. We visited a local zoo thanks to free tickets from our library summer reading program. We had the zoo mostly to ourselves. Homeschooling gives us the ability to visit places while others are at work or school and I love avoiding crowds! In fact, we talked to a lot of zoo employees because we were the only ones around. It was also a cool, misty morning. In the PNW, weather can also keep crowds away. The animal must love mornings like that, though, because they were all out and active! We saw animals we don’t usually see, like the Arctic foxes. The red wolves and clouded leopard were actively running around their enclosures. It was worth adventuring on a chilly morning to see active animals.

The zoo kicked off a busy week for our family. September was very quiet and then bam! For one week, it was not quiet at all! Friday was the zoo and we ran errands while in town. I came home in time to turn around for book club on Friday night. Saturday was a full day at church for our annual Women’s Conference. This year I led a crafting workshop after lunch. My hope was a simple craft would be a good outlet for ladies to sit, chat, and connect. I believe my mission was accomplished! Sunday afternoon after church, our church staff stayed to have lunch together, watch the Seahawks, and play games. Monday was the beginning of our annual staff retreat for Jeremy. I wasn’t able to attend on Monday, so I hosted a playdate at our house after school. Tuesday, I joined Jeremy for staff retreat… and by Wednesday, I was a bit peopled-out. I stayed home all day and recovered from all the activity!

Friday is our favorite day for family adventures. Yesterday, we visited Mt. Rainier National Park. We were a little early for all the fall color, but we were early enough that the marmots weren’t hibernating yet (we missed them last October). We also found a black bear foraging for berries. We weren’t disappointed that it was cool and cloudy. The animal sightings made up for missing a clear view of the mountain and the autumn colors were lovely. The mountain did emerge just before we left. It’s always an impressive sight! We love having a national park so close by!

That about sums up our September outings. I’m looking forward to all we have planned for October. The combination of birthday month and favorite fall traditions makes for the best month of the year! It’s almost here. Hooray!

Beautiful flowers that my mother-in-law grew and arranged! So talented!

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium – The walrus was so friendly!

Cute little Baby Boos my mom shared with me!

Mt. Rainier National Park – I took so many marmot pictures! Ha!

Mt. Rainier National Park – a pretty place to wander!

Mt. Rainier National Park – the mountain emerged from the clouds!

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You Know It’s September When… September 18, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats — Amy Scott @ 1:37 pm

All the signs of September are here! Back to school, apple and pumpkin treats, fall decorating… and a big shift in our family schedule – hunting season! For as long as I’ve known my husband, he has spent a good chunk of September in the woods with a bow in his hands. He has shared his love for archery with our boys as well. Jeremy’s hunting days start early and can end late, but he lets the boys tagalong on the evening hunts if it works in our schedule. They love the adventures with Dad and I love quiet evenings at home with a book. It’s a win-win!

Another very September activity is upon us – soccer season! We haven’t participated in organized sports before. The main reason we’ve avoided sports is the schedule. It just feels a bit too much for our family. Thankfully, there is a local homeschool group that meets only once a week for soccer. It’s a little over an hour of soccer drills and scrimmaging. We invested in soccer gear and showed up to the fields for the first time last week. At first, the boys were super nervous. Doing new things can be intimating, even for me! Once they were on the field, they were all smiles. They left saying how they can’t wait to go back and they’ve mentioned that sentiment multiple times over the week. I’m so glad it was a positive experience for them. I finally joined the ranks of being a soccer mom!

Around the house, we’ve been playing Clue and Labyrinth often. They are the current go-to games for our family. Owen just happily finished up the How to Train Your Dragon book series. Graham has been my blackberry picking buddy around our property. Jeremy has been kind enough to assist us grabbing the blackberries we cannot reach. Owen has jumped in a few times to help us, too. It’s been a family effort! I made a blueberry cobbler this week and I plan to make a blackberry crisp soon with our freshly collected berries. I also have a hoard of frozen raspberries I need to start daydreaming about! Yay for berry season!

Our homeschool co-op shifted it’s format this year. We went from meeting weekly the last couple years, to twice a month (at least for the fall, maybe for the whole school year). With adding soccer this fall, the change in our co-op schedule gives us some extra margin. It’s been appreciated. Our co-op met for a social gathering at the start of September and again yesterday, for a nature walk around a local lake. It was a gray day, but perfect for fresh air and exercise with friends. My heart was especially happy as we walked through spots on the trail with leaves falling gently like autumn confetti. So pretty!

There you have it! It’s definitely September! It’s been a good back-to-school transition. We’re loving our homeschool activities and the boys are enjoying the nature adventures with Jeremy. The first official day of autumn is this coming weekend, but we’ve been living in fall mode all month long. Good times!

All smiles after their first soccer practice

My food photography skills are not so great, but thankfully, my baking skills are better! Blueberry cobbler – yum!

A lovely, gray day for a PNW nature walk

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Back to School 2024 September 7, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats — Amy Scott @ 12:36 pm

We got back from the our beach vacation on a Monday and dove into our new school year that Wednesday! It was a quick flip from summer vacation mode to school mode. Thankfully, we get back into our school year groove fairly easily. Our daily flow has served us well and I haven’t had to tweak it much year to year. Back-to-school feels a lot like falling back into a familiar routine. We’ve got this! It’s always neat to see how the kiddos have grown year to year with first day of school pictures. As a homeschool family, we don’t have “school picture day” like public school. I try to get a good photo of each boy on the first day of school to use as their version of a school picture.

I realize that the first day of autumn isn’t until September 22nd and we started school at the end of August. We are technically still in the summer season (and the weather in the PNW reflects that). There is something about the start of school and Labor Day weekend that triggers all the fall feels for me. I don’t have a ton of autumn décor, but it all comes out at the start of September. I find it’s a visual switch to a new season. Pops of orange are found in my throw pillows, kitchen hand towel, and tablecloth. I added pumpkin hand soaps in orange bottles to all the bathrooms. A few pumpkin and thankful decorations are out. By decorating for the fall season early, I don’t feel bad heading into Christmas mode by the middle(ish) of November. Many think it’s wrong to decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving, but I am not one of them. Autumn gets to shine to for 2.5 months at my house. Christmas is welcome to have a solid 1.5 months of display time!

While I revel in fall colors, I also adore fall flavors! I’m one of those crazy pumpkin spice lovers and I’m proud of it! Just yesterday at Costco, I stocked up on pumpkin quick bread mix and pumpkin muffins! Yum! I also did a baking project this week with my favorite sugar cookies. I made apple cookies (vanilla in flavor, apple in appearance). October is the perfect month to showcase pumpkins and September feels an apple month to me. I have been eyeing some blackberries at the end of my driveway as well. After this heat wave passes, I hope to do some berry-picking. All I need is enough blackberries to make a crisp and my fall taste buds will be happy campers!

October is by far my favorite month of the year, but the hints of autumn that come in September also make my heart happy. We had a lovely summer, but I am ready to shift gears into school mode again. I am so grateful for the opportunity to homeschool my boys. Right now with Owen starting his 5th grade year, I would just like to freeze time. Elementary school as been the absolute best and I am not ready for this window of time to pass. I have a feeling I will remember our elementary school homeschool adventures with fondness for the rest of my days.

When you buy non-sporty kids soccer goals and they pretend it’s a prison…

Teaching the boys Clue for the first time

First Day of Co-Op! We did a social gathering with board games, a paper airplane flying contest, water balloon toss, and playground time! It was a blast!

I stocked up on pumpkin treats and autumn tablecloths yesterday!

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June Highlights! June 25, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Travels — Amy Scott @ 2:10 pm

June has been such a good mix of adventure and rest. We’ve been able to do some summer school, hang out with friends, see family, go on adventures, and just enjoy time around our house. Good times all around. This June feels a little quieter than summers past and honestly, that’s fine. It’s been a good balance. Here are some of the June highlights since my last post.

We enjoyed taking Jeremy and my dad out to dinner for Father’s Day. We went to a local Chinese restaurant our family loves. It was a fun family outing and a tasty meal! The boys and I met up with my forever friend, Christa, for an adventure at the Bill Frank Jr. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. This is an excellent location for birding and a fun walk to the Puget Sound. It was a cool, calm day and perfect for an outdoor outing. The fun with friends continued for me with a co-op planning meeting and book club this week. I love getting together with my mom friend community!

Friday, we visited the Oregon Zoo as a family. The black bears, polar bears, and tigers were active! The zoo is always a favorite summer activity. We stopped at IKEA on the way home and got a new cabinet for our dining room. I’ve been dreaming of storing board games near our dining room table to make game play easier. Grabbing a game will be simple and having board games on display in our living space shares one of our family values – playing together! I love how it turned out! Also, super thankful for Jeremy and the boys, who built it while I was at book club. It was a wonderful surprise to come home to!

My parents bought us a flat of local strawberries, so we’ve been baking treats and eating strawberries with almost every meal. YUM! We’ve had a streak of warmer weather and the backyard pool has been greatly appreciated for cooling down. The boys enjoyed a playdate with friends yesterday. They ran around in the woods behind our house for hours making up an imaginary kingdom. These summery moments are some of my favorites. Yummy treats, fun outings, time with family and friends… We are grateful and loving these summer days!

Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

It’s always a good day when you need a cart at IKEA!

Our new board game cabinet! I plan to put a plant behind the “Gather Around” sign to finish the look.

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Another School Year Ends May 27, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures — Amy Scott @ 10:10 am

Our 2023-2024 homeschool year came to a close this last week!!! Every year I’m amazed at what we accomplished. It’s a team effort, for sure. I love being a part of my kids’ education. The end of the school year is just as much a celebration for me as it is for the boys. We all worked hard for the end goal!

It’s always my plan to finish our 36-week curriculum before Memorial Day. The “unofficial start of summer” seems like a good time to wrap up a school year. I wasn’t sure we would make that goal this year. Our Yellowstone road trip was fairly spontaneous and I didn’t have that time factored into the school calendar. Owen was ahead in school and even with the trip, he was on course to finish by Memorial Day. Graham couldn’t be left behind. He did a mad dash in the last two weeks of the school year and caught up. It was nice to have the boys finish at the same time.

What’s next? This week will be year end assessments. We use an online, standardize test. Owen is a pro, but this will be Graham’s first time. In June, we’ll start our summer school schedule. I never thought we would become year-round homeschoolers, but the concept as grown on me. We just wrapped up our 2nd and 4th grade curriculum and we will ease into our 3rd and 5th curriculum over the summer. If things go as planned, the boys will have a month off at the end of July into August. They’ll be able to enjoy a camping trip, summer camp, and a vacation to the beach without school in the mix. This gives them (and me) a chance at a summer break!

Finishing the school year has been the big focus since we arrived home from our Yellowstone road trip. We got home late on the Saturday before Mother’s Day. I spent Mother’s Day reclaiming the laundry room and getting us settled. To avoid making myself breakfast on Mother’s Day, I picked up gas station Cinnabon on our way home from Idaho. It wasn’t a classy Mother’s Day, but it was just the day we needed to recover from such a grand adventure.

Jeremy has jumped into reclaiming the yard and getting it summer ready! He’s spent a good portion of this holiday weekend purchasing plants and getting them into their new homes in our yard. He’s mowed, weeded, and spread fresh beauty bark. He’s spent some time in his garden and he built a new shade canopy for our back deck. He is super industrious! I helped him wipe down our patio furniture. I removed an absurd layer of pollen from everything. The yard is definitely looking good! With our lighter school schedule right around the corner, I’m looking forward to all the backyard hangouts that will start filling up our calendar. Now if only the PNW weather would get the memo that we’re ready for summer!

11 hours of laundry… The price we pay for adventuring. Totally worth it!

Making sure I didn’t have to make my own breakfast on Mother’s Day!

How is another school year behind us? Can we freeze time right here, please?!

His elementary school years are flying by in a blink!

Graham is my squinty kid! We had to move inside to take his picture because the cloudy day was too bright!

Celebration cacti? Haha! Such a silly year-end treat!

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Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks Road Trip May 15, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Travels — Amy Scott @ 12:42 pm

Our family just returned from a somewhat-spur-of-the-moment road trip through Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. We did a similar trip in August of 2020 and we loved it so much that we decided to do it again! It was fun to return with older kiddos and not in pandemic conditions. Also, there is a big difference in the weather between May and August! We saw so much snow on this trip! It was crazy… and cold!

The highlight of the trip was definitely animal spotting. Jeremy and the boys had a bucket list of animals they wanted to see and I’m happy to say we achieved success! We saw a thousand elk and bison. No joke! So many! We saw six grizzly bears, a black bear, two foxes, a marmot, a snowshoe hare, a herd of big horn sheep, eight coyotes (three of which were pups), and a moose! The favorite animal find was the Junction Butte wolf pack in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone. The first time we found the pack, we could only see them through the spotting scope. The second time we found them, they were much closer and they even howled! The eerie part was hearing the other half of the pack respond behind us. We were literally surrounded by wolves! Thankfully, they were at a safe distance, so we weren’t in any danger.

Animals might have been the highlight of the trip for the boys, but the geysers and geothermal features of Yellowstone were greatly appreciated as well! We saw Old Faithful erupt five different times and we happened to be in the right place at the right time to watch Riverside Geyser erupt. We all were in awe of the many bubbling and splashing springs. The colors in the different pools are beautiful and steaming geyser basins are endlessly fascinating. Any thermal feature that didn’t have a name plaque in front of it was “officially” named by the Scott boys. In 2020, the visitor centers weren’t open, so it was neat to explore and learn more about the parks at these locations. The boys also became Junior Rangers at Yellowstone for a second time.

Our visit to Grand Teton National park worked out perfectly with the weather. We had cloudy, snow days at Yellowstone, but we had blue skies at Grand Teton NP. The mountains are breathtaking and we were glad they weren’t hidden behind clouds! We stopped at Jenny Lake because it was a favorite from our last visit. It was surprising how much snow was still on the ground and how much ice was over the lake. We took a short walk beside lake and we were sliding over deep snow patches between sections of bare pavement. The snow and ice didn’t keep us from enjoying our time, though! We also visited Mormon Row on this trip through the park. We missed this site last time. It’s a small road with old barns left behind by Mormon settlers. The barns with the majestic mountains in the background are an iconic photo opp for the park. It was neat to see them in-person.

We made one final scenic stop on our way home at Shoshone Falls outside of Twin Falls, ID. This waterfall was one I’d planned to visit before and those plans didn’t pan out. It was rewarding to finally make it there! And the waterfall was beautiful! In fact, I would say that the waterfalls we saw on the trip were some of my favorite stops even if they were quick! We saw Undine Falls, Gibbon Falls, the Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, Firehole Falls, and finally Shoshone Falls.

We are so thankful we had this opportunity as a family to explore such a beautiful and awe-inspiring part of God’s creation! There really is no place quite like Yellowstone! The kids enjoyed a week off of school, but really the whole week was like one field trip after another. My love of field trips is deep! Now to start daydreaming about (and saving for) our next National Park adventure!

The Daily Adventure Breakdown:

Monday: The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT
Tuesday: Yellowstone – Lamar Valley, Mammoth Hot Springs, Norris Geyser Basin
Wednesday: Yellowstone – Fountain Paint Pot Trail, Midway Geyser Basin (Grand Prismatic Spring), Old Faithful, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (Upper & Lower Falls), Hayden Valley
Thursday: Yellowstone – Biscuit Basin, Upper Geyser Basin (Old Faithful x 3), Black Sand Basin, Lamar Valley
Friday: Leaving Yellowstone – Firehole Canyon Drive, Old Faithful, Grand Teton National Park – Colter Bay, Jackson Lake, Jenny Lake, Mormon Row, Moose-Wilson Road
Saturday: Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, ID and Hermiston, OR Les Schwab to fix a flat tire!