Youth Retreat 2012

This past November, I had the wonderful opportunity to travel with my new church to north Minnesota. I say north instead of northern, because we seriously were on the tip of the state, almost in Canada. :P At first I was really nervous for the trip because I didn't meet a lot of people yet. Like I said, I was new to the church. Looking back on the trip though, it was a trip of a lifetime. I had so much fun. I absolutely loved the simplicity of life up north. Let my pictures tell you about some of our adventures...

Adventures around Lake Superior.

{Almost} all of the girls that went on the trip.

Trips to different light houses... some being at 10pm at night, with no light, standing on a 3-foot slab of concrete, with no railing, surrounded by water...

The option of going in Lake Superior in November.... let me remind you were are in Minnesota. I didn't go in. 

Food combination testing...

Yummy pizza places

Hike to Gooseberry Falls

P.S. This is my 200th post! Thank you to ALL of you who follow and comment! You inspire me so much!

Miscellaneous Rambings

Hi all! :) Sorry I completely abandoned my blog for over a week. It was state testing week, so I had to make sure I got to bed early. Also, I had my last volleyball tournament. I've been playing volleyball almost nonstop since November, and now I'm done. I can't wait to start enjoying the break! :P

1. Flowers 

Flowers are blooming everywhere. It makes me in such a good mood! :D Sadly, most of the flowers blooming are NOT in my yard yet, so I have to settle for taking pictures at other people's houses. 

2. Dandelions

 Not only are flowers blooming, but so are dandelions, and trust me, these are in my yard! :P

3. Rain

It's been raining a TON this week. One morning, it even snowed. :/

4. Volleyball

Like I said before, I had my last volleyball tournament. It was a very sad day. :'( {you can tell because all of our make-up was washed away from tears} I've been playing with these girls since 5th grade and next year, we are all splitting up. We'll all be going to different high schools. (my school only goes up to grade 8) So yah, it was sad for us. 

5. Sunsets + Buildings

After volleyball on Thursday, there was the prettiest sunset. Not only was it SO amazingly beautiful, but it made all of the buildings around us look really cool too. I pulled out my camera and tried to capture a few photos.

I hope you all are having a great weekend! :D

Beginning of Spring

I go outside in the beginning of spring,

I can't wait to see what this season brings.

It could be good, it could be bad,

I just sit, listen, and be glad.

The wind is blowing, 

The trees are growing.

The birds are flying,

Kids are cycling.

I look up and see the sky

and thank the special Guy,

who made the heavens and the earth,

everything begins its rebirth.

 Birds chirping all day long,

I can't help, but join along.

This wind is sweet,

out goes the sleet!

I go outside in the beginning of spring,

I can't wait to see what this season brings!

By Madie M.

Spring 2012

Miscellaneous Ramblings

1) Babysitting 

<That girl is SO cute! That picture was taken the day after her 4th (?) birthday.  I've been babysitting a lot lately before school starts. One family has me come a few times a week in the morning, which I absolutely love! I mean, babysitting is SO fun! And, it's a good job to get money toward a new camera.

2) August skies

 The sky is August is always SO pretty! So many vivid colors. This is a daily thing, it's always pretty.

  3) Swimming

<That picture was taken at my neighbors new pool! I babysit for they're three kids all the time and I was SO excited to swim in they're pool because seriously, it is amazing!

 4) Lovely flowers

A lot of flowers are blooming at my house right now. This flower is one of them. I honestly love this picture! I love the edit, the flower, the bokeh, the crop, everything!

  5) Random pictures of my towel

I got bored on the way home from Wisconsin Dells, so I ended up taking a lot of random pictures of my towel. :P 

  6) Summer umbrellas 

 This picture was also taken at the Wisconsin Dells, but I think it could apply for anywhere/anyone. If you didn't already notice, I miss that place. Now I'm stuck at home doing hardly nothing.

 7) Doing things I really shouldn't do...

Long story short: our teacher said, "I don't care what you do with your workbook... You can throw it away, recycle it, burn it, whatever." So I burned it. 

Disclaimer: I had adult supervision.  

 8) My school's ice cream social

Every year my school has an ice cream social where students and their families go to this one park, play, and eat ice cream! :-) Nothing like free ice cream, right? 

  9) I didn't do it!

It's a LONG story....

 10) Denim

That picture is of a pair of jean shorts that I wear all. the. time. They are very comfortable and I really shouldn't wear them to school, even though I have. :D  

Wisconsin Dells|August 2011

 If you didn't already know, I was just at Wisconsin Dells over the weekend. It was really fun! Here are a few pictures!

 Wood roller coasters. They were really scary! One of them went under ground and I seriously thought I broke my back on that one because it hurt so badly.

 Architecture that is supposed to look ancient, but really felt like Styrofoam! The theme of the whole place is ancient gods and goddesses.

 Race cars... I totally forget what they're called. It was my first time and people called me a grandma because I drove so slow!

 I huge tidal wave! I was freaked out to go right in the front, but I got pretty close!

 I went with my girl scout troop and those two are two of my good girl scout buddies! They did "The Almighty Hermes."

 Water slides. The water slides were probably my favorite part! They were SO much fun!

^That was where we stayed: The Mykonos Village

I have a TON of other pictures, but I thought I shouldn't share them because I took about 100 a day. So, that would be a lot of pictures to post!

Have you been to Wisconsin Dells? If so, where did you stay?

A Mysterious Adventure

A few weeks ago, I went to my cousins house for a few days while my parents were out of town. When we got there, we dropped our stuff right by the door, hugged everyone, pet the dog, and started playing wii. After like a half an hour, my aunt came downstairs {where we were} and told us to put our shoes on because we were going on an adventure. She would not tell us where we were going! So we went to get some gas in the car and then out to lunch.

After lunch we went to the Bell Museum.

 Okay, gross!!!

 The sign below explains the picture above.

After the Bell Museum, we went into the building below...

VIA

...to see the Exploradome.

 The next morning we went to the Washington County Fair. I couldn't help NOT taking pictures of these cute animals!

 Do you see her tongue?

 ^That is the new hair style everyone! :P

 I think bunnies are SO cute!

What a pretty animal!

 After the fair, we went swimming!!!

 Waterproof cameras are amazing!

 I tried to get half the camera above water and half under water. Hot or not?

 My awesome cousin Eva.

 And again.

 My toes under water.

^Those are my new best friends. They were so much fun.

The next day we went to ^that^ very good restaurant.

And we had, their "famous" Hersey's chocolate shakes! YUM!

It truly was an adventure, wasn't it? Do you go on "adventures" like that one?