Jennifer Lambert

A Sacred Balance

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Burr Oak Review

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September 5, 2022 By Jennifer Lambert 3 Comments

We have been wanting to get out and explore some natural wonders of Ohio and I’m so glad we chose Burr Oak!

We haven’t gone on a real trip in so long.

There have been significant obstacles to our traveling these last few years: various unexpected expenses, sprained ankles and a broken leg!, COVID restrictions, my husband’s retirement and new job, extracurricular classes, my son’s elite baseball schedule, and my teen’s part-time job.

While waiting for a time of calm, I realized I just had to jump at a weekend that looked somewhat open and have my people ask off work for a few days.

We rented a cabin at Burr Oak National Park.

My husband actually called them to book the reservation after I had trouble with their online site. They have lots of deals for veterans and teachers and we got a free night for staying three nights. There are fun packages too.

We drove through Hocking Hills and hit three major sites on the way to our cabin.

The cabins are newly remodeled and worked fine for us.

One bedroom with a queen bed and another bedroom with two bunk sets. The one bathroom was small but it worked out. We never have enough towels and there was nowhere to really hang them.

There’s a lovely screened in back porch with a little cast iron bistro table and two chairs and I ate my breakfast our there every morning.

We brought some basics to make meals just like we eat at home. I brought my rice cooker, water cooker and teapot for tea, and my favorite frying pan and knives. My husband brought his pour-over for his coffee. We brought olive oil, an onion, minced garlic, butter, and salt, pepper, and Italian spice grinders. I now know to bring lemon juice next time. We missed it.

I packed coolers with marinated meats for the grill and zucchini from our garden. We had burgers and dogs with chips, Asian steak and rice, and chicken breasts with boiled potatoes.

We brought room temp farm eggs from our egg lady, bacon and sausage, and pancake mix for breakfasts.

The kitchen was ok. I don’t mind hand washing dishes. The stove and oven worked great. There weren’t any spatulas and we don’t like plastic cups. There was no bakeware so I had to buy some aluminum pans.

We went to the little Kroger in the nearby town of Glouster and bought sponges and cups and spatulas. We got fixings for sandwiches and salad and donuts.

We rented a pontoon and kayaks. Neither my kids nor my husband had ever been boating and they all loved it! They are first come, first served, so it’s best to get to the rental dock early. We got the last pontoon and kayaks our second day – whew!

The lake is lovely and easy to navigate for beginners. The lodge had a beautiful view from the deck and from the water.

We saw so many herons – blue and green! We saw ducks and turtles. The American lilies were in bloom. We even saw an osprey dive down for a fish!

Tori and I kayaked all over the lake, and then we met up with my husband and other two kids in the pontoon for lunch.

We were so tickled by this picnic table right in the lake by a tiny little sandy beach. It was a perfect spot to rest for a bit.

Akantha and Alex wanted to try the kayaks and they realized very quickly how much work it is!

We were all so excited to see the American water lilies in bloom. They smell heavenly and are a lovely source of food for their lotus pods with seeds, and their roots.

The lily pads are HUGE. Like humongous, some almost a yard across. They float but are attached to their tuber root down in the mud.

The white lilies have long stalks above the water.

The pink lilies have shorter stalks and there is another much smaller lily in among the big ones that might be a different species.

Tori caught the only fish from the pontoon, when we anchored near the lilies. She was proud of this catfish and I taught them how to remove it without getting stung – by wrapping him in a towel. He was a feisty bugger.

I used to fish from boats and shore at Lake Allatoona every summer with my Aunt Betty and she taught me everything she knew.

Our last evening, we fished off the little dock by the lodge and Alex caught fish after fish – all little ones but he was so happy!

While we ate our dinners in our cabin, I took the kids to the lodge restaurant for cake after dinner and we got to enjoy the view and sunset. There’s a full bar and the bartender is just lovely. The wait staff gets a little overwhelmed. The menu has pizza and barbecue and apparently a lovely breakfast bar on weekends.

We enjoyed our short time at Burr Oak and it was a lovely respite after COVID restrictions and isolation and a last hurrah before the hustle and bustle of autumn.

Linking up: Eclectic Red Barn, OMHG, Slices of Life Katherine’s Corner, Penny’s Passion, LouLou Girls, Jenerally Informed, Shelbee on the Edge, God’s Growing Garden, Simply Coffee, Answer is Choco, Momfessionals, CWJ, Being a Wordsmith, Modern Monticello Homestead, Fluster Buster, Ducks in a Row, Pinch of Joy, Create with Joy, Mostly Blogging, Suburbia, Silverado, Grammy’s Grid, Ridge Haven, Pieced Pastimes, Pam’s Party, Random Musings,

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Filed Under: Ohio, Travel, USA Tagged With: camping, familytravel, ohio, review, statepark, travel

Antelope Island Camping

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August 29, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 7 Comments

Liz had a Civil Air Patrol campout at Antelope Island – with astronomy and activities.

We came along with the rest of the family “to help.”

Her squadron got the group campsite.

And see stars, baby!

Tori and Kate loved exploring the field.

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It was hot and sunny when we arrived.

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Evidence of bison was present.

Hoof prints!

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Several ant habitats were discovered.

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Pretty pink rocks were loved.

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The clouds and sunset were stunning over the hills.

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I’m pretty sure there was a coyote down on the beach…

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The sun going to sleep

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My little airman cadet lined up to check in.

Cadet Airman

The girls ready to go see the moon and stars.

I printed the night sky printable for the girls to use. There are oodles of great printables in the Outdoor Hour Challenges.

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Here’s what the sky looked like for us. The clouds obscured lots.

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A close-up. Through the telescope, we got to see the craters and shadow line. Amazing.

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The Ogden Astronomical Society had several really cool, really expensive telescopes set up for the public to look through at all the lovely celestial bodies.

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We used this one most because the owner was super nice and accommodating with our kids. We saw the moon and Saturn and Venus. Then the clouds moved in and they were tired and we called it a night.

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When we got back to the tent, my husband and I sat looking up and noticed a satellite. It was the International Space Station! Check out the tracker.

Good morning. We had all kinds of critters roaming and playing in the morning.

Antelope on the hilltop…

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A jackrabbit right by our tent.

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Bison right beside the road.

After we cleared out, we headed down to the Great Salt Lake to explore.

It was low and the beach showed dried salt.

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The kids love the little red brine shrimp.

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Shore bird prints

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The shrimp ride the waves over the rocks

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As we were driving off the island, we spotted burrowing owls! Very near the main road too.

I would love to go back and camp on the other side of the island, nearer the beach so the kids could play more. It is gorgeous here!

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Filed Under: Utah Tagged With: bison, camping, Civil Air Patrol, nature study, Utah

Beach Unit Study

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July 29, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 5 Comments

This month for Poppins Book Nook, the theme is Beach and Ocean.

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It’s kinda hard to teach about beaches in the landlocked state of Utah.

We went to a reservoir camping and they had a rocky beach and the kids had loads of fun. It wasn’t the ocean, but the kids got to play and didn’t notice really.

Liz with her friend in the water.

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I just loved this view!

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It was too rocky to go barefoot! Alex and Tori loved collecting pretty rocks. Alex put them in his pocket for her!

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Dad got some great portraits of the kids!

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Tori’s eyes are sensitive to the bright light.

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I got to go kayaking!

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My baby boy

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We read lots of books from the library and our shelves and talked about the ocean.

Alex doesn’t remember when we lived in Hawaii for three years, but the girls do.

Resources:

  • Gift of Curiosity Beach pack
  • 3 Dinosaurs Beach pack
  • 3 Dinosaurs Ocean pack
  • Homeschool Creations ocean pack
  • 1+1+1=1 girly ocean pack
  • Itsy Bitsy Learners Under the Sea
  • 2 Teaching Mommies Ocean unit
  • Hello Ocean lapbook
  • Mr. Seahorse unit
  • Deep Blue Sea Kindergarten Kit
  • Jenny’s Surprise Summer unit (we have Kittens for Keeps)
ProSchool Membership - Productive HomeschoolingVisit the other bloggers in Poppins Book Nook to see how they learned about the beach and ocean this month.
Enchanted Homeschooling Mom – Royal Baloo – 3 Dinosaurs – Monsters Ed – Chestnut Grove Academy – Growing in God’s Grace – Royal Little Lambs – Life with Moore Babies – Teach Beside Me – The Usual Mayhem – Mum Central – Fantastic Fun and Learning – Kathys Cluttered Mind – Play Create Explore – Toddler Approved – Growing Book by Book – Adventures in Mommydom – B-Inspired Mama – The Fairy and The Frog – Edventures with Kids – Learning & Growing the Piwi way – A Gluten Free Journey – Mom to Crazy Monkeys – No Doubt Learning – Preschool Powol Packets – To The Moon and Back – Our Craft ~N~ Things – Farm Fresh Adventures – Proverbial Homemaker – Look Were Learning
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Filed Under: Poppins Book Nook Tagged With: beach, camping, PoppinsBookNook

Utah Wildflowers

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June 26, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 7 Comments

We went camping and got these lovely Utah wildflower pictures!

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Alex wanted to climb the hill.

hiking in the desert

Look at this beauty on the beach!

orange desert flowers

yucca

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blooming in the rocks

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fuzzy buds

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yellow wonder

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windblown tree

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prickly pear cactus with buds

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a kind of moss

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a lovely succulent flowering

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deer prints. big ones.

deer prints

I think the deer slept here

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precious little desert daisy

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love yellow!

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almost ready to burst

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and here’s one who couldn’t hold it in any longer

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lovely lichen on rocks

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yellow daisy-like flowers

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Here’s the view from the top of the hill. Lovely! That’s our campsite with friends. We have the white truck.

campers

Do your own wildflower study!
We love notebooking about nature!

Flowers and Weeds Notebooking Pages
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Filed Under: Utah Tagged With: botany, camping, desert, flowers, hiking, nature study, Utah

Our Camping Trip

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June 3, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 3 Comments

For Memorial Day weekend, we rented a camping trailer and went to Starvation Reservoir with friends. It was so much fun!

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It took no time at all for the kids to get in their swimsuits and head to the beach!

I bought some new sand toys just for this trip, and you can see they’re a hit!

Look at that amazing sunset with the mountains!

gorgeous sunset at Starvation State Park

One of our friends brought their new canoe and kayak. The kids had a blast trying those out! Kate did really well paddling!

canoeing at Starvation State Park

Liz and Kate took Alex out in the canoe. I’m pretty sure he thinks he’s a Hawaiian king or something.

happy canoer

Liz took Alex out in the kayak. He asked me when we got home and unloaded where his yellow boat was! He didn’t understand that it was our friend’s. He thought it was ours. I guess we should look into getting one!

kayaking siblings

Kate blew bubbles while waiting on dinner.

blowing bubbles

There was a great little hill the kids enjoyed hiking and exploring. We saw deer prints, lizards, and a rabbit!

hiking in the desert

Stay tuned for our nature study post about all the great plants and moss we saw on our hike! The flowers in the first picture were from my kids on their hikes.

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Here’s the view of our campsites from the top of the hill. We have the white truck. The truck camper and green tent on the left belonged to our canoe and kayak friends. The RV with the blue awning belongs to our other friends. We had 5 couples and 10 kids!

campers

Our friends also had 2 fishing boats. The kids  (and Aaron) loved that!

Alex’s first fishing trip. Look at that fish!

first fish

Tori’s an old pro. She loves fishing and went whenever she could.

fishing girl

Alex didn’t stay awake to tell me about it.

worn out after fishing

I took the kayak to the other side of the reservoir to explore the rock formations and a couple of the guys (with Tori and two other girls) “rescued” me with the fishing boat. Apparently, telling Kate where I was going wasn’t good enough since no one knew where I or the kayak were. They brought me back to the dock. and I earned my call sign: “Kayak.” My husband and the other guys were in the other fishing boat until much later that day and that was the funny story of the weekend.

We’re already planning more camping trips over the summer. The kids had so much fun!
We love camping!

Check out my camping Pinterest board.

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Filed Under: Utah Tagged With: camping, fishing, summer, Utah

Pineview Reservoir Nature Study

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August 8, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

We got to experience nature up close and personal when we went camping!

Here was our little buddy. He wasn’t shy at all! He wasn’t even bothered when we made a fire in the pit. He sniffed around looking for scraps.

Chipmunk

Just a little walk and we found ourselves at this glorious creek. The water was icy cold, but that didn’t stop the kids from playing in it! Several of the older kids caught some brook trout too!

Creek
Creek path

Lovely wildflowers abounded all over the campground and trails.

Wildflower
Wildflowers

Just look at that view! There was a great no wake reservoir with trout. I didn’t catch anything though. The kids loved trying to fish. You can also see the lovely storm coming in that drenched us for a few minutes.

Pineview Utah

I love how lush and green the mountains are. We saw deer too!

Pineview Reservoir Utah

Here’s the road that led from the campground to the lake. Christmas trees!

Path to the Pineview Campground

I had great fun examining the thistles on the lakeshore, just buzzing with bees. Did you know there are about 33 different species of bees native to Utah? It is the Beehive State!

There are 3,500 species of bees in the U.S. and 20,000 species in the world.

Bee on a Thistle

See the different stripes and shape of the abdomens?

Another Bee on a Thistle

Hi there!

Thistle with Bee

It was exciting to see wild raspberries all over the campground and near the lakeshore!

Raspberries

Here’s the view from the other side of the lake. I love the clouds in this shot reflecting in the water. It was so gorgeous and peaceful here!

Cloudy Lake

We went kayaking too. The girls could really handle their own kayak and now we want our own! We definitely look forward to camping again. It’s like nature study in a bundle. It was so nice to be without electronics. We didn’t even have a cell signal.

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Filed Under: Utah Tagged With: camping, nature study, summer, Utah

Our First Camping Trip

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July 31, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

We went on our first family camping trip with our church this past weekend.

Aaron didn’t grow up doing the camping fishing thing. I did. It’s taken me this long to get him to try it!

Our First Camping Trip was a huge success!

Nice clean and cute kiddos when we first arrived at the campground. Minutes later, they were muddy and wet. Super!
Clean Girl
Clean Boy

Queen of the rock:
Queen of the Rock

The kids found their own rock.

Kids on the Rock

Alex loved being outside all. the. time.

Outside Time

Our tent we rented from Outdoor Rec. on base

Our Tent

First morning:

Aaron went fishing in a boat with some guys at 0630. Liz disappeared from camp before the kids and I got up. Story: She banged on the neighbor’s camper before 0700 and got their kids up (ages 6 and 9) to go look for berries and/or deer. They walked down to the reservoir and “borrowed” a canoe and paddled out on the lake by themselves. At least they put on the 3 life jackets they found in the canoe (convenient!). It was the story of the week. Great.

First camp breakfast:

Dinosaur Eggs oatmeal and fruit punch!

I think Alex was yelling something at me. whoa, was it cold up in the mountains!

Camp Breakfast

Look at that view!

Pineview Reservoir

Dad set the girls up fishing at the reservoir.

Katie’s first fishing trip! We didn’t catch anything. Got to get up too early for all that. And we are not early risers.
Dad and Daughter Fishing
Girls Fishing

Tent meeting in our “Tabernacle.” Pastor and his son led us in worship. We also had communion with bread baked in a Dutch oven.

Camp Service

We brought our own chairs and sang songs and listened to Pastor preach.

Camp Meeting
Happy Boy

Camp pot luck dinner. Obviously, we need to get a Dutch oven. Seriously.

Camp Potluck Dinner

We went hiking and playing in the creek. That water is COLD! We borrowed kayaks and went paddling around on the lake. Tori and Katie could even manage the kayaks on their own! I was so proud. I seriously want a kayak now.

Alex was inseparable from Pastor’s granddaughter. She’s 5. He likes older women. And gingers.

By the River

Aaron got to have fun retrieving toys that Alex threw in the creek, before they floated away! Alex kinda wanted to see them float downstream, but I was worried that there would be tears if they disappeared in the current.

Fetching Toys

I love how our church practically rented out the whole campground. I felt the kids were safe running around and everyone helped watch out for all the kids. It was such a great experience for our family. We made some great friends over the weekend. We had no cell phone coverage. We really were isolated!

The kids are already asking if we can go next year. I guess that means they liked it.

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Filed Under: Utah Tagged With: camping, nature study, outdoors, summer, Utah

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