Well, it was Griffin’s first day, even if I had already been at school for a week of meetings and classroom prep. It’s hard to believe that Griffin is done with middle school!
First Day of SPA, 2023
Category Archives: Griffin
Du Nord 2023
We spent the third week of June up at Camp Du Nord. It was our fourth visit to this amazing family camp on the edge of the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota. We eschewed our tech gadgets on this trip, so we didn’t take many pictures. But it was a fabulous week of hiking, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, enjoying the arts and crafts options, and playing lots of games on our cabin’s lovely screen porch. And we appreciated, of course, the wood fired sauna with a ramp leading directly into the cool lake—the perfect way to feel refreshed at the end of a hard-working day.
For the second or third time, we got our camp reservations with the Brown family. We met them when Griffin and Gabe were in ECFE together when we first moved to Minnesota. All three kids are in the same age groups as ours, so they have a lot of fun together. (There were multiple sleepovers and late-night games.)
I always like to include a map or two because maps are cool. Obviously. This is a topo map scaled at about 8 meters per pixel (at full resolution… click on it). Camp Du Nord is along the north shore of the North Arm of Burntside Lake, north and east of the “Birch Bay” label. Sarah and I hiked out toward the pink lake on the northwest side of the map (around the red 33). Griffin’s age group canoed south into the channel that connects to the larger lake. They portaged from the channel to Chant Lake and then swam out to a small island there. (My borrowed sunglasses may still be wedged in a crevice on that island.)
As with our last visit, inkle weaving was a popular pastime for Griffin, Maggie, and Sarah. Sarah is, in fact, considering making her own inkle loom for home use.
One of the daily activities for the kids is called “Nature Notes.” They gather at 9:00 AM, before regular activities, and learn about the ecosystem around the camp. On the first day, Oliver received a “Plant Passport” with sketches of different local plants that he could try to spot in the wild. (I may have been more excited by this challenge than he was.) In the end we were able to check off all but one of the plants. We’re pretty sure that we saw that last plant, too, but it wasn’t blooming so we weren’t 100% sure. The most exciting find, especially during this hot, dry week, was a sundew that we found on a walk through a bog.
passing insects with its sticky droplets of “dew.”
As a nerdy aside, my first encounter with a sundew was in the 1980 D&D adventure, Slave Pits of the Undercity. In the adventure, naturally, characters encounter a giant variety that happily gorges itself on human-sized prey; barrels of vinegar from a nearby storeroom were required to dissolve its glue. I was surprised to learn, many years later, that sundews are both real and relatively petite.
Sushi Production
One of Griffin’s birthday presents was a sushi-making kit. The crowd was unanimous: we must make sushi immediately. Andrew went out to pick up some fresh salmon and tuna while the rest of the family made the rice and prepped the vegetables. The results were delicious!
Fourteen!
Happy birthday, Griffin!
First Shave
Griffin and I spent some quality time in front of the mirror this morning practicing shaving. We made it with no nicks or lost body parts.
A Doozy of a Valentine’s Day
Tuesday, February 14, began like many other Valentine’s days at the Stocco-Roy household. The table was set with a surprise for the kids. Andrew got up early to make strawberry shortcake.
Griffin awoke and was frustrated that a lingering cold seemed to be getting significantly worse. He was tired and stuffy. We had him do a COVID test just out of habit. Meanwhile, we were all enjoying ourselves.
Laughter turned to shock when Griffin’s test came up positive. Panic! Everyone else takes tests. Maggie is positive too. What? How can this be?
First COVID in our house since waaaay back in November of 2020 when Oliver tested positive. That time was far scarier, of course, because it was pre-vaccine and we thought we would all catch it from him and it wasn’t clear how bad it might be. Now, even though COVID is rather hum-drum in the world around us, it was still surprisingly upsetting. No school for the two of them. Testing every day for the rest of us. Worries about sub plans and school.
Most importantly, we had a wild weekend planned for Presidents Day: three nights at a cabin in northern Minnesota, skiing, a sauna with potential icy dip in the lake, and a dog-sledding adventure (Sandy and Stape’s awesome Christmas gift to the family).
At first we duped ourselves into thinking that we could still go as long as the rest of us avoided the COVID. Griffin and Maggie would have to stay masked, but we could avoid others until Sunday when they would be in the clear. The dog sledding was on Monday, so everything would be fine. We had the kids packing on Thursday and were getting ready to load the car on Friday when Sarah realized that she wasn’t feeling well. COVID test was negative, but she was worried.
We sat down to think it through. Instead of focusing on how to preserve our plans, we considered how we would feel if someone else showed up at Du Nord (the place with the cabins) with active COVID cases in their family. We would think they were jerks for putting the rest of the community at risk. Sigh. So, we did the right thing and cancelled the trip. (Darn golden rule…)
This turned out to be a good thing. No further COVID cases that we’ve yet detected, but Sarah definitely had a stomach bug (not fun) and Griffin’s recovery has been slow. We managed to make it feel like a staycation, complete with the kids cooking a surprise feast for us on Friday night. The menu: fresh French fries appetizer (from scratch, hot oil and everything!), pasta with fancy sauce, fresh squeezed orange/mango juice, and butterscotch blondies for dessert. There was an intention to make a salad too, but somehow they forgot that bit.
This set a great tone for the weekend, where we chilled out, played lots of games, watched some movies, and managed to do some epic cleaning of the house.
Volleyball 2022
Griffin has had a great season with his volleyball team this fall. The team has been unfailingly positive even in the face of defeat. (Though they’ve done better this season than last year, with a few decisive victories and many close matches.) It’s been a joy to watch them duke it out on the court every week.
Here’s a short video at the tail end of one of their closest games. Alas, after getting 1 point from victory, they were ultimately defeated, 25-27.
Griffin’s First Day of Eighth Grade
First day for this 8th grader (and his 8th grade teaching dad)!
Three Generations
Broken Wrist
Griffin canoed in the boundary waters with Camp Widjiwagan from June 20 to July 1. He had a fantastic trip, but he had an accident in his final days. On June 29, he was leaping from rock to rock (as one does) in “Disappointment Lake,” about six miles from the Canadian border, when he landed on an unstable stone and pitched forward face-first into another one. Cracked two teeth and injured his wrist. At first it seemed like the wrist was merely sprained, but after a few days with little improvement, x-rays confirmed that he had a buckle fracture on the growth plate. At least he doesn’t need crutches for this one. (He broke his foot in April!) Cast should come off at the beginning of August.
