P52 Photo Challenge - Back to School - Week 36

Today's theme for the P52 Photo Challenge is "Back To School." For the past few years, the first week after Labor Day has marked our annual "Not Back to School Trip."

While other children return to public, private, or charter school...we have chosen that week to take a short trip since it is one of the quietest, most peaceful, and uncrowded times to travel. Most the people we see traveling are seniors and people who camp (either in tents, campers, or RVs).

I wrote about and included some of Sophia's and Olivia's first day of school pictures in this post. By far, one of my favorite pictures from the trip is of the girls at Leech Lake.

Sophia is in sixth grade and 

Olivia is in fourth grade this year.

Leech Lake is Minnesota's third largest lake; and it is located mostly within the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, and completely within the Chippewa National Forest.

What was interesting about this lake was that we were able to see wild rice growing naturally by the shore. We had never seen it growing...just packaged in the grocery store.

Anyway, the girls crawled from rock to rock to get to the one furthest out in the lake. The post I wrote about the first day of school pictures shows a cropped view of the same picture.

For me, seeing the girls sitting so close to one another and smiling is reflective of one of the benefits of homeschooling: that they are able to develop a close relationship and friendship with one another that will last a lifetime.