adventure

Saving A Life

3:59:00 PM



I had actually planned on posting about this a few weeks ago but I had other posts to do that were already scheduled so I kind of forgot about it. Oops!

In the beginning of July, after a morning of reading other blogs and relaxing my sister had come upstairs; she lives in the basement of the house, to tell me that a baby bunny had fallen into the window well. I hurried downstairs to see the thing. It was so cute! It looked so scared too, but it was cowering by the window. 
Imagine being an animal, happily going about your business then BAM just like that, you're stuck in a big hole with no way out. 
 Look how cute it was! 
It was around noon and our parents wouldn't be home for hours.
The poor little guy was going to have to wait until then to be freed back into the wild!
My first thought was "but how can I free it myself?"
Open the window and unleash it unto my sisters room? Maybe not. 
But I did remember that I had an empty box upstairs in my bedroom and 
I went to grab it. 
I asked my sister to come outside with me, since I was a little wary of the ladder 
that lead down to the well. It's really small! 
I climbed down first and my sister handed me the box, carefully I scooped the little guy
into the box. For some reason on the way into the well my sister had asked what we should name it, her idea was "Bob". I just shook my head. What a unique name. I decided to name it Frank Sinatra and she had agreed. 
I lifted the box with the bunny inside, handing it up to her so I could climb out. Once out, I noticed Sadie curiously sat in the grass watching the whole thing unfold. I carried 
the box to the little bit of woods that we have in the back yard and attempted to release Frank. 
Look at that little face!!

I opened the box slowly, and tipped it towards the woods, but Frank did not want to leave. 
He seemed pretty content to just sit in the box for a few minutes. Letting us take pictures of him as we waited for him to hop away. 
After waiting for a while (and being swarmed by mosquitoes) Frank finally discovered that yes, he wasn't in the well any longer and hopped away.


I'm pretty sure Frank might be living under the shed in our back yard, but lately there have been no baby bunnies in the well anymore. Hopefully he learned his lesson! If another does fall down, it'll be called Thumper, after that little one in Bambi. 

Have you ever had to free an animal before? 
It was actually pretty fun, and now I have a great story to tell! 
Thanks for reading! 
See you next time! 
xx
Kenzie
:) 
Make sure to follow me on Bloglovin, Twitter and Instagram! 



adventure

Impromptu Trip Up North

2:00:00 PM



The best kind of trips are the ones that aren't planned. The ones that come up as an idea the night before.
That's what happened this week on Thursday.
 There's a small town about two hours north of my own filled with fun things to do during the Summer. It's the cutest town! I haven't gone up there for a long time and I was very excited to be headed up there this time!
 My mom, sister and I packed up the car around 8 in the morning, dropped Sadie off at my grandparents for the afternoon and went off on our adventure. The first stop was at a Wildlife Park. The one we went to has been around for ages! The majority of people who go there are families with younger kids, but I did see a few teenagers there just for the record. The first thing you see when you walk in is a gathering of goats, baby goats to older goats. They're all so cute! They were going crazy when people started feeding them.

There's a covered area where the array of baby animals is kept. One of the workers was holding a 
Chinchilla, if you have never touched one let me tell you they are so incredibly soft! 
There was an extremely large rabbit, an Armadillo, a small owl (which I wanted to break in and put in my pocket to bring home with me). There are a lot more, but I only snapped a few pictures!
There is also a pot-bellied pig and turtle that roam around. I took a picture of both, only to notice that they seem to be posing! hmm..
There is an area of baby bunnies as well, but there were so many children crowding it I wasn't able to get in. 
We went on to the main area where the bigger animals were. At this zoo, guests are able to feed the Bears something called "Bear Brew" It's just soda, and it's really cool! 
The bears are very patient and wait until you hold the bottle to the cage until they start drinking. 
Another unique feature of the park is the deer that roam around. They used to have peacocks that would howl the entire time but I discovered they've put them in cages. The deer love being fed, and they're so cute!

The deer also have a "safe zone" where guests can't interrupt them if they want to escape to sit and relax.
It's also the place where the fawns spend most of their time as they're kind of timid towards the guests and screaming children. Who wouldn't be?
On we went, to spot more animals. They have badgers, prairie dogs, mountain lions, panthers, a white tiger, 
and a lot more! There is even a bird area where you enter and it's full of colorful birds that fly freely. I even got the opportunity to feed some! They came right onto my hand and arm! It was the weirdest and coolest thing. The birds eat off a Popsicle stick that has seeds stuck to it with peanut butter. 
I was also wearing my sandals with colorful beads and they seemed to think they were food too. 
It was really cool! I've never done that before and I'm glad I did!
We moved on to what I thought would be even more exciting..
Feeding Giraffes! 
The park has two young giraffes, I think the man said one was two years old and the other was almost a year! I'm not completely sure but they were so cute!
Giraffes have long, purple-black tongues and the only way to describe what they feel like is comparing it to a cats tongue, only a little less rough!



If you follow me on Instagram, this is the photo I put up of the day! 
It was so much fun, I'm feeding them carrots. Apparently if you're not careful to keep the cup away from the giraffes, they will eat it. Don't worry, I did give some to the smaller one as well! 
There were loads of other animals after visiting the giraffes. Zebras, Camels, Kangaroos, Lemurs and a lot more I just either can't spell or don't feel like listing! 
There were some really small cute monkeys that were enthralled with sticking their tongues out at me once I had stuck mine out at them. 
I even got to measure how long my wing span is, before going to see my favorites, Owls! 
The Great Horned Owl was sitting closest to the path in its cage, it opened an eye at me and turned its head. 
For those wondering, why are these birds here?
There was a sign to explain.
If you can't read that, it says that all the birds that are there, have had such bad injuries that they couldn't be placed back into the wild to survive on their own. 
We went on to see the other animals, including some very naughty brown pigeons. 
Guess they'll have to expand that cage. 
We visited another one of my favorites, the foxes. I know what the fox says, it screams actually and 
if you don't know what it is, it can actually scar you for days! 
We walked back through the way we came and I posed for a picture with the turtle! 
And chatted up some more goats, before we headed off into town for food and shopping!
I was actually really excited to go to the beach and lay in the sun. We stopped at a brewery to eat, I ordered a grilled cheese and it was so good! 
I was too hungry to photograph my mom or my sisters meals! We then finished up and went out shopping.
It's not a very big town, but most of the people who stay up there are camping and enjoying the lake so it really doesn't have to be.
We stopped in the fudge factory, though I wasn't feeling any fudge or anything that sweet. It's still nice to look! 


We did stop and buy some popcorn though at the popcorn shop! They sell a ton of different types of popcorn, it's really neat! We then moved in and out of shops before unwinding at the beach.

It was so relaxing, and a good way to end the impromptu quick trip up north. 
I hope you enjoyed the blog and that you all had great weekends! Sorry I didn't
have a mid-week one! I was pretty busy! I'm already working on another one right now! 
xx
Kenzie






















america

Fourth of July Festivities

10:31:00 AM



There are a lot of holidays that certain countries celebrate just for themselves, though you definitely do not have to be living there or even born there to celebrate with the crowd. For America, it’s the Fourth of July. It’s our Independence Day and we celebrate with friends, family and neighbors from all around.

 Of course, different families celebrate in their own unique ways. It’s pretty typical where I live, to celebrate the holiday two different ways, the first one being, pack up the car and head up north to send fireworks into the air on a lake. The second typical way to celebrate America’s Independence Day is to gather at someone’s house and have a party.

 So Kenzie, what do you do to celebrate the Fourth of July?

 Well, personally, for my family we celebrate on Saturday. Since the actual Fourth of July can be any day of the week, we usually pick that Saturday to celebrate. This year it was the fifth. If you’re not confused already, the fourth of July was celebrated on the fifth of July at my house. I do have to say, we did pop over to the local Fourth of July fair that was happening in town for a little while on the actual fourth, then had desserts at my grandparents after. We also took a ride in my step-dad’s convertible, the weather was so nice!

The best thing about the Fourth of July celebration is that there is a lot of food. Which is great! I love food! Usually, families will cook up hamburgers, hotdogs or brats, or even a combination of the three. We had hamburgers and brats this year. There’s also usually Beer, Water and Soda to drink. The house was decorated with red white and blue all over. In the garden, on the shed, in the planters, where ever you looked you would probably spot a flag or colors of it.

                           




 The party was great! People came with smiles on and bellies to fill! Did I mention there was a lot of food? It’s a good way to see people who have busy schedules in the summertime and have a bit of a catch up time. Everyone brings a dish to pass, which is really great! Everyone makes such good food! There were an array of desserts, pasta salads, dips, fruits and a lot of other things! My favorite were deviled eggs. Anytime I can get my hands on some of those is great!


At the party, I wore a navy blue dress from Old Navy, a red necklace I made when I was probably in the 7th grade and my favorite strappy sandals also from Old Navy! The weather was amazing, it wasn’t too hot but it wasn’t too cold! Just perfect!





After eating the crowd stuck around for a while, thinning out here and there until there was a nice sized group around the fire pit. I love sitting by the fire, it’s one of my favorite things about summer. There weren’t any s’mores though, we were all stuffed full of food anyway!  There were a few fireworks shot off of course to end the night!


There’s a group of people who stay over night, my parents friends, from Minnesota (that’s to the right of Wisconsin if you look at the map ) and in the morning we all have a nice breakfast. The adults drink Bloody Mary’s while my step-dad cooks up the bacon and eggs over the fire. 

Even Sadie got in on the action! 

It’s so good! My grandparents come over as well, since they live nearby.
It was a really great Fourth of July weekend! I hope you had fun wherever you celebrated, and if you didn’t I hope you had a great weekend anyway!
 Thanks for reading! 

Xx

Kenzie

Feed my starving Children

Feed My Starving Children

1:00:00 PM



"Someone out there, is happier with less than what you have."

 This past weekend, my family and I decided to help out with Feed My Starving Children. 
If you haven't heard about it before, Feed My Starving Children is an organization where volunteers come in and package food to be delivered to children and families in countries that are struggling to feed their children. 
  It's a really good opportunity to give back to those in need. This was the second year we have done it. 
  Last year, we volunteered later in the day, this year we switched it up by signing up for an earlier shift. The event was held in an airplane hanger, with tons of volunteers. 

 The day was a bit dreary as we arrived, I had plugged in my earphones and was listening to a calm ocean sound, imagining myself on a beach somewhere as I was feeling a little anxious. I think I may have dozed off on the car journey over, oops!

The first thing we did when we got there was put on our hair nets,sign in and sit for a short orientation and welcome. I tried to take a few pictures, but it's a little difficult to do on the fly! The main people, talk about the importance of what the volunteers are about to do. It's nice to feel important!


After the short orientation, we're shown how the packaging works. The volunteers (that's us) get a station. In each station, each person has a job. There are three ingredients, soy, vitamins and potatoes that are scooped up, put through a funnel and into a bag to be weighed and sealed. Each station also makes up their own cheer, some go full out and others kind of just mumble along with the crowd. 
This process is actually not very difficult, and it goes quick. 
(the potatoes are on the left and the soy and vitamins are on the right side!)

They mix these ingredients with water when they get to their countries and feed the children. It's meant to feed children that are younger than a year or two. 

This was and is a really good opportunity for those to get involved in their communities and meet other volunteers as well! There were a few people in my group that I didn't know. 
We only volunteered for 2 hours, but the two hours went by fast. At the end, the people running the event offer a chance to taste the stuff we made for the children. It's a potato consistency with not very much taste. I guess if you're starving you wouldn't really be thinking about what it tastes like! 
You can also purchase things that people from the different countries have made and sent along. As we walked out we grabbed a cookie. To avoid being trampled by the herd of people I waited outside for my family to be reunited with me and venture out on the rest of our day. In the end, it's really nice to know that you've helped someone's life become better by doing something that seems so small. 

How do you give back to your community and the world? 

See you next time! 
xx
Kenzie





Instagram