Camping in NH

The kids and I spent all of last week and some of this week in New Hampshire camping with my parents in their camper. We spent most of that time at the campground lake/beach swimming.

Miles wanted to swim out to the dock as soon as we got the lake each morning:
And then come back to play with the water squirters:
Some days we spent more time at the beach than others. The boys played and swam hard, and got tired:
Quincy and Grandpa, napping on the beach together:

It was super hot for a few of the days, one of those days we decided to find an inside activity, and found the See Science Center, an interactive science museum that the kids loved. Here is Quincy playing with a machine that shows air thrust:
And here is Miles on his favorite exhibit, pulley chairs, the boys could pull themselves up with the rope that is attached to the chair via a series of pulleys.

And the boys digging for fossils:
My brother and his family were vacationing the same week, one day they were kind enough to invite us to join them at the lake house where they were vacationing. Miles couldn't seem to get enough time swimming in the lake:
He loved swimming with his aunt and cousin:

And Maddie reading to Miles & Quincy, they loved her funny voices!

One of the most favorite parts of camping is the campfire. The boys were thrilled that they got to not only help pick out and carry the wood over to the fire pit, but they got to help put the wood in as well:Most of the week was loads of fun. There were a few meltdowns and testing of boundaries. A few times when my prenting skills were, um, tired and not at their best. And the afternoon at my brothers house, most was fun, except when the dog discovered an inground bees nest, right next to where the kids were playing. Luckily no kids got stung, but the dog was swarmed by the bees, got covered with stings and an emergency trip to the animal er was required. Thankfully they got there in time and the dog was fine. We are now recovered from the trip and drive and completely unpacked, laundered and just about ready for band camp to start on Monday.

Blackberry picking

While you are reading this post, the kids and I will already be in NH visiting my parents and staying with them at their campground. I set up this and the last few posts to publish while we are gone, and this will be the last one until after we return.

Last Saturday morning we all went picking blackberries for the first time. We've done lots of strawberry, blueberry & apple picking before, but this is the first year that I tuned into there being a local u-pick blackberry place. There were loads of them, so it didn't take long at all.
Yummy! Blackerry crisp, blackberry chicken, and just munching on blackberries! I don't think I have ever eaten so many blackberries in my life, and I plan on doing it again.

Alright, in yesterday's post we covered our first two days of camping and lots of sightseeing. We spent the next day just relaxing at the campground, swimming in the pool, exploring trails, just playing. The following day brought us another relaxing day, but we went out and hiked a bit of the Appalachian trail (about 5-10 minutes worth!)

Then went playing in the mountain creek. This is something I did quite a bit growing up on family camping trips, and was thrilled to be able to introduce it to Miles and Quincy. Dipping our feet in:
Quincy and Mike mostly stayed on a big rock and played with the water from there,
Miles and I went into the water. Going in carefully at first:
Enjoying the water:

Drinking the water:
And our final night camping, roasting hot dogs for dinner:
We had a great trip. The boys did not want to leave and end camping. We were tired, dirty, relaxed and had lots of memories (and pictures)!

Camping in VA

For our family vacation this year we chose to camp for a week in the mountains of Virginia. (Warning, this post is very long and picture heavy!) Specifically, about 10 miles from the Natural Bridge. We drove on Skyline drive through the Shenandoah Mountains:

Our campground was smack dab in the mountains. It was in Jefferson National Forest, about 1 mile off the Appalachian Trail. We had to drive down a long winding road that followed a creek into the campground. And because we went midweek, there was hardly anyone else there. It was quiet, secluded and wonderful.
While there we pretty much had our entire section of camp sites to ourselves. A couple of nights there were some Appalachian Trail backpackers that stayed in our area. It was great to talk to them and hear their different stories. One guy was hiking for just two days, some for a month and three months. A few were doing the entire trail from Georgia to Maine. And one person Mike talked to was doing much more than the trail - he started hiking in January in Key West and was planning on finishing in October in Canada. Wow.

Anyhow, our first day we went to the Natural Bridge:

Also there they had a replica of an indian village, a butterfly walk-through habitat, a toy museum. Nearby was an interesting place with a dinosaur kingdom, in the woods was a whole bunch of dinosaurs attacking civil war soldiers. The boys loved seeing the dinosaurs:
Also there was a giant slug that the kids could crawl through, this was Miles favorite part of the entire week. As he put it, being digested and thrown up by a slug.

And the main reason we went there was for a haunted house. Miles begged us to go, was all he could think about, talk about and ask about. We did know they did no-scare tours with the lights on, so we let him go. In fact all four of us went. Miles was beaming with pride that he went through a real haunted house and didn't get scared.

Day 2 was another busy day of sightseeing. First order of the day, Mike got to see what was on the top of his sightseeing list for our trip. Foamhenge. Yep, you read it right, a complete replica of Stonehenge made out of foam:Our life is now complete, really, what else do you need to see after this?!

Then we proceeded to a wonderful safari type zoo. It was a drive through park where most of the animals roamed around and you could feed and pet them. It was amazing. They had a wagon ride available as well, so we chose to do that for feeding the animals. We did drive through first on our own, and many of the animals were clearly upset that we did not have food for them.

Here is a momma Emu with a bunch of babies:
On the wagon ride, feeding camels:
And elk, close enough to pet and feel their antlers:

Another highlight was the bison (buffalo), which happens to be Miles favorite animal. They eat a lot.

A highlight for me was the lorakeet cage. We got to go in and feed them. The boys chose not to hold the food. So Mike and I got the fun:
Next up for the day was seeing a cavern:
And then it rained. hard. So we went out for dinner.

And this has become very long, so I will continue this post tomorrow...

Summer fun

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, we have been very busy so far this summer. I will go into it a bit more in these next couple of posts, along with, of course, some pictures.

The month started with a weekend camping trip in the woods with some good family time:

Playing with bugs - on the playground:And in the great nature center:
We spent a morning having fun with a friend at a funhouse full of bouncy houses and slides:
(yep, that is Quincy climbing up the giant slide)

Lots of things I didn't take pictures of - our 4th of July beach trip, blueberry picking, trip to NY to visit family, and our trip to the big zoo in the city. The trip to the zoo was eventful, first of all it was nearly a hundred degrees - not something we will ever do again in the middle of summer. Second, Quincy and I had a bit of a crash when he stepped in front of me suddenly and stopped. This in itself wouldn't be too bad, but I was wearing sandals and the crash involved a toenail that I had already injured a couple of weeks ago. The result was the toenail on my big toe sticking up in a rather unnatural angle, a great deal of pain, and the loss of that toenail. Oh, and this was at the beginning of our day. It was a memorable trip.

On to more fun stuff, some random fun pictures from this past month (0r so):

Apparently one pair of sunglasses was not enough for Miles:
A very patient and cooperative Batdog: