Our First Camping Trip!

One of the things on our bucket list for this research time was to go on a family camping trip. Jeremy did a lot of camping/backpacking in college but I have never been camping. I think because we were so inexperienced we didn't know how ridiculous it sounded to say we were going on our first camping trip with a 3 -year-old and a 11-month-old -- but the looks people gave us were quite telling. We borrowed some gear, bought sleeping bags, packed a cooler and were on our way.

We met up with Doda Kelly and her boys at Rocky Gap State Park in Maryland. It was a great half-way point for our rendezvous and  the park was so nice. Tons of activities for kids at the nature center and everything was well-maintained. It was "car camping" (similar to KOA) where you had a designated slot (flat land for tent, fire pit and hang-line) you could drive your car up to.There were nice bathrooms not a far walk from our site with hot water and showers. I know, not exactly roughing it but with kids it was the perfect first camping scenario.

My one hesitation about camping was the I am TERRIFIED of snakes. TERRIFIED. Kelly assured me that she has been camping (both with and without) the kids dozens of times and has never seen a snack. Andy (her military husband) assured me that he has slept in fields with nothing but  a pack and NEVER seen a snake. Jeremy backpacked in the wilderness of NC for two weeks, never saw a snake. So with all of this wonderful resassurance I agreed to not freak out about snakes.

Until we pulled up to our camp site and there were two rangers panning both campsites with a long mental pole with a hook on the end of it while a little kid from the next site over yelled - "There's a rattlesnake on your campsite! I saw it right there! There's a RATTLESNAKE!!"

OF COURSE THERE IS.

The snake couldn't be found but the rangers kindly left the snake hook (wow, thanks!) We set up tents as I freaked out. We told the boys (3, 3, and 5) to stay on the paths and not wander into the brush. We kept a really close eye on on them. And in the middle of the night every time I had to pee I made Jeremy wake up and walk to the bathrooms with me (well once I just peed outside the tent while freaking out about the snakes and peed on my foot).

But there were no snake sightings. We had an awesome weekend with Shabbat dinner on Friday night. Some rain forced us to an indoor bounce house place with the kids on Saturday afternoon but we still had lots of meals, roasted marshmallows/hot dogs and slept in tents. We went fishing in the (overfished) lake with night crawlers and challah as bait. We spent a good chunk of time there but the fish didn't bite. Owen didn't seem to care and still declared "Fishing with Doda Kelly" and marshmallows to be the best part of his trip. The boys had such a blast playing with each other, it was so fun to watch. Poor Gil, because he doesn't walk yet he was strapped to me for much of the trip. This was by far the hardest part. We finally gave in and moved his travel crib over by the fire so he could get down.

Overall it was a wonderful (exhausting) trip that made a huge impression on Owen.

As we drove away Jeremy said, "I'm really glad that snake wasn't around. None of our kids would have survived a Rattlesnake bite."

WHAT?!

See all of the pictures from our trip by clicking here!

The most beautiful pictures ever taken of our family

Jeremy's cousin's best friend does photography in his free time and has taken pictures of their family before. Since we were staying with them for the weekend I asked if he would be willing to take photos of our family since we didn't have 3 yr photos of Owen.

Owen 3 yrs 3 months
Gillen almost 9 months

I have been really happy with so many of the pictures we've had taken of us over the last few years, but these really captured us as a family. We had been in the car for 6 hours that day and neither boy napped - we had to bribe Owen to smile and lots of tickles and silly noises for Gil, but they are perfect! I think they especially capture who Owen is right now.

Three. Climbing. Wondering. Always a stick. Loves Gil.  ----- that's Owen at this moment.

Visiting the Cousins

We have a fun tradition of staying with Jeremy's cousin Mary and her husband Seth on the way down and back from Hilton Head. Their place is a little past the half-way mark so it's a great way to break up our trip. They bought a new house out in the country and we had an awesome time exploring the back-roads of North Carolina.

Owen and Clara Jane get along so well, this time they had fun playing toys, watering the garden and playing in the sandbox while the rest of us talked and drank beer. FUN!

Such a perfect way to end our trip!

Shannon Tanner Concert: EPIC FAIL.

We were so excited that our last night in Hilton Head was the kick-off concert for Shannon Tanners peak season. We went out to an early dinner and Owen was in rare form.

He refused to eat and threw a piece of bread across the table - which was fine because Gillen happily ate his dinner (this kid decided while we were on vacation he wants to pound table food). After dinner we headed over to the concert.

(check out that face on Owen) About five minutes in he decided to run away from us. We told him he could sit with us or go down and sit by the other kids. He wandered down by the stage where a baby was playing, picked up a handful of rocks and threw them at the baby. We scooped him up to tell him that was no okay and he proceeded to have a full-on tantrum in front of the entire crowd.

We walked out furious and dissapointed. Owen really didn't give a shit that he ruined our final night on the Island. We were supposed to get ice cream at the concert and that was clearly not happening now. So we talked about the choices Owen made to misbehave and then we drove to an ice cream place where I got a huge cone of dairy-free sorbet and Jeremy got ice cream.

When O finally realized he wasn't going to get ice cream he was hysterical. This was the first time we followed through with something (normally we would have just skipped the ice cream all together) but we wanted him to see that his actions caused him to miss out on something fun. Weeks later he still talks about how he made a bad choice at the concert and didn't get ice cream :)

Hilton Head: The Beach

Owen is in love with the beach, the sand, the ocean - all of it. He was so happy every time we set foot on the beach.

This guy too, because apparently sand is delicious!

Hilton Head: Bikes

One of our favorite things to do on the Island is rent bikes and ride to the beach. Gillen isn't big enough to ride on the back of a bike quite yet so we rented a trailer for the boys. There wasn't a helmet small enough for Gil, so we made sure just to ride slowly on the path from our villa to the beach and back. The boys loved riding together in the trailer! Jeremy was SUPER DADDY towing these two plus our beach gear on this back.

Hilton Head: Lawton Stables

Our first stop was a morning at Lawton Stables. This is one of our favorite places to visit and each time Owen sees the farm with new excitement. We remembered apples and carrots for the Clydesdale this time but Owen was pretty terrified to feed him (as was Jeremy).

There were two new Lamas in the petting zoo, a brown one and a black one who were totally adorable.

Owen was big enough to ride the pony this year and he was thrilled. This was his THIRD pony ride and he remembers the names of all the ponys he has ever ridden: Spanky, Jo-Jo and this pony's name was Cookie.

It was a really, really hot morning so we were all exhausted by the time we headed out for lunch.

Gillen was clearly the MOST exhausted of us all.

Hilton Head, SC

The beach welcomes us back, but somebody didn't want their toes in the ocean.

and another somebody did.

Hershey Pennslyvania mini-vacation

Jeremy's time off is few and far between over the next few months so we took advantage of a free weekend and went on a “long car ride” for a “special adventure”.  We landed in Hershey Pennsylvania for what turned out to be one of the best weekends we’ve had as a family. (all of the photos were taken on my iphone)

Saturday we visited Hershey Chocolate World: Admission is free. There were a variety of things to do .  We took the free ‘Factory Tour’ which is a little ride that simulates the chocolate making process. It takes about 10 minutes. You get a piece of candy at the end. We skipped most of the other avities because they were either too advanced for Owen or we didn't want him eating a giant chocolate bar. We spent a few hours at Chocolate World. This was plenty of time for us.  (of course we left with "Reeses" t-shirts. OF COURSE WE DID.)

We stayed the night in a hotel and we were all so exhausted we passed out within ten minutes of laying down.

Gillen had a bagel for breakfast :)

On Sunday we woke up and headed to Hershey Park:  Owen has never been to an amusement park or ridden a ride before. He is also fairly timid. We figured we would spend three hours max at the park. Much to our surprise, we arrived at 10am when the park opened at left at 6pm closing. Owen was tall enough to  ride the vast majority of rides at the park, including one roller coaster! He had a blast on everything, most of the rides you can ride with your child and we saw children as young as 1 riding on some of the smaller rides. There are several rides that will let you wear/carry your baby on. The kids got tired about half-way through the day so they took a nap in the stroller while we walked around Zoo America inside the park. 

 This picture above should be titled BEST DADDY EVER. This was the only ride that Owen disliked. I don't particularly care for the feelings of being dropped either so I don't blame him.

Owen was actually fearless on most of these rides, something we realized will go away once he has awareness of heights and danger. Jeremy took one for the team and went on this ride with Owen which almost made him puke (no way was I riding it, it spun in every direction posssible SUPER high in the air!) 

 

We visited the park during one of three “Springtime in the Park” preview weekends in April. This turned out to be a GREAT time to go. We had a beautiful spring day and tickets were half-price (water park is closed) and we walked on to most of the rides without a wait.

 hanging in the stroller while Daddy and Owen ride go karts.

This was such a wonderful weekend for our little family. We all had so much fun and watching Owen enjoy an amusement park was more fun than enjoying it ourselves. We can't wait to go back next year!