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!

Owen's Valentine's Party

Owen had ten of his play group friends over to our house to celebrate valentine's day. We did some crafts and decorated sugar cookies.

Owen's best friend William was in town (we still haven't told him William moved away since they will be back in June) and the boys were so happy to celebrate together!

Group Shot = best we could do with this many kiddos

Owen and Gillen's Halloween Party

Because of the hurricane, which thankfully proved to be inconsequential for us, Halloween was postponed. When you are counting down the days until Trick-or-Treat with your toddler, this presents quite the problem. Owen wanted to wear his "superhero" costume so badly so I decided to host playgroup at our apartment for an impromptu Halloween party.

The great thing was that many of the preschools were also cancelled that day so some of our friends who are usually at preschool on Tuesday morning were able to come to our party - nine friends in all made for a great party.

I cut out some pumpkins/ghosts and set out some eye ball stickers and makers for them to decorate. Then we tapped them onto tongue depressors (having a doctor husband does come in handy sometimes!) and used them as puppets.

I grabbed some light up bracelets out of the Target dollar bin last time I was there and Halloween stuff was on clearance a week early at JoAnn for 75% off so I bought a ton of sprinkles and some mini candy necklace kits (fine motor skills and a treat!)

The night before I baked some cupcakes so with a little Mama help on the icing the kids went to town decorating. Here is Owen's masterpiece (which he proceeded to eat only the top off of and then ask for more icing which he wiped all over his costume. AWESOME.)

I made some yummy pumpkin bread and vegetable soup for the Mamas and also whipped up a batch of Candy Corn popcorn last weekend. -- because no matter how many times I tell myself not to cook with candy... I always do it. And this stuff was SO GOOD!

We tried to take a group picture at the end of the party when all of the kids were ready for nap and hyped up on sugar. It went like this...

and then this...

and baby Gil was there too - he dressed up like a surgeon ate his fists for lunch ;)

Overall the party was a huge success. Owen was so happy to have his friends over and share his toys and all of the Mamas were happy not to disappoint a cute little bunch of kiddos on Halloween.

A Quick Visit to OHIO!

On Sunday we made the 3 hour trip to Columbus to pick-up some things from my parent's house.We were excited to meet up with Allison and her family. Uncle Scott and his partner Chris drove from Cincinnati to see us too and we all enjoyed some some ice cream and catching up.

 I cannot believe it's been FOUR years since these two stood beside me on my wedding day. I have really great friends.

Two little boys watching the trains (Owen 28 months, Soren 3.5)

No trip to Ohio would be complete without some BUCKEYES GEAR! We grabbed some drinking glasses and an adorable block O hat for Mr. Owen. He was thrilled!

This is one of the things I miss living in Pennsylvania. Oddly, no stores dedicated entirely to Ohio State stuff anywhere near here. There's no place like home :)

Three boys and a pool: one last playdate

One of the hardest thing about making friends with other resident families is that they move away. This week we had to say goodbye to Owen's best buddy, William. While the boys are almost a year apart, they have been great friends going to museums, Miss Yovonne's class and lots of activities together over the last two years. Thankfully, his parents are hoping to return to Pittsburgh after a year in North Carolina for fellowship so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Owen and I headed out to the suburbs for one last playdate with William and their friend Sam. William and Sam are a year older than Owen, but they all play together very nicely.

William and Sam are potty trained, so when we went outside for pool time Owen insisted on "big boy und-a-wears" like his friends. Thankfully, there was an extra pair for Mr. Owen, and oddly enough he was the only one that kept them on the entire time ;)

The three Mamas pretty much laughed and took pictures the entire time of these boys splashing, eating and peeing everywhere. We joked that we need to start building material for their high school graduation slide shows ;)

 William watering the grass...(while peeing off the deck)

 Juice boxes and basketball

 Owen is the only one still wearing his undies in this picture - they are all eating marshmallows

 Despite the fact that we ABSOLUTELY feed this boy, he is one skinny guy!

and an ice cream sandwich to finish off the night!

We'll miss William and his Mama SO MUCH but we're crossing our fingers we'll be reunited with them again next June!

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's in Washington, DC visiting our friends Kelly and Andy. Andy recently returned home after a long deployment and it was so nice for our two little families to just chill together for four days. The men had some 'boys bonding time' over beer and wings and Kelly and I had a little girls afternoon out! We mostly laid around and chatted while the kids played together but we ventured into the city for an afternoon and played at the National Building Museum (they live within walking distance to the Pentagon!)

All of the boys were pretty tuckered out by the time we even got there, but there was lots of fun to be had.

 unsuspecting boy....

best topple over ever!

Hilton Head Playdate

I've met a lot of really great people through blogging, both here and on Kveller. I correspond with my "internet friends" through Facebook, emails, gchat and texting. We live scattered across the country (a few in Israel) and its a rare occasion that our paths will cross in real life. Thankfully, my friend Kelly was going to be 2-hrs from Hilton Head with her son Carter and they wanted to drive down to meet us for a play date!

Carter and Owen were born 10 days apart and Kelly and I have been corresponding through blogs since I was on bedrest. Over the last two years we've shared notes on parenting, sleep schedules, tantrums, teething and both of us are still nursing these 20 month old boys!

The night before our meet up, she texted me that her husband was convinced she'd show up at our hotel and a 60-yr old man would answer the door. Jeremy and I were laughing out loud so I gave her a call to let her know, we were indeed a little family of three awaiting a playdate.

We took the boys to a little children's museum called The Sandbox. It was PERFECT for Carter and Owen with a play kitchen, indoor climbing structures and lots of construction fun. They boys played and Owen even got his first bloody eye after falling into a table so we decided to head to lunch. The boys were great and we all got to sit and chat, it was so much fun.

(group picture with two sweaty, tired boys -one who just suffered a busted eye - oh well, we tried!)

It was such a wonderful visit and it was like we'd been friends in real life all along! I sincerely hope our paths will cross in the future and we get to play with our bloggy friends from Georgia again soon!

We forgot our camera so we had to use Kelly's awesome camera - for LOTS more pictures of our playdate visit her blog... here and here!