Camping Out

A few months ago, our first camp out became a camp in when torrential rains kept us inside. Instead we enjoyed dinner and playtime with friends but all slept in our own houses in our own beds. This time our family camping adventure went on as scheduled and we had a great time! We met our friend from grad school, Nathan, and his cute 2 year old, Caroline, up in Pennsylvania's Caldonia State Park. Unfortunately, Nate's wife, Jen, had to stay behind for work, but the three adults, three kids, and one puppy had a fun outdoor adventure.

We arrived a little before sundown on Friday night and the men got the tents up and Nate found us some wood. We didn't get the kids fed until almost 8 but they were super troopers and inhaled their food before their first night of sleeping under the stars. They were especially enthralled with the camp fire!

The kids did pretty well sleeping in the tent. We do have an 8 person tent. This seemed like overkill when it was just me, Bryan, and Maddie. Now, it is awesome! It technically has three "rooms," AKA a small curtain divides the two sides. We set Kellen up in his pack and play on one side and Noelle and Maddie up on her princess sleeping bag air mattress on the second side, before hitting the hay on our queen air mattress in the middle of the tent. Kellen did great! Noelle hates covers. That was less great since she kept kicking them off and then whimpering in her sleep that she was cold. When we brought her over to us, she tried to kick the covers off of us every 20 minutes or so. Sweetheart, it is 47 degrees. We need covers! We did finally make it through the night after sending her back to her air mattress and tucking the covers tightly around her and then the kids even slept in til after 7! Success!

Saturday morning started out well with our eggs, blueberries, corn beef hash, and turkey bacon breakfast. Apparently if we cook Kel's breakfast outside and then eat it outside, he will devour 3 plates worth of eggs. Who knew? While we were cooking and hanging out during the day, we did rely a bit on electronics to keep the kids corralled. Unsupervised children near a fire is never a good thing! We also let Noelle play at the playground fairly unsupervised across from our camp site. "Playground" may be optimistic, Caldonia. You had one tire to climb on, one regular swing, a sandbox with no sand, and a bench swing. But it entertained Noelle so that was great! The little kids enjoyed it too but needed some adult supervision over there to keep from killing themselves!

After breakfast, we did our one and only hike. Our complaint about Caldonia is it is small and has few trails. This was fine for this trip as the kids wanted to do the walking for the most part and their little legs can only take them so far! We did about 2.5 miles total and looped around most of the park, saw a small waterfall, and checked out the "jungle." The kids loved each other and held hands off and on though the hike.  

After our hike, we cooked up some mountain pies for a late lunch and had s'mores, something Noelle had been looking forward to for months. She made a double decker s'more sandwich and said she felt they met her expectations!

Nate and Carrie worked together to make the perfect treat!

And Kellen decided the graham cracker was the only part of the s'more he needed to take part in!

The rest of the camping adventure went well although apparently I stopped taking pictures. Kellen took a nap in the tent. The girls did not but that meant an early bedtime worked for the kids. Dinner was again yummy! Night two of sleeping in the tent was less successful than night one as Noelle had her same cover issues and Kellen wanted in on the Saxton snuggle time too. We were all up early after much not sleep and had a quick pancake and sausage breakfast before heading out and heading home. Kellen was ready to go as he just couldn't warm up Sunday morning. Noelle was sad to leave camping but happy to go "home to our little house." Clearly we need to work on our spoiled daughter who thinks our single family home is tiny. The highlight of camping for me, besides catching up with old friends and sharing nature with my kids, was certainly seeing how mature and helpful Noelle has become. She helped me wash dishes on three occasions, was super helpful with the little kids, listened well, and was basically a pleasure to be around. Maybe the end of whining will soon be upon us! That is probably wishful thinking though as she did breakdown last night at home!

We are definitely calling our first camping experience with the kids a success! Everyone arrived home happy and alive, no one got hurt, and everyone was generally pleasant. Yay! We plan on trying a camp out again early next fall, hopefully at my favorite sort of close by campground, Big Meadows on Shenandoah Drive. 

Oh, and our theme song for the camping adventure was, "What does the fox say?" If you haven't seen the music video, goggle it. Or don't. Your life will probably be better if you don't. I blame Bryan and his work for bringing this horrible song into our life!

Wine in the Woods

For the second or third year (I am quickly losing count), we hosted our wine in the woods tasting event for some friends. We put the kids to bed, cursed the rain, put out the vast quantities of food that I made, and got out the cork screws.

Apparently it was appropriate that we had our event the first day of fall because reds were in the great majority for the night, although I did try a reisling and a champagne on the white side of things. The wine and food made me happy, we had great company (sorry that we forgot to take pictures til the end ladies!), and I let the dirty dishes sit in the sink overnight for the first time ever so was still in bed by midnight. A great way to ring in fall!

My spread minus the hot items - Four kinds of cheese and various crackers, prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe, veggies and dill dip, pretzel chips and buffalo chicken dip, homemade chicken taquitos with guac, salsa, and sour cream, trader joe's wine country chicken salad (AKA the best chicken salad ever), caramel brownies, peanut butter cream cheese ball with apple slices and chocolate teddy grahams, and baked apple donut holes. After everyone came we had even more food and we did a good job taking it down!

 Getting a shot of the girls who stayed late turned out to be tough but we got a few!

We divided and conquered during the party, but here we are still standing strong and together at the end!

I think next year's event needs a new name as more and more people are giving up wine for beer or other drinks, but we'll certainly have a repeat of our family friendly daytime version in the spring and the adult only fall fun in September. See you there!

Walk for Maryland's Children

Bryan puts me to shame with his charitable groups and giving. I like to think mine is just on a smaller scale with lots of meals for new moms, sock monkeys, and babysitting for friends! B is really involved with both the United Way and The Family Tree, a local organization that works toward stronger families through education and prevention services. Domestic violence is a cause dear to both of our hearts, as is trying to make Baltimore better, so this organization is perfect for our family to support. So Saturday, the four of us headed down to their annual family walk and festival and we had a great time. We did the one mile family walk since we were letting Noelle and her little friend, Kolton, walk. Then the kids hit the festival for the moon bounce obstacle courses. For some reason Bryan allowed Kellen to go on these despite his determination that bouncy houses give him pink eye. Apparently, if the bounce house is outside it is immune to germs in B's mind. The morning ended on a low note when Noelle took a face plant on the sidewalk as she ran toward the bathroom but she is healing nicely and I am fairly confident CPS won't be called when she walks in to school tomorrow.

Here is some of the fun:

We look forward to the walk next year, and I am excited that my mom's group will again adopt a family for the holidays through the organization this winter.

The Tire Park

On Friday, Kellen and I had a lovely and productive morning. Then to reward Noelle for some awesome behavior of late, the three of us enjoyed a pizza lunch with some friends after preschool and then had an outing to our favorite playground, the tire park, for about 90 minutes after naps. We had a great time and I got some good shots of the kids (especially Kellen as Noelle is a little quick to capture on film) there!

  

 

 

Four Year Check-Up

This morning I took Noelle to see Dr. Burke for her 4 year check-up. Between vacations (the doctors and ours), and back-to-school craziness at the doctor, we were a month and a day late, but oh well!

We got called right at 8:45, yay! First, Noelle was weighed and measured. Her stats:

42 inches (88% percentile)

40 pounds, 14 ounces (84%)

Noelle was last at the pediatric center in March and was 41 pounds so she is actually just maintaining weight right now. She also grew almost 5 inches since her three year check up last August. Major growth spurt after growing only 1.5 inches between 2 and 3! I am still in shock at how I produced a tall girl but am excited that my daughter still appears destined to be able to reach items off the top shelf at the grocery store without assistance!

Next up, they took Noelle's blood pressure and pulse. I don't remember this happening in the past but besides being squirmy the first time they tried to use the cuff, she did well. Then, they did her first real hearing and vision tests. She correctly identified all the beeps in her headphone without problem. I told her since I now know that she has no hearing issues I shouldn't have to repeat myself 7 times - we'll see if that works! Noelle also patiently went through her vision test with no problems. No glasses in our immediate future! I remember wishing I had glasses as a kid. As a grown-up, I hate the glasses/contacts I now have to wear. Noelle, enjoy this glasses-free life while you can!

We spent a lot of time answering the nurse questions and even spoke to Dr. Burke and got examined for quite some time. She looks great! Then Noelle got two shots and was mostly a rock star although did not think they were no big deal like she did when she was a bit smaller. A bribe of a leftover Wawa pretzel that grandma and pop-pop left on their stopover last night took her mind off the pain!

Despite my insistence last week that I am done with JHU, Dr. Burke very much wants Noelle to be part of the clinic that we were trying to get in down there. They are taking over the appointment getting for me and know of my displeasure with the one doctor we have seen. I am somewhat hopeful that they can work their pediatrician magic and get us in before February but we'll see.

Our doctor's office is moving to Columbia in November and I was considering moving to a closer practice. Our visit today sealed the deal for us to stay. We were there for one hour and almost that entire time were actively being seen by the nurse or doctor. Thankfully my kids are pretty healthy, but I think continuing to see people that know Noelle's potty history and Kellen's anemia/ear history is important. But kiddies, please don't get as sick this winter as last. I would love not to make a trip to Columbia every week in the cold and snow!

Noelle will go back in early October for a flu shot or mist - three live viruses in one day was too much for us to take! Until then, flu stay away!

The Mommy Adventures

The past few days and nights, around work and family time, I have had quite a few mommy events. First up, our crab feast! Eight moms from my group got together to eat crabs, drink beer, tell stories, and laugh. We even had two crab newbies in the bunch and I was impressed with how Erin patiently taught Emily how to open hers. I definitely can't be bothered slowing down my own crab eating to help others learn the art of crabs! These were just my second crabs of the year and they were yummy!

Saturday night I journeyed out to a piano bar with some moms. Becki had won a happy hour which included free admission and two drinks for all of us so we went down and enjoyed the sing-alongs and thanks to the happy hour party special and Bryan's parking garage I got away with spending a mere $3 for the evening. The free drinks even included Yuengling so not too shabby!

 

The mom adventures ended for the weekend with a small baby sprinkle to celebrate Erin's new bundle of joy. We had a low key brunch and it was nice to chat, give Erin a few goodies, and scare her a little about life with two! I tried some new recipes and they turned out well and since I love brunch I was pretty darn excited. And perhaps the best part of the brunch was that Bryan and Noelle used the time to do our weekly Costco/Trader Joe's run so no grocery shopping for me!

I know I say it a lot, but I love my mom's group and the friends I have made in Catonsville since having Noelle!

Disney Without Kids

Bryan and I really were going to go someplace other than Disney for our first kid-free adventure. We got so far as to almost book a hotel, visit to the Grand Ole Opry, and to get restaurant reservations in Nashville. When everything was quickly adding up, it wasn't much cheaper than a Disney getaway. And since we were thinking about other trips in the next year we decided this was our perfect opportunity to go all out on Disney for a year before Noelle starts school and we have to pay for Kellen there. So we each got an annual pass and we rented vacation club points to try the Disney time share program. We felt a little guilty leaving the kids while we went to this kid haven, but since we are planning a trip in November with some of Bryan's family and a last pre-school hurrah in May they are getting a lot of Disney love, so off we went!

Disney without kids when you have kids was pretty different for us in some ways and exactly the same in other ways. We spent hours on rides and really enjoyed the parks. We still did Dumbo and most of fantasyland. But we also spent an entire day at Epcot sharing a beer in each country and watching the shows and listening to bands. We spent one evening on the boardwalk and shared some food at the brewery and then went to an awesome piano bar. We had a gourmet meal at Wilderness Lodge. We didn't worry about nap times, but still got up early and didn't go to bed crazy late. We did not sit and watch a single parade or nighttime show, although we saw them in passing on several occasions. We reconnected and enjoyed our shared favorite place. It was lovely!  We did miss our kids. A lot! But overall we had a great time!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of our first trip to Disney on our annual passes! I am sure when the kids are with us the next two times we'll post many, many more! Oh, and Bryan will be doing a seperate post on our day at Epcot once I nag him enough!

We started our trip at Hollywood Studios. Since we rode our favorite rides with no lines (crowds were amazing), we lined up for the Backlot Tour. The tour was cut short due to a massive thunderstorm, but we got through the first part where Bryan played a role and had about a zillion gallons of water dumped on him! This is the before picture.

 And the during! Thankfully for B, that suit was pretty effective!

 Tower of Terror. My favorite Disney ride.

 Day Two: Magic Kingdom, Let the Memories Begin (Continue)!

 Noelle insisted we go on Dumbo for her. 

 We got to our dinner at Wilderness Lodge a bit early and explored. It is absolutely beautiful!

The chef plated our meals that we wanted to split so nicely for us. We shared the cedar plank salmon and the buffalo skirt steak. So yummy! Highly recommend Artist's Point!

Wilderness Lodge. The rainy view out our window at dinner.

 Our pal, Pluto.

 Pitstop in United Kingdom as we try to avoid another afternoon thunderstorm!

 O' Canada!

 On our first safari of the long weekend this rhino followed our vehicle. He was pretty awesome!

Bryan and the hideous Hollywood Studio's Hat. We continued our tradition of doing all 4 parks in one day the Sunday we were there. I decided I am getting too old for this on park three but we charged ahead and made it!

 Looking regal and lionly.

 The giraffes were amazing!

 Peek A Boo!

 And I always love me some baby elephant!

 Pooh Bear

 We finished the trip off with a visit to bounce with Tigger

That's all, friends!