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26 July 2014

Gifford Pinchot State Park Camping

Annette dislikes camping, but she has been wanting to go camping this year since springtime came.  Charlie has also been begging to go camping as well.  We finally went camping for an entire 15 hours, most of that time being awake unfortunately, but it was so much fun!  We can't wait to go again and are already planning our next outing.  Next time we go we won't tell the boys until right before since the anticipation almost killed them all week.

We camped at the Gifford Pinchot State Park which is about 15 minutes from our home.  We knew we wouldn't have time to make dinner because Charles was working late on Friday so we grabbed a pizza on the way.  Here we are setting up the tent.

Annette has been dying to see a sunset and she got her wish.  The clouds were stunning in their zig zag across the sky.  Annette was in artsy heaven.



Charles lit our fire the manly way with a blow torch. 

Henry loved finding the big rocks and hauling them around in his dump truck. 


Our eight man tent fit our family of five great.  Charles and I were camping for the kids and not for the outdoorsy experience so we brought air mattresses.  It was actually a really good idea since our tent was on gravel which was everywhere.  That freed up the two sleeping pads for the boys.

The boys shared a sleeping bag, one on each end.  They laid on the orange blanket which was on the sleeping pads.  Henry was kind of weirded out about the whole sleeping in the tent and was unsure of it at night so he held Annette's hand most of the night.  Elizabeth had her crib, but she was freezing in the middle of the night so next time she will just sleep with Annette.

Charles made an excellent pancake and bacon breakfast for us.  It is fun every once in a while to indulge in a little (or a lot) of bacon.


Henry enjoyed breakfast so much he wanted to taste it again.  He threw it up onto the orange blanket we were sitting on outside.  He didn't want to get the grass dirty :)  Charles threw up every time he went camping as a kid, so I guess Henry got whatever gene Charles has.  Thankfully Charles grew out of it.

Elizabeth was very content to lay on the ground and watch things go on around her.



Henry so wanted to pick up these rocks.  He kept trying the entire time.

Henry has become a human train, "Duga, duga, duga, doo, doo!"  He got distracted, but you get the idea.

We went down to the little dock in the morning to look at the lake before we left.



I just had to get a picture of Henry's dirty little face even if he was crying.

A Little This, A Little That

Here they are, the three best kids.

When I painted the kitchen the boys wanted to paint, too.  They got to paint the bathtub with an old watercolor set.



I have to say that I love Elizabeth's clothes.   I wish I dressed as cute as she does.

The boys wanted a little photo-op.

They love having their photo taken and cooperate very nicely.



They do eventually get bored.  Henry is "driving" his hand on the clock and Charlie is "sleeping." 

Here is my cute little assistant giving directions to the models.

Then she got attacked by the little models.

As you have probably noticed, the boys seem to always be less clothed than socially acceptable.  It's summer, hot, and it cuts down on laundry so I am fairly relaxed about the whole thing.  Charlie does go and put clothes on himself at times, especially if people come over.  Here he is dressing himself.  He put his right arm in the sleeve backwards and needed a little help, but he does pretty well.  I like the twisted pants also.

Charlie totally looks hilarious in this photo, but that is not the point.  The point is Charlie's green onion sword in his pocket.  I have tons of green onions growing in our little herb garden and so I don't mind if the boys play with them.


So, a while back I made a list of some of the funny things the kids had done and then I lost the list.  I finally found it.  I may have included some of these already, but I can't remember.

- Henry ate rabbit poop at a baby shower.
- Henry bit my finger pretty hard while I was trying to swipe Charlie's vitamin out of his mouth.
- Charlie likes to squish ants with his finger and then runs to tell me about it.
- Charlie and Henry love all of the flies in the house and are very entertained by them.
- Charlie has an inaccurate perception of the word "dead."
- Charlie likes to add or take off the "y" at the end of words.  Examples: foody, drinky, pot instead of potty.
- When our friends the Drakes moved into our basement Charlie started to call them Grandma and Grandpa.
- Henry and Charlie learned the phrase, "Uh-oh spaghetti-o."  Henry says it, "Uh bee-oh Mom."


Here is a movie of Elizabeth laughing.  Around 1:30 is when she really gets going.

Charlie made his own computer.

23 July 2014

Five Year Anniversary Trip

We went on a little trip for our anniversary.  It was a grand total of about 28 hours long and Elizabeth came along and ruined our night, but it was still a nice little getaway.  We went to the Pocono Mountains about 2 hours northeast and stayed at a little bed and breakfast.  Not my favorite place, but it worked.

The next day we went to the Bushkill Waterfalls which were amazing, even at $12.50 a person.  It was a nice little stroll that took us about 3 hours because we wanted to go slowly.  It was nice and shady the entire time with cool mist in the air at the waterfalls.  Some people were surprised that we were doing such a "rigorous" hike with our little baby.  We told them that it was nothing compared to hiking Zion's while pregnant and carrying Charlie in the blazing heat.

Here is the largest main falls.


I loved all of the moss and greenery.

There were some very cool rocks under the water that had a copper color to them from being under the water.


There wasn't food allowed on the trail, but Elizabeth still ate :)

These are part of the roots for a large tree.  They looked awesome with how they have grown over the rocks. 



Charles thought this snake was pretty cool.  Especially because it has smoky blue eyes.  But really the only good snake is a dead snake.




I have no idea how a tree would have grown all twisty, but it sure looked cool.


I like Elizabeth's half smile.

And then her ridiculous face.


She decided to rest in a tree for a while because of all of her hiking :)  Charles is propping her up.

Sadness, but oh so cute.





These type of bridge walkways were everywhere and that why it was $12.50 a person I presume.

The water looks like Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh.

It was a very fun 28 hours away from the boys and on the way home we stopped at the world's largest Cabela's in Hamburg, PA and bought a gun safe.