Camping

In mid May we camped over night at Tyler State Park. A very family friendly little park with paddle boats, canoes, kayaks, a swim beach, playground, and even a souvenir store. We stayed at my mom's in Emory Friday night so we could get an early start Saturday. That put us about half way to the camp ground. When we got there the best available spot would not be ready until 2pm (check out for the other people) so we decided to wait and run around the park while we waited for our site to be vacated. We played at the play ground, Dan did a little dock fishing, we had a picnic of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches






and then rented a paddle boat.. or peddle boat to be more exact.




That was exhausting and we were trying to fight nap time. Lea actually fell asleep on the little hump in the middle of the boat she was so tired. We peddled around the lake for a little less than an hour (and were exhausted!) It was beautiful and fun. Fortunately when we returned from our boat ride with our tired little monkey our campsite was ready.

We moved in and went down for a nap. Dan started the fire and we had a delicious stew. Lea was great about staying away from the fire. "Fire, very hot" she could say it and she knew what it meant.

We let her play in the water tub since it was a bit too late to swim. Also probably pretty cold. We warmed some water on the fire to make her "bath" more comfortable, but I don't think it ever really got as warm as bath water. She had fun though. We also collected pine-cones and rocks in our bucket.
The night was hard. It was colder than I'd imagined and darker than I think Lea was ready for. She woke a few times during the night and I recited what I remembered of our Pooh Bear night time story. I had it pretty well memorized! We got up at about 6 am and dressed warm, only to see kids across the campsite dressed in shorts. We had a wonderful fire cooked
breakfast of bacon and pancakes and packed up to head home.
First however we made our way back to the lake where there was a small foot bridge to tiny fishing island. We found a comfortable spot under the trees and threw hot dogs and left over pancakes to the fishes.

Lea could watch them eat as we sat by the water. We said in 10 years we'd return and Lea would catch a fish, say "this tastes like pancakes" and we'd know why! It was a great weekend, but we probably won't overnight again soon.

Grandpa's Playhosue

We discovered the swing set in Grandpa's backyard not long ago. And as is his generous way, he's been improving upon the fort. He got Lea a steering wheel and periscope for the fort. She really enjoys playing up there. She can ALMOST climb up by herself, but we are a long way from her coming down on her own. At least slowly and gently coming down on her own!

Elephant. Ride Elephant.

So it has been weeks since we've gone to scarboro fair. We had a wonderful time. Took Teresa, Dan's sister with us and we all had a fabulous time. But the highlight is definetly Lea and I riding the very tame, very old elephant. Teresa started the day saying we would see an elephant and thank goodness there was one, because Lea was holding Teresa to her word of seeing and riding the elephant. So we did. Lea was so excited, until she climbed on in front of me, at which time she put her stretched hand over her face and eyes and said "scared." When she climbed down the stairs from the elephant pavillion she told Dan "Scared. Again!" So she liked it. We still hear about the "Elephant. Ride Elephant." She even wakes up talking about it. There was a camel that you could ride next to the elephant. We did not ride it, and Lea will tell you there was a camel and that we did not ride it. It comes out like "camel. ride. [shake head no]"
"Pet. Bunny" is also a good story Lea tells. The last word, "bunny" is whispered as though it is one of the greatest secrets known to childhood. There was a great petting zoo that we were at for at least half an hour. Bunnies, goats, ducks, pigs, ponies. Lea got a carrot on the way in and the goats would nibble it. "What ate the carrot?" "Goat" or "Pony" also whispered.
Lea wore her fairy skirt (not bought there, but brought along so we didn't have to spend the money for a new one!) and by the end she wore that and Teresa's hat. Very cute.

Abusing his power

So Dan found out that Lea will repeat almost anything. Does it constitue child abuse to get your child to say things that will get her beat up at renaissance fairs?

This all comes from the guy running the elephant ride at Scarboro Fair who was definitely of the hippy variety... wheather he was dirty or stinky was undeterminable due to the presense of the elephant and bathroom about which he and Dan argued over which smelled worse.

There is no video, sound only: Listen for Dirty hippy

Vacation at home

Due to unforseen events we were unable to make our planned trip to see Grandma Dusty and Gra. We were disappointed that we didn't get to see them, but have reschedule and are looking forward to it. Plus I was able to make good use of the time to take a breather after some very hard weeks at work. I did take the days off from work and enjoyed our weekend as a "vacation at home"

Saturday we took the canoe out on our local White Rock Lake. Lea was much more thrilled than this photo shows. This is a canoe that Dan remember riding in with his dad when he was a wee lad and was excited to share it with our wee lass. I was petrified that we were all going to end up very soggy by the end of the day, but thanks to Dan's expert boating skills and Lea's full cooperation we had our driest canoe trip ever.

We had a fabulous time. It was picture perfect in parts... other parts were spent rowing around picking up litter. BUT we found this corner of the lake where the water was clear as glass... brown glass, but still... We rowed around the tree line and saw turtles and ducks. We saw two kinds of turtles - soft shell and some other kind. Lea would cry "MORE!" when the turtles went under water to get away from our prying eyes as we intruded on thier basking in the sun. Not surprising, her cries did not bring the turtles back and even the power of parent wishes would not bring them back to their sunny spots.

When turtles were not in view, Lea busied herself by throwing rocks overboard. Fortunately I had the forethoght to bring cups of rocks (I'd learned that this was a good past time from our pond fishing trip)! And it worked!

At the start, she tossed some toys out, which were fished out of the water by Dan from his spot in the back of the canoe and finally mom learned that Lea should hold nothing but the cup of rocks. We did lose the cup.

We paddled to the opposite side of the lake and had a wonderful picnic. Lea loved the picnic and said so. Its very nice now that she can hold a conversation, even if it is a one word at a time conversation, she gets her point across. Lea says "boat" and we say what did we see on the boat? "turtle" what else? "ducks" (by the way somehow we've regressed to a point where ducks say "FAT!" Some how Lea makes the word believable as a quack, but it is clearly a fff at the begining and a ttt at the end... very bizarre duck noise) what did you have in the boat? "rocks" and what did you do with the rocks? "wahder" (as in "I threw them in the water.") and with "SPLASH!" she sums up the day.


I didn't take the camera on the trip because of my aforementioned fear of tippage, but this is pre trip prep!


Lea was such a good girl in her life jacket. She didn't complain at all and wore it well.




Then Sunday we continued our celebration of home by turning on the sprinkler pooh bear and frolicing. Lea enjoyed the buckets of water and spay. Lea and I played Monday too, but as the weather was threatening to storm it was a bit breezy so it was shorter lived than our original wet frolic. These photos are from Monday.