Third day in the yurt

  Thursday, again, our little Jude woke up early... around 6am. He and I checked out the sunrise over the lake, while Tam and Brian caught a few more moments of sleep.  It was a chilly morning, but it quickly warmed into warm sunny day.

 

We let the kids run around the Yurt in the morning.   Tamlin found the basketball and decided to take it for rides at break-neck speeds.  We had to keep reminding him to watch out for his little brother, but he was having such fun.  Jude was feeling adventurous and took off crawling down the ramp of the deck.  After every couple of movements, he would sit up, look back at dad (as if to make sure it was ok), and then continue on.  he did make it to the grass and had a huge grin across his face.

 During Jude's first nap, Tamlin and I again went out for an adventure.  This time we found the park's main office and picked up some maps and the weather report (calling for rain for the weekend).  The two of us then hit one of the little trails for some hiking through the woods.   We saw birds, trees, butterflies, and lots of poison ivy.  I showed Tam some Gallium plants which have curved hairs that allow it to stick to clothing.  He thought this was pretty cool.  We also heard crows calling to each other...which Tam informed me was them playing hide-and-seek with each other.  They play like Tam does, calling out his hiding location to the person who is it :-)  It was a mile trek, and Tamlin survived about .4 of it before wanting to turn back; he exclaimed that it was getting a little scary and that he missed daddy.  He did succeed  in finding a great poking stick and dragged it back to the car (and yurt).  We headed out and back to the yurt, picking up some firewood from a local seller along the roadside.

 My dad and his girlfriend arrived with pizza for lunch.  They were both impressed with how spacious our yurt was.  Jude enjoyed sitting in his Papa Ralph's lap, checking out his beard, and diving backward (we warned grandpa first). Tamlin told them how much fun he having camping and that he hasn't seen any bears yet (in or out of the yurt).

 We all walked down to the water so that Brian could try fishing.  Tamlin brought his little rod and proceeded to tell Papa Ralph all about how to fish.  This was great because, as far as I know, my dad is NOT a fisherman.  Tamlin doesn't do too bad at casting; he gets the line out about four feet when he's lucky.  Brian fooled Tam a bit by throwing a rock into to the water, just out of his view.  Then he hollered over to him asking if he just "seen that big fish jump out of the water?"  Tam readily agreed that it must have been a fish and then kept watching the water to see another.  Brian obliged, always just behind his back.  Silly daddy.

Doesn't Tamlin look like a little rascal in this picture? Or maybe Huck Finn?

  While Brian kept on fishing, the rest of us moseyed over to the beach for some impromptu swimming session. 

The boys loved playing in the sun, sand, and water.  The grandparents enjoyed seeing them having such fun.

Tamlin kept talking our ears off about everything that he was doing...splashing, kicking, building sand castles, throwing rocks.

After this jaunt, the boys were quite ready for naps and we had a nice visit with dad and Madeline.  They headed home in the early afternoon, which left a little time for Brian and I to nap a bit too.

All this fresh air made us all sleepy.

 
My sister and her family came in the early evening to play with us all.  

 Tamlin and Ciearra had fun running around in the sunshine while Jude enjoyed plying his free fall antics with his Aunt Shelly.

We get the kids suited up and all head down to the beach for an afternoon swim to cool off in the water.  Shelly is skeptical that Ciearra will want to go into the water at all, or even want to get dirty in the sand.  However, she plunges right in, and even attempts floating around nearly fully submerged.

Tam's favorite part is getting buckets of water, hauling them up onto the shore, and pouring them on the sand around Jude.

Jude tried eating the rocks...But we all yelled loudly, "Jude, That's Not Food" and stopped him mid-motion to his mouth.  He is certainly getting better at responding to this phrase!   He then settled down to have fun squishing sand between his fingers.

 We serve up a campfire dinner of steaks, corn, potatoes, and watermelon.  However, the corn and potatoes got a bit crispy while we were all down enjoying the water, but what was edible was great.  

Our yurt's "backyard" is a simple amphitheater with a concrete stage.  The kiddos had fun playing on this structure and performing tricks for each other on the stage.  This was a hoot to watch :-)

After Jude goes to bed for the evening, we broke out the marshmallows and s'more fixings.  These were enjoyed by everyone, though Tamlin sat down with his and immediately took it apart to eat.  What a mess!

With full bellies, we kissed Tam goodnight and sent him home to sleep over with his cousin Ciearra.  Brian and I had a quiet evenings pseudo to ourselves (with just Jude sleeping nearby).

I love that my boys are having such a great time here.  I love that they don't seem to care a bit about the dirt, the sand, the grime, the snakes, the fish, the goose poop, the anything icky...They just see the fun and wonder in everything around them...and that make me smile!

And I love marshmallow s'mores!