Day two of camping

Our second day, Wednesday started a little chilly but sunny.  The boys woke up eager to explore their surroundings...at 6am in the morning!  While breakfast was cooking, they both played around the yurt while reveling in all the fresh air, dirt, bugs, and sunshine.  We met our neighbors as they geared up to head out on their boat for a bit of fishing.  Our other yurt neighbors hadn't rolled out of bed yet.

A little later, we went into the town of Andover for food stocks.  I had to keep reminding myself that we are NOT camping in the middle of no-where and there is civilization close-by...this means that it ok if we forget something.   This yurt is just a bit different from hiking miles to through the back country to camp in Yellowstone National Park.  I have to admit, it is much easier this way :-)
On this excursion, Brian was able to pick up his fishing license, too.

Once back at the park, while Jude took his first nap with Brian, Tam and I went to check out the lake.  Pymatuning Lake is the result of a dam built in 1933.   It is a huge lake, but shallow, and well known for the walleye fish.  Our access to the lake is only about 100ish yards from our yurt and includes a beach and fishing pier.  Tam and I walked right on down to the beach to check out how warm the water was (pretty nice).  Tam then played a bit in the sand, rocks, crayfish, algae. 


Tam then wanted to check out the playground, which was small, but boasted a fairly tall slide.

Back at the Yurt, Jude awoke to warmer weather and got a chance to check out the bubble machine.  This one is great because it can't be spilled, even by a zealous one year-old.  Brian decided to try some fishing and I watched the boys play in the water.  Surprisingly, Tam wasn't frighten of this water, whether it was because it was so warm, or had such small waves, or because he had a gaggle of college boys to play with.   He was so brave that he went out into the lake all the way up to his armpits all on his own.  Tam then learned how to throw rocks to make big splashes (from the college boys, who were very tolerant of our little chatterbox).  Jude played right at the water's edge, mostly digging in the sand and splashing in the water. 

Around lunchtime, Brian's mom and step-dad arrived for a visit.  Both kids and grandparents were so happy to see each other.  Jude even perked up and stopped being quite as cranky from his newly budding teeth.  Grandma Margie had fun playing with Jude and his latest trick...while sitting on a lap, Jude launches himself backwards confident in the person holding him will catch him, and hold him upside down; he then laughs like a maniac while viewing the world in this skewed view.


Later in the afternoon, we rented a pontoon boat to cruise around the lake.  The weather is sunny and perfect for this little outing...perfect for relaxing with the family out on the calm water.

I had purchased a second hand life-jacket for Tam, but we had to borrow a smaller one for Jude...he looked like a little marshmallow with arms :-)  We let Brian drive, while we sat around taking in the view.  Tam thought the ride was awesome.  He kept wanting to look over the rails or look at the motor or watch Brian driving.

 

 

Jude fell asleep.

After about an hour cruising, around Jude woke up and Brian decided to have some fun with some zig-zag patterns and striking the waves broadside to rock the boat.  This let everyone sway as they tried to keep their "sea-legs."

We let Tam do a bit of driving...at a low speed.  However, Tam did get distracted by the shore and often turned landward!

Jude even got a chance to steer, but he was still a bit sleepy...and then he got hungry and started signing for milk.  This was a signal to head on back to the dock.

Overall, it was an awesome experience for everyone.  Tam hopes to get back on a boat really soon:-)

The Grandparents had to head home before dinner, but we would see them again in a few days.  Our evening ended with steaks, corn, and potatoes toasted on the fire.  As the sunset, Tam and Brian walked down to the pier to try fishing for a bit, but were unsuccessful.  Don't worry, Tam's little fishing rod only has a jitterbug lure on it, with no hooks for safety.  He still has tons of fun casting out into the water and reeling it in.  In the blush of the evening, Tam and I roast some more marshmallows over the flames.  He declares that the fire is happy because it is a yellow color.

Later, Brian and I enjoy the evening around the fire, sipping beers, and listening to our silly college kids neighbors drinking too much and playing stupid games.  He reminded of us our good ol' college days;  were we ever that dumb?  Brian and I kept looking at each other and laughing at their outbursts.

Our first night camping

Here is the series of posts containing some notes and photos from our camping excursion last week.

The travel to the park went fairly well.  We loaded up and left soon after everyone awoke on Tuesday morning.  All the boys slept for the first half of the trip.  Jude tolerated the car until the last 30 miles and then he protested loudly.  

 

We made it safely to our yurt at the state park around dinnertime.  It was way nicer than I thought!  Both the yurt and the gazebo were up on decking.  We had both a charcoal stove and a fire pit for cooking outside. The inside included two sets of bunk beds, a sink, a mini-fridge, a fan, a heater, and a 2-burner gas stove, and a good amount of room to move around.  There were even dishtowels and sheets for the beds...nearly a hotel room with all the amenities!  However, the bathrooms were about 50yards away and the showers were twice that distance.  The entire yurt structure sat between the only other two yurts and was in the Northwest corner of the park, which meant there was no one behind us camping.

We quickly unloaded the car of our bags.  I set about unpacking and setting up the beds while Brian saw to dinner.  Tamlin saw the bunk beds and immediately claimed a top bunk.  He was able to nimbly climb up to the bed, but wasn't quite as sure footed for coming back downward.  We let Jude roam around the structure like a little puppy exploring his new home.  He was quite unsure about the board planking at first; I bet it felt a bit weird on his knees. 

 After dinner, we got Jude to bed in his portable crib.  He was a pretty tired little boy after the day-long journey eastward.  We let Tamlin stay up later because he was so excited to be camping for the first time. 

I enjoyed just sitting down and watching the sun set.  Very peaceful.

Brian got the fire started, with help from Tamlin.  He was really good at trying to blow on the fire with both air and lots of spit.  The night was warm, so we didn't need the fire for the heat, but for ...

Marshmallows!

Yummy, sugary, gooey, goodness!



 Tam's first just jammed a marshmallow on the stick and ate it.  I then showed him that we stick the marshmallow in the fire to toast it (or burn it a bit) before we chomp it.

 Tam tried this newfangled treat.  After lighting a marshmallow on fire, blowing it out, and tasting it, Tam declared that he only liked white marshmallows and not black ones.
More for me.

(Wow, you can really see how dirty my kid got after only a few hours camping.)

Both boys slept pretty well the first night.  Jude had a few qualms because he was teething and still ornery.  He woke up howling toward morning because he got a little too chilly.  Brian brought our little Jude Popsicle into bed with us for the morning hours.  Tam was convinced that a bear was going to come into the tent, but he thought that would be okay.  (This is in reference to a page in the book "Hop on Pop", by Dr. Seuss..."He [A bear] went into the tent.  I sent him out of the tent."  He did decide to bring Gloria the Hippo to help with any bear troubles.

I love this picture of Jude sleeping surrounded by love...

sleeping with home-made blankets and monster.

Gazing at the heavens

On June 5, 2012, we went out as a family to watch the transit of Venus across the sun.

During the long car ride last week to our campsite, I heard about this phenomenon on NPR.   I learned that the crossing of our sister planet across our star only happens 2x, eight years apart, and then not again for another 100 years.

I also heard how during the 1700ish passing, scientists went all over the globe to measure how long it took for Venus to cross so that they could calculate the size of planets and their distances (with complicated mathematics).  Thinking about how they globally coordinated this during a time pre-car, pre-phone, pre-computer is mind boggling. 

Yeah Science!

For us, the transit was to begin around 6pm and last until sundown, which is about half of the entire crossing.  Supposedly the best place in our state to view this was on the Sand Dunes on the lake, about 2 hours south of us.  I just couldn't put the boys through another long car ride after just getting home on Monday.

With a bit more surfing on the web, I learned that our local astronomers were setting up telescopes around the city for the public to stop by and look at this cool occurrence.  I choose to head out to a nearby park for the family to catch a glimpse of this awesome event.

At the park, there were a half-dozen telescopes affixed with filters so that the sun could be viewed safely.  One of them was able to project the image onto a screen so that a group of people could see at the same time.  We got there with enough time to see the very beginning of Venus' journey across the sun.  This meant our first glimpse was a black bump on the rim of the sun image. 

I thought this was so cool.

Jude was strapped into the back carrier and thought being out with his family was cool.  He liked just interacting with all the people around him, though he was reaching his pre-bed limit by about 6:45pm.

Brian thought this was cool too.  He checked out the planet through the telescope and through a pair or polarized glasses.
He thought it was a neat thing to see, since we won't have an opportunity to view it again during our lifetimes.

Tam thought it was cool to see the sun.
He knows that Venus is a planet and that it is in the "sky",  but he also thinks that the sun is planet.  He kept asking were the rockets were at. :-)

Then, Tam saw the playground and got distracted.

 Tam also realized I was snapping a few photos with the iPad and 

wanted to try photography for himself.

 After a quick play, we checked back in on the planet's movement at the telescopes.  

I was a bit amazed at how quickly the journey was going. 

Did anyone else think of the song "Why does the sun shine" by the band They Might Be Giants?

And why didn't we see this 8 years ago in 2004?
We asked the astronomers and they said that it occurred to far in the southern hemisphere for us to see it then.

Going to our Yurt!

Yeah, yeah, yeah...we are off to camp in our yurt! For the next five nights we will be pseudo-roughing it as a family in a state park back East.  I have to admit I am both REALLY looking forward to this and also REALLY worried about how the boys will deal with it.

 I think I've remembered everything for this new adventure...
Bugspray, sunscreen, itch relief spray, sleeping bags, swimsuits, flashlights, disposable diapers, dish soap, knife, lighters, sand toys, fishing rods ...

Camera? oh, yeah...I hope to catch lots of memory of this excursion on film, er, pixels.

We'll be in a glorified tent or yurt, which is supposed to have a fridge, 2 burner stove, bunk beds, and water within it (no bathroom).  

Oooooo   Exciting!

And the various family members are coming down to see us too, and play, and eat fish that have been caught.

If all goes well, we will begin looking at taking the boys up to the cabin in Canada for summer vacations in the future.

If it fails, there is always an emergency trip to a local hotel room.  But I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everyone has a great time and the weather turns out great.

Cranky Jude

Jude has been a cranker-nut for the past two days, and running the occasional fever. I attributed it to shots from his visit to the doctor.

Maybe...

But the poor little mite has his first tooth popping through too!

Finally!

Beach Bums

On Thursday this past week, we packed up the kids and headed out to a nearby beach.  It was supposed to be a fairly warm day, up into the 80s by noon, and sunny, so perfect beach weather.  I also thought of it as a dry-run for our trip camping to the State Park next week; I wanted to see how Jude reacted to the sand and the surf.  

Now the beach is about 50minutes driving from our home, so I wanted to time the journey to coincide with Jude's early nap to maximize happiness while we were at our destination.  Tam was super excited and carefully choose which beach toys he wanted to bring.  Brian packed the lunch and I made sure all the rest of the needed supplies were packed.

However, I forgot the camera, so this is a word only post.
:-(

We traveled to a park with huge sand dunes; one of these include a tunnel through it to actually get onto the beach.  I like the park because it is on the small side, but still boasts changing stations, beach, playgrounds, and a huge sand dune to run down.

How did the boys like the (chilly) water?
Jude...
At first, he hated it and started crying within moments of getting his feet wet.  However, I plopped him down at the edge of the waves on the wet sand and we commenced building a sand castle.  Well, we built a sand mound slowly because for every 3 scopes I placed, Jude dragged off one scope of sand.  While we played in the gloppy wet sand, the waves inched closer.  The water eventually filled in the moat we created, and Jude happily played in the temporary pool.  The waves inched even closer until his was actually sitting in the water...and loving it.  Lots of happy squeals and smiles and splashing.Then he would crawl all over me with his wet sandy hands.   Good thing I'm his mom and love the goober.

Tamlin...
He loved the warm dry sand.  He liked the somewhat wet sand for its usefulness in constructing castles with his molds.  He was afraid of the water.  He insisted on holding my hand as he crept close to the water edge.  He barely touched the water before he backed away from the waves.  I think he maybe got a foot wet before he decided he didn't want anything to do with the water.  Even when Brian, Jude, and I were playing in the wet sand, Tam would rather play further away from the water edge.   However, a local preschool came to the beach next to us, so he had a bunch of kids to play with who also didn't want to go into the water.  He's so good at making friends...I noticed he usually befriended not the boys that are around his age, but either slightly younger kids or older girls.  I think because the other boys are often playing games he isn't interested in.

After beach fun, we changed clothes, brushed off sand, and ate a picnic lunch.  yummy peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches all around!

Before leaving, the boys had some playground time and we let Tam run up the huge sand dune and roll back down.  He loved this and giggled like a maniac.  Jude liked standing at the top and watching (there was a gated rail that Jude could safely stand behind and watch).

Three hours of fun in the sun, no sunburns, and tired boys.
A good day!
:-)