Molly let me hold her finishers medal while she was tasting wine.
Sunday morning, we went to a wine festival in Virginia. We picked up Joe and Ruthie on the way and ended up getting there before it even opened. It was a perfect day - it was supposed to shower off and on, but turned out to be a really sunny day. Luckily mom put a lot of sunscreen on me, but she got pretty sunburned. It was a really fun day - I got a strawberry smoothie that made me very happy and I got to bounce in the bounce house (once I got over my shyness). The balloon lady made me a ladybug bracelet that matched my outfit!
Dad gave me a piece of gator! Yum - tastes like chicken (just kidding, but it was really good).
Wednesday night, mom, dad and I got most of our camping stuff packed up. They were going to be out on Thursday night, so had to get it done on Wednesday. I helped - see, I even tried on my new carrier. It's as big as I am! Good thing mommy or daddy wear me IN it!
Thursday night, mom and dad went to a concert (Mumford & Sons) and Ms. Sharon came and stayed with me. We had pepperoni pizza for dinner and I got to play Candy Land with her and show her my new big bed! We had a blast, despite the bad storm that rolled in right after mom and dad left. The lights even went out for a few minutes. Mom and dad got stuck in the rain the entire way to the concert, but it had ended by the time they finally got in (what a miserable experience - don't ever go to Merriweather Post Pavilion, mom and dad tell me).
My school was closed on Friday for a Professional Development Day, so mom and dad took the day off (well, they worked in the morning) and we went camping!!! We went to Mathews Arm Campground in the Shenandoah National Park. It was SO much fun! We left around 1 on Friday, which was perfect timing for my nap. I slept nearly the whole way there and only woke up when we stopped at Walmart just outside of the park to get pillows, chairs and a potty for me (can you believe mom and dad left those things at home???) When we got to the campground, we drove around a few times and scouted out a site - it was pretty empty when we got there, so we really had our choice of spots. Dad found one that was pretty isolated from any "neighbors," not directly near the restrooms and in a generator free zone. Mom and I hopped out of the car and stayed there while dad went back to the rangers station to check us in.
Dad came back and we started unloading the car so dad could put the tent up. Would you believe that our car was completely PACKED??? I'm glad mom has an enormous car! It didn't take too long and we were good to go. We got my cot, mom and dad's sleeping pads and all of our sleeping bags set up and mom got the table set up. I was really excited to sleep in my sleeping bag - I picked out a pretty turquoise bag at REI - it has flowers on it and I really love it.
I was "helping" set up the tent...
Dad got part of the tent up, but I got tired, so I watched.
Yummy snack!
Reading my Curious George Book. How fitting that there was a "George Goes Camping" Story...
Tent's all set up, sleeping bags and all.
Daddy changed into jeans and boots and hiked back in the woods to find some firewood to get the fire started. We ended up running to the camp store and buying a bundle of firewood, but daddy did get a bunch of huge logs that lasted much of the night. After he came back, he started the fire and we got dinner started - dad made chili - yum! Of course, we also forgot to pack knives, so dad had to cut the onion with his big Army knife. Not ideal, but it worked. Because we were running around trying to get our site set up, dinner was a little later than normal, but I didn't mind. I was busy collecting sticks for daddy to use in the fire and picking up piles of rocks and moving them. Who needs toys when you have nature??? I was so happy (and FILTHY). The new camping stove from Grandpa and Grandma Coble really came in handy! Dinner was yummy (but HOT) - that stove really keeps things warm!
Dad got the fire started!
Terrible picture, but you can see how incredibly filthy I was!
While mom cleaned up and washed the dishes, dad taught me how to roast marhsmallows. Delicious! He showed me how to roast them just until they got golden and bubbly. I got to eat TWO marshmallows, even though I told mom and dad I wanted five. After I got cleaned up (i.e. wiped down with a baby wipe), we got jammies on, read a few books, and climbed in to my sleeping bag. I did reasonably well and it didn't take me too long to fall asleep. It was really late and we had had a long day, so I'm not surprised. I woke up a few times crying (which is pretty normal for me), but we worked it out and I went back to sleep.
A storm came through late Friday night - dad saw it coming, but mom and I were already asleep. The ground cover and tent were awesome - there were a few tiny "puddles" in the morning, but none of us or our things got wet. It was very peaceful to sleep outdoors in the rain (and mom didn't mind because it was kind of like her white noise CD at home...). Mom woke up super early on Saturday morning - partially because it gets light so early, but mostly because daddy snored ALL.NIGHT.LONG. Didn't bother me, but apparently mom couldn't sleep through it. So she got up and had a while to read by herself which she said was nice. None of our neighbors were up either, so she got to sit in the quiet for a few hours (yes, that's how early she got up). When dad and I got up, we made breakfast - eggs, bacon, coffee (for mom and dad) and milk for me. It was so good and I even had two servings of eggs - lots of protein to fuel us for the day ahead. We cleaned up from breakfast and got ready to go on a hike. Dad went to the rangers station to get a map - when he came back, he said that it was a pretty hard hike - 2 miles downhill to the waterfall, which in turn meant 2 miles back UP from the waterfall. Mom and dad both said "We can do it," so they packed me up in my new backpack carrier, filled a few water bottles and started out. Dad's knee has been bothering him, so mom carried me there. It was tough and there were a few sections that were pretty steep downhill (there were log stairs, but it was hard even on mom's knees with me on her back). It was so beautiful and well worth the hike, though. I got to get out when we got there, but couldn't really walk around because there was a steep drop off and I didn't want to fall and get a boo boo. Mom brought me a juice pouch to drink, so that made me very happy!
So happy :)
Beautiful waterfall - this is why mom and dad hiked the entire way :)
Ready to head back...
After a few minute rest, we got all packed up and were ready to head back. What a daunting task. Mom didn't even make it a half mile back before we stopped and moved me to daddy's back. Mom had finished nearly her whole bottle of Gatorade and there's no way she was going to make it the rest of the way carrying me. Talk about physical exhaustion! And they still had at least a mile and a half to go. Daddy is much better at hills and has longer legs than mom, so he was able to push through it a little faster. It was certainly not easy for him either, but he did an awesome job and got us home in about the same time that it took for us to hike out - about an hour each way.
Along the way, I got to see a few new animals! We saw a centipede - dad picked it up on a leaf and let me look at it - it was crawling along and had a lot of legs. It fell off of the leaf, got scared and rolled up into a ball like Roly Poly Pangolin, one of my favorite books. Not much farther along, we saw a millipede! It had even more legs and looked like a worm (mom actually thought it was a worm at first). We saw lots and lots of butterflies too.
Even though it was uphill on the way back, it was a little bit easier, because mom and dad recognized certain points and kind of knew how much farther they had to go and what to expect. When we finally got to the marker that said camp wasn't far, we kicked it into high gear and pounded through the last few hills. We stopped at the water fountain on our way back to the camp site and mom filled up all of our water bottles. We all needed that! Daddy carried me the rest of the way back to our camp site and then I got to get out and mom and dad were able to relax a little.
We had hot dogs for lunch, but since there wasn't a fire going, we boiled water on the camp stove and boiled the hot dogs. I had a pear while waiting for them to cook - yummy! They weren't quite done when it suddenly got VERY dark. Dad scrambled and kind of packed everything up in case it started to rain. Of course, we hadn't started to eat yet and some rain drops came down - we rushed to get in to the tent and mom and dad brought our lunch with us. We ate, read a few books, then it was time to lay down for a nap. Mom and dad started reading their books, but after a few minutes, mom decided if she was going to be stuck in the tent because of the rain that she would just nap too. Dad must have decided that looked like a good idea because we ALL woke up 2 hours later :) It was bright and sunny when we got up, so it was perfect.
I played a little while daddy got the fire going. Mom and I even found a worm - following him occupied me for a good half hour. Daddy was dead set on having corned beef hash while we were camping and he wanted to share it with me - mom said she'd pass, so she had some beef stew. I had a few bites of the corned beef hash, but wasn't a huge fan, so ended up eating most of mom's. We cleaned up the dishes when we were done and sat in front of the fire for a little while. I had seen a huge chocolate bar in the cooler that I kept asking for. Mom and dad said they had a special treat for me - SMORES!!! I got to roast another marshmallow with daddy, then he helped me put it on a piece of graham cracker with a chocolate piece. We smooshed it all together and I ate the whole thing (and even asked for more...).
Dad telling me how to roast the marshmallow - I really just wanted to eat it!
The marshmallow's getting golden and bubbly.
That's what I was waiting for! YUMMY!!!
We got cleaned up after dinner and it was already time for bed - the afternoon snuck by us because we had such a late lunch and nap. It took me a while to fall asleep Saturday night - I had to go potty, but just talked to myself and sang songs to myself instead of telling mom and dad I had to go. So about an hour and a half after they put me to bed, I finally got up to use the bathroom and went to sleep. Mom had trouble sleeping again Saturday night (gee, I wonder where I get my awful sleep habits from). She ended up getting up at 5:30 on Sunday and had several hours to herself (again, not such a bad thing). Dad and I got up around 8, we had breakfast and started packing up to head out. We left by 10, stopped along the way for lunch and were home by naptime. It worked out perfectly and I had SUCH a good time! I can't wait to go again :)
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