Thirty days

Thirty more days. One month from today baby number four is due. It seems crazy that it's almost here. And yet in some ways I am so ready. This week has been a rough one thanks to a nasty cold. I'm finally on meds and hopefully on the mend now because having a violent cough while hugely pregnant is absolutely no fun. My belly is sore from the coughing and once I start coughing it triggers Braxton Hicks contractions which are also uncomfortable. I'm just a ball of fun these days. Other than that I've been soaking up all of the last bits of this pregnancy. This baby moves all the time. It makes me wonder if it'll actually sleep after birth. At least it makes kick counts incredibly easy to do.

On Labor Day I felt well enough to sit outside with the kids while they played. It's funny how we'll have them outside running around all day and at the end of the day they're still full of energy. Well, that or they're just so tired they can't wind down for the night. Watching them play together is a lot of fun especially when they're actually getting along. I drew a road around our cul-de-sac for them to ride their bikes and scooters on and they spent most of the day alternating between riding around and embellishing the road with a sidewalk and many many houses.

Camping at Izaak Walton

A couple of weeks ago we spent the weekend camping at our local Izaak Walton campgrounds. It's literally 20ish minutes down the street from home and it's where Tom used to camp as a Boy Scout. It was my first time at the campground and I was surprised at how pretty it was for being so close to home (I mean 66 was RIGHT THERE). We wound up being the only people camping, though there were plenty of people at the range and others who came to fish.


We were given two campsites to use, which was more than enough space, so we set up the tent at one end, farther away from this huge fire ring and used the other side for cooking, eating, and playing. The campgrounds were also right on a man made pond, which we were allowed to fish in. This was the first time we've taken the girls fishing and Stasa was dying to go out on a boat, but there was no way we'd catch anything with her making noise ON the water. Not that we caught anything anyway. We tried and tried and got a few good nibbles, but wound up only catching lilypads and logs.






Our first night there we hung out and had a late dinner before putting the kids down for bed. Neither Tom nor I slept very well the first night, which always seems to be the case when I go camping, and everyone was up at the crack of dawn the next morning. Tommy seemed to love being outside all of the time and getting dirty. He happily played with his cars and dinos in the dirt. After breakfast we got dressed and ready for a hike through the grounds, though it wasn't as long as we were planning since some of the paths were cut off by huge felled trees. After coming back from the hike I went to scratch my leg and found two ticks on it. After that we were even more diligent about checking the kids and ourselves for ticks. I ended up finding four ticks on me and then another one after we were home with a total of two actually biting me.

Side note: I did some research on preventing ticks from biting and found tea tree soap and rose geranium oil, so we'll be trying both of those during our next camping weekend.

Tommy was the only one who napped and the girls were happy to spend the day alternating between fishing and playing and exploring the grounds. At one point we all played hide-n-seek together, which was hilarious because both girls either hid in the place I last hid or they would hide in plain site - like under a picnic table or behind a skinny tree. Tommy even joined in on the fun and hid with me a couple of times, but his giggles gave us away every time.

The other different thing about this campground was the bathroom situation. As in there really wasn't one. The Cove had nice-ish bathrooms with running water and electricity and showers. This place had an outhouse and a hole in the middle of a plywood board. I took one look and saw creepy crawlies dart back in the hole and announced to the girls that they would be learning the careful art of peeing in the woods. No way was I going to pee in the place people went to be murdered. PASS.

Other than the ticks and the murder house the campgrounds were gorgeous and we had a great time. I love that this place is so close and we'll likely book a couple of more weekends through October before it gets too cold for this mama to sleep outside.

Lately

As the weather's been getting warmer, we've been spending more and more time outside with the kids...and doing a bit of yard work. Last week we spent most of Saturday cleaning up our front walkway and the huge dirt mound next to it. In doing so, we dug up a ton of earthworms which the girls quickly adopted. They made a home for them in an abandoned flowerpot and happily filled it up with fresh soil and a little bit of water. After that they kept digging around looking for more worms.

At the end of the day, they left the worms in the dirt filled pot, went in for a shower and bed. The next day they dumped them all out to check on the "little wormies" to make sure they were happy. After each worm was checked over, they put them back in the pot with even more dirt and water and went about their day.

We worked from home on Monday with the windows open to enjoy the beautiful weather. I glanced up and saw some birds dive bombing the ground. I got up to see what the crazy birds were up to. A couple of them were happily taking a dirt bath in the dirt mound we had smoothed out. It needs grass seed, and we've bought the seed and all, but by the end of the day we're too lazy to even spread seed around. Anyway, the tiny birds were rolling around in the dirt and shaking and flapping away. The others were still divebombing and all of a sudden I saw their target...the flowerpot of dirt and "little wormies." EEP. I left them to their lunch, but later on the ride home from picking up the kids I told Stasa and Lexi about the birds and their worms. Stasa was outraged and insisted that the worms were in the pot to be safe, not for birdies to eat them. When we got home she made a huge sign that said "NO BIRDS ALLOWED." She told me that her pot of worms is not a bird restaurant and she wanted them to know they weren't welcome. Sorry, birds. You're on your own for food.

Camping with the kids

After work on Friday we packed up the kids and the car and headed out for a weekend of camping in Gore, VA at The Cove. I found this place on a website of Virginia campgrounds and was somewhat skeptical since it wasn't a national park and didn't really have any reviews, but we figured we'd give it a shot. We had made a reservation for the weekend and were given a site within walking distance of the latrines. We didn't get on the road until after 7:00 due to some packing mishaps and a quick pitstop for dinner so by the time we arrived to check in it was already dark. The folks running the place were super nice and marked a map to show me how to get to our site. Unfortunately I'm not the best navigator and wound up leading us down an ATV trail. Poor Sexy Flexy roughed it, but managed to make it over a quarter mile on it. After a few more wrong turns we finally found our camp. Thankfully Tom and I had the foresight to do a dry run of putting up the tent so it went up pretty fast in the dark. Of course, our headlamps helped quite a bit, too. The girls ran around with a couple of the headlamps while we finished setting up camp for the night.

We weren't sure how big the site was since it was dark so we set up our tent closer to the firepit and picnic table (which we were grateful for because we left our big table at home). We initially put the girls in the same bed, but that lasted all of 30 minutes of "get off of me!" and "leave me alone!" before we split them up. So Tom slept with Lexi and I took a bed with Stasa and Tommy slept in the middle of the tent. I didn't sleep too well thanks to my air mattress slowly deflating through the night. I woke up on the rocky ground with a sore hip. I was happy to get up and out of the tent as the sun came up. Tom and Tommy got up with me and we got the coffee started while the girls slept.

Lexi woke up next and had fun walking around and digging in the dirt while Tom fried up some bacon and eggs for breakfast.

Our camp site was actually much larger than we thought and we could have easily fit a couple of more tents on it, even with our 10 person tent and large canopy. And the bathrooms were just a quick walk downhill and were pretty clean for a campground AND they had showers with hot hot water and plenty of toilet paper. And we discovered that they cleaned the bathrooms every day around lunchtime, which is when we took the kids down to hose them off. 

The girls were happy to explore our campsite and grounds after breakfast while we planned out the rest of our day. 

While the girls explored, Tommy snoozed in the tent. He's officially a tummy sleeper now. He took many a nap in the tent over the weekend.


After Tommy's nap we got dressed in our swimsuits and headed down to the beach. It was so much easier navigating in the daylight and we found the beach without any trouble. The sand was clean and white and the water super clear. We found a spot and got settled and the girls ran off to play in the sand and water.


I found myself so much more relaxed at this beach. I'm not a helicopter parent by any means, but I was glued to the kids sides when we were in Virginia Beach. That beach was (and always is) so overcrowded. This beach was much, much smaller, but even when it got busy it wasn't really crowded. And since it was a lake it was pretty shallow in the swimming area so we felt comfortable letting the girls run in and out of the water without us. There was a pontoon at the deepest point of the swimming area and Stasa kept asking to go out to it. I wasn't sure she'd actually make it since she's never really liked not being able to touch the bottom, but she happily swam out in her inner tube and then spent a good amount of time jumping off the pontoon.




After a few hours at the beach we packed up and headed back to our camp to rest and get ready for dinner. Stasa insisted she was tired and laid down in the tent.


She was *thisclose* to falling asleep and then Lexi ran in to play. Naptime never happened except for Tommallama.


Since the girls didn't want to nap and were going stir crazy hanging out at the camp site, Tom took them on a walk to let me and Tommy snooze. They came back bearing a bouquet of wildflowers for me.


This one was perpetually filthy. Like she would get hosed off or wiped down and minutes later we would find her looking like this.


Her hair was a rat's nest because she refused to let me put it up and I only managed to get it up a couple of times because I bribed her. I walked around with the kids while Tom made dinner - grilled chicken legs and tuna with corn on the cob and grilled potatoes. We were in the middle of dinner when we looked over and found this:


The sun and fun caught up to Miss I Don't Need a Nap. She fell asleep around 5:30/6:00 and wound up sleeping straight through the night. Stasa and Tommy stayed up with us for some campfire fun.


He was such a happy little camper.


Earlier in the day Tom foraged for fire wood and chopped up a couple of small felled trees and had quite a good amount of nice dry firewood for our fire. Stasa was his helper for the night. She was quite the pyro, just like daddy and Pappou, and Tom even found a good fire poking stick for her.


They made a nice fire - with just one match according to Tom - and Tom taught Stasa campfire safety. She was a great listener and was really cautious around the fire. She really enjoyed poking and stoking it, but always waited for Tom's permission before doing it. She even found her own rock to add to the fire pit and Tom etched an S on it for her.




Once we got the fire going, we broke out our s'mores ingredients and taught Stas how to roast marshmallows. She really enjoyed catching her marshmallow on fire so she could blow it out and she LOVED s'mores.



After we demolished our s'mores, we hung around and enjoyed the fire. We even read some bedtime stories by the fire.


Around 10:30 Stasa decided she had enough campfire, doled out kisses and crawled into bed. Tom and I enjoyed the peace and quiet and warmth of the fire (and a few drinks) before calling it a night. Tommy didn't sleep as well that night and I was only half asleep most of the night. I got up and out of bed as soon as it got light out. Tom was up with me and we almost able to have our first cup of coffee before the girls woke up. Before we knew it the girls were up and ready for the day.


Stasa dressed herself in her dirty clothes from the day before, put her hair up and brushed her teeth. Miss Responsible.


After breakfast and 100 trips to the bathroom, we got ready and headed off for the beach. Because we all woke up at the butt crack of dawn, we arrived at the beach at 9:00 am, well before anyone else. It was nice to have the beach to ourselves for awhile and the water was so peaceful. The lifeguard offered the girls some leftover sand toys and a small fishing net. We all tried catching some of the many minnows that were swimming around, but were unsuccessful. Those suckers are fast. Stasa spent 90% of the time in the water and went under quite a bit. I bet if we were there another two days she would have learned how to swim. She was so close.



Lexi was content playing in the sand and building and destroying sand castles. She ran in and out of the water a lot and wanted us to take her out to the pontoon like Stasa. I ended up taking her halfway out in her inner tube and then just splashed around with her in the shallow water.


Tommy played for a bit and then promptly passed out for HOURS on the picnic blanket. Once he woke up we packed up and headed back to camp.


When we got back to camp Stasa insisted she was tired and wanted to be in the tent. I tried talking her out of it since it was wicked hot in there, but she went in anyway and passed out in like two minutes.


While she napped, the rest of us hung out and snacked while we decided what to do about dinner and the rest of the night. It was supposed to storm later in the night and we had already planned to leave first thing Monday morning, so as the evening arrived and the thunder rolled in, we settled on leaving that night after dinner and s'mores.



While Tom grilled dinner, Tommy joined Stasa in the tent for a short nap.


After their nap we all ate dinner and finished packing up camp and started another camp fire to let Lexi have some s'mores.



Lexi took a few bites and then announced that she didn't like s'mores and only wanted the ingredients separate and uncooked. Whose kid is this? We got packed up and back on the road around 8:30 and headed home. Good thing, too, because it started raining as soon as we were on the road.

Our first family camping trip was a success. The girls really enjoyed it, so much so that Stasa was in tears when it was time to pack up. All said we really loved this campground and said we'd like to make this an annual trip with the family. Everyone we talked to was really friendly and a lot of the families come every year. We would definitely try to get one of the sites near where we were this time. It was super close to the bathroom (definitely a plus with kids) and felt far enough away, but was a quick hike or drive to the beach and main office. They have snow tubing there in the winter and tons of ATV trails and fishing spots.