Spring Camping

Connor and Helen have been asking to go camping since the weather started to warm up. But soccer, softball, and baseball schedules can easily fill a Saturday, making our typical two-night camping trip tricky to squeeze in. No matter. Ed remembered what a ball the kids had last year at Pohick Bay, so after the last game was played a week ago - he hit the road with the kids.



Last year's thrill at Pohick Bay might have been the enormous piles of dead cicadas in the bathrooms - which at the very least were the focal point of their reports about the place. This year, they didn't seem disappointed at all to not have bug carcasses everywhere. Instead, they related tales of how awesome it was to camp with Dad - which included a hiking story that ended in Ed slide tackling Helen. Ed claims he might have been less likely to fall, were he not responsible for carrying Liam (Helen's long-time favorite babydoll), Helen's walking stick, and something else Helen had pawned off him.



They did a scavenger hunt, played mini-golf, and I'm really not sure what else because they were talking so fast I could hardly keep up with them.



After camping, they headed out to Market Days at Claude Moore Colonial Farm - a family favorite, and reported back that most of the entertainment options had switched from prior years. Helen also acquired a parasol at Market Days, which I'm sure I'll see regularly this summer.

I missed all of this. I was in Miami with friends. When they picked me up at the airport, Connor and Helen suggested I go away for more weekends because they had so much fun! That is an awesome sentiment to come home to.

That, and cake.

It was delicious. And the mounds of camping gear in the background of the photo were put away with ease after we ate our fill. And then we ended the night with a few games of ping pong, our family's current game of choice when hanging out in the backyard.

Here's to 41!
Elaine