The Melders Go Camping

Doug and I both grew up camping and really enjoying it.  We have lots of wonderful memories from those separate adventures.  Oddly, we've never attempted to try out camping as a couple or as a family.  Perhaps it's just because we don't have much gear for it or because it seemed like a lot of work (or because we are loyal Marriott members, and let's face it, it's tough to rough it after you go on a few comfortable vacations on reward points).  But since having 3 boys, we've wanted to eventually do the camping thing, expose the boys to the simple fun of roughing it outdoors, sleeping under the stars, making your food over a fire, etc.  Well, a month or so ago, Aunt Megan invited us to join she and her boys and some mutual friends on a one-night camping attempt at Raccoon Creek State Park.  I was excited (Doug was a little apprehensive).  One-night seemed doable.  If it's a disaster, it's just a night of your life.  Also the park is only an hour from home, so if it's a real debacle, there's always the escape of just calling it quits.  So, we decided to take the chance and give it a try.  I am so glad we did.  Thanks so much to Aunt Megan, Deborah and Grant, Emily and Ian for including us on this little adventure.  We had a great time and were so happy to finally expose the boys to this experience and it definitely helped wet our appetites for more camping fun in the future!  

We arrived at the the park campground to setup around 3:30pm.  Aunt Megan, Alex and Andy arrived shortly afterward (poor Uncle Nate was in Asia traveling on business!).  The 5 boys between us were all about "helping."  

We got the tents up and were quite proud of ourselves (particularly Doug and I since we borrowed this tent from Grampa and it looked a little daunting to set up when Grampa gave us the run through in NH a few weeks ago).  Look, even Penn's cheering for us!

Looks great, baby.  We are on the right track for a great experience, right?

I got the fun of setting up the sleeping quarters.  The tent is enormous.  I figured we'd be cramped in a tent all together, we definitely have room for another in there.  See, maybe a family of 6 won't be that hard to accommodate?

Doug was being silly trying to capture all my "organizing" and "arranging" of the layout.

Final look...pretty cute!!  All ready for a good night's rest, right?

After the tents were set up (and Deborah and her kids and Emily and her girls arrived), we got all changed and headed down to the beach at the lake for a swim.  By the time we got there it was 5:30pm, but when you are just outside all afternoon soaking up the beautiful end-of-summer day, it really didn't seem to matter.  The boys had snacked while we set up the tents, so they were content and happy to just keep having a blast with each other!

I was so proud of Tav for swimming in the lake.  He kept asking about the fish and was so nervous about being bitten by them, but after seeing big brother go in, he found the courage and did a great job!

Penn, my little Mr. Content, was happy to just wade in and out, lay on his tummy to cool off and dig in the sand.  Who knew it was dinnertime and coming up on bedtime??

We eventually wrapped things up when some of the kids were definitely showing signs of tiredness (poor Tav was asking to go to bed!).  The rest of the guys had arrived at the campground with firewood and Doug had started a fire, so once we arrived back at the site, it was time to start cooking "mountain pies."  I had never heard of these clever little camping treats, but it's basically a quick and fun way to make a variety of grilled cheese in the coals of the fire.  We did pizza-flavored ones mostly that evening, the boys enjoyed that and all the other yummy veggies, fruit and snacks friends had brought to share.

After dinner we moved right to S'more making since it was after 8:15pm already!!  Time flies when you are having fun (and when you cook over a fire).  Once I found the right setting on my camera, I got a few pictures of the boys enjoying the fire and its proceeds.  Penn gobbled up tons of graham crackers which he liked to store in the cup-holders of this chair.

Koen's mostly into the marshmallows and a big part of that is because he loves to work with the fire.

And our S'more man...Tavin Happy Dale.

Well, after that it was about 9pm and definitely time to get these kids to bed!  They had done so well staying up so late, but they were definitely tired and it was dark enough to definitely attempt the all-three-at-once bedtime.  Thankfully it went off without a hitch and the boys went down without a peep!!  I had let them know they would hear the other kids as they went to bed and they would hear the fire and the adults hanging out for a bit, so there was no reason to come out of the tent and complain.  They just needed to go to bed.  And that is what they did (thank goodness!).  Doug and I stayed up with the other adults until about 11pm and then hit the hay ourselves.  We were still a bit nervous about what the night would hold, but thankfully there were no major events.  Tav coughed a bit, but other than that we all slept soundly at the campsite until the first peeps came from another tent around 6:30am and then our boys were up by 7am.  Once we heard a little noise coming from each tent, Doug crept out of ours to get the fire going for breakfast.  I got a little extra snuggle time with my bugs.

The boys were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the AM despite their shorter night of sleep.  Here's Penn all cozy (started out quite chilly!) and saying, "cheese," before breakfast.

Doug was the fire guy for the camping trip (he loves that role) and he had fun inventing his own amazing egg sandwich for breakfast.

After breakfast Koen, Miles, Tavin and Claire played awesome together keeping busy building a catapult out of sticks (it was quite impressive, but unfortunately got knocked down before I could get a pic of it).  Penn, on the other hand, got pretty tired.  He just wanted to snuggle with his beep beep blanket and chill out in the tent.  It was funny watching him just bounce around in there on the mats, etc. 

When he was sick of the tent, he got some snuggles by the fire with Daddy.

While some of the adults stayed to clean up the campsite, the other adults took the kids on a walk to the playground.  Miles offered his hand to Penn and Penn was so pleased to be paid attention to by one of the big kids.  Look at him just gabbing away!

The playground was pretty simple, but the kids enjoy spending time together so much that they had a blast running around there.  

Tavin and Koen both loved this little compass/magnifying glass/binoculars camping tool Miles brought.  I spy you, Tavin!

There were two swings and Koen and Miles had some fun going crazy high on them.

Alex and Tav took a more moderate approach, but also had fun.

After about 45 minutes at the playground the vans and cars were all packed up and it was time to head home for us (the other families went down to the lake again for a swim and lunch, but we had to get home because Doug had to do a wedding rehearsal that afternoon!).  It was a quick, less than 24 hour experience, but it was a great way to test the camping waters and I think it was a big success.  I'm actually sort of hoping we get to do it again this Fall.  Call me, Crazy!

Koen's First Day of Second Grade!!

I would say, "where has the summer gone?" except that we packed so much into it, I'm not surprised that it's time for the school year to start.  And it was a fulfilling and fun summer, so I feel satisfied as we head into the routine of the school year (almost a little relieved after planning and preparing for oh so many adventures this summer!).  A few weeks ago, Koen was not enthusiastic about heading back to school.  He kept asking me to homeschool him.  After my experience attempting to teach him swimming lessons myself and piano lessons myself, I'm not sure he (or I) am cut out for homeschooling any time soon.  Thankfully after driving past his beloved school on our way home from NH, then having fun stocking up on the school supplies requested from his teachers and packing up his bag, etc., he got into the mood and actually quite excited.  Phew!!

He was a little hesitant and shy once we arrived at school, but I talked him into a picture anyways.  

I walked him into his old classroom to turn in his summer reading projects to his First Grade teacher, then we went to find his new classroom and his new teacher.  Several friends saw him in the hallway or in the classroom and greeted him by name, but he was too distracted to even say hello!  Oh dear!  He was just checking out the lay of the land, where he was sitting, etc.  He was sweet to me, but I didn't want to be too lovey or anything and embarrass him, so I exited when I thought he was all set.  He calmly (yet shyly) went to his assigned seat.  And I left just wishing I could be a fly on the wall and watch his day step-by-step.  I had milk & cookies waiting for him when he arrived home on the bus though, so thankfully he was happy to chat and fill me in on at least a few of the details of his day (mostly how much he ate at lunch, recess and other inconsequentials...oh well, maybe other days I'll get some real details!). 

As you can tell, I was thinking about Koen all day while he was away.  Such a big change from having him around ALL THE TIME in the summer to having him gone from 8:15am-3:30pm.  I left him a note for his lunch box.  He was happy to get it, he said he was thinking about us too.  

Tavin also missed his big brother and told him that he thought about him all day.  How sweet is that?  I gotta say I didn't miss the bickering between those two while Koen was at school, but I loved seeing the genuine joy to be unified once more at the end of Koen's first day of school.  We all went out and celebrated Koen's first day by getting pizza with some good friends that evening.  A great start to Second Grade, Koen!  I am truly praying that this year you continue to grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.  Love you, my Second Grader!!

PS - Tavin, Penn and I had a fun day together.  We mostly were around the house, but we did take a lovely walk to Osceola to meet Dr. Megan and Marshall for a little while.  The mornings have been so beautifully cool, yet sunny.  Such a gorgeous time to be out!  Here's the two little buddies in the baby swings.

Tavin also had a special afternoon outing with his Daddy.  It was Tav's turn for a Pirates game date with Doug.  This kid was so excited.  He'd been talking about it since last week when Koen had his special Pirate outing with Daddy.  Although the afternoon got really hot, he still had a blast.  Here he is looking a little overtired, but happy (and refreshed by his messy chocolate ice cream).

Last Day of Summer Vacation!

I can't believe Koen's summer vacation is at its end.  We've had a blast.  We had our tough weeks in the beginning easing back into being around each other all the time and we've had our ups and downs all along with sibling issues, but all in all it's been a blast.  So many great memories, fun activities, playdates with friends, lovely trips and time with family too.  What a tremendous summer!!  I felt we had to spend our final day of summer break (which was fittingly gorgeously sunny and warm) soaking up the summer fun yet again.  We started with our final Tuesday playdate with Deborah and her kids.  As I had hoped, we returned to Fall Run Park in Glenshaw, just up Rt. 8 from the East End.  This time we dressed appropriately and did the creek walk all the way to the waterfall.  The kids (and us moms) loved it!  What's more summery than tromping with friends through fresh, cool water in the woods with sunshine filtering down through the trees?  Here are the pictures I got on our "hike."  Look hard and you'll see a Koen down there.

Tav was so proud because he climbed up this rock face to continue walking through the creek above.  

The water was quite cool and so Penn was enjoying walking along the trail beside and above the creek much of the way (shallow water seems a lot deeper when you are only a few feet tall!).  He thought it was funny to peek at me from the bridge!

Claire was also not a fan of walking through the creek part of the way, so she led Penn up the path.  He happily followed her.  It was precious.

Check out the crew enjoying the creek.  So much fun!

Here's the picturesque waterfall.  Goodness, take out a few maples and add in a few palm trees and you'd think we were in Hawaii!  It was beautiful and so fun to watch the kids play beneath.

The kids worked for about a half hour on building a dam.  It was a fun group project (although Koen was a little impatient and bossy).

There's also a steep walkway of stairs up to the top of the waterfall.  It was a little freaky looking over the edge.  See Miles way down there?

Penn walked all the way to the waterfall, so he was pretty tired after playing at its base.  He let me give him a break in the backpack for the top of the waterfall hike and the walk back to the van.  Can you tell he's tired?

We headed back to the vans and then drove them down to the little playground so that we could feed the kids lunch and let them dry off and warm up in the hot sun.  It's amazing how cool it was in the shade cover and with our feet in the creek and then it was HOT in the sun at the playground.  A great morning to bid farewell to our super fun summer full of lots of great morning adventures with the boys!  Thanks, Deborah!  Fall Run is one of my favorite new finds!

That's not all the summer fun we packed in today.  After a restful afternoon, I packed up a pasta salad dinner and we headed to the pool at 4:30pm.  It was almost 90 degrees at this point, so the pool was a perfect way to spend the evening.  The boys had a blast and I just loved being with them in the water and watching them have so much fun.  It's tough to capture pictures in our water play moments, but here they are enjoying their sunny picnic.  They had some good appetites after our fun day!

After dinner the boys got to play in the pool for another 20 minutes.  Penn and I hung out in the toddler sprinkler area where he entertains himself in hilarious ways (oohs, aahs, throwing balls, dumping water on my legs, you know, awesome stuff like that).  I found myself reflecting on this summer season and just being so thankful for how amazing it was.  One of my favorite summers I believe.  I don't mean to be dramatic about Koen going back to school tomorrow and I'm so happy for him, but this summer is seriously hard to bid goodbye to!  Thanks for such a special summer, boys.  I love your energy, your love for the outdoors and adventure, that you are fantastic travelers and such troopers to roll with the punches.  Summer days with you are a dream come true for me.  XOXO

Monday Visitor

Today we had the pleasure of having our buddy, Alex, along for the day.  I hope it was a pleasure for him.  We had a packed morning with Penn's speech therapy at 9am at the house (during which Tav, Koen and Alex played really well up on the 3rd floor alone) and then we headed to Children's Hospital for Tav's 10am appointment (poor Alex!).  Penn and Alex enjoyed the fish on display in the waiting room.  

Then during Tav's appointment, Koen and Alex spent most of their time coloring and Penn puttered around playing with the toys that are always in there.  

Then it was off to the Water Steps for some refreshing fun in the sun.  These boys deserved it after all those appointments, especially Mr. Alex.  He was pretty happy to get into the water with Koen and Tavin.  Looks pretty content doing his thing, doesn't he?

Penn mostly hung out with me, which was just fine.  I can't get enough of this guy.

Some group play.

And a Melder splash-fest.

We didn't even leave the North Shore until 1:30pm.  Penn went down at 2pm and then I read the rest of the boys a long story.  Tav and Alex had joint rest/quiet playtime in Tav's room.  Then later they got to watch a fun little show on TV.  They were just buddies all afternoon, it was sweet to see.  Tav seemed so happy to have Alex around all day.  Alex, you are welcome any time!

First Week Back Catch Up

Ok, so we had a whirlwind and super busy week after returning from NH.  First of all, on Friday night we arrived home to a large water damage issue in our kitchen.  Apparently the water line spontaneously busted a hole and started leaking beneath the tile and into the basement.  When we got home the kitchen floor was saturated with water and I ran down to the basement and found an inch of water and some puddles with the saturated rafters dripping.  Ugh.  Thankfully we got home before it got any worse and Doug was able to stop the leak.  The next morning ServPro arrived to clean up the mess and set up numerous fans and dehumidifiers and air scrubbers in the basement and kitchen and since then we had daily check-ups from the ServPro crew.  Definitely put a "damp"er on my free time and my peace at the kitchen sink, but it was worht it.  After 6 days, the kitchen and basement are dry and thankfully we have since heard from insurance that everything is covered.  Praise God!  Now it's just a matter of finding a contractor and getting the work done.  

Here's what we did the rest of the week despite all that going on at home...

Sunday
Doug had a full weekend of work and I had a full weekend getting acclimated back home with the boys, but on Sunday evening we got to attend a dinner at a friend's house and Kylie stayed at home.  Here's a great picture during their time playing together.

Monday
On Monday we had Penn's speech therapy appointment and Tavin's therapist was still on vacation so we got to head out for some fun in the sun early.  We had plans to meet one of the boys' longest standing Pittsburgh friends, Miss Lisa, at the Water Steps on the North Shore.  It was a great visit.  The boys played and I got to catch up with Lisa for 2 hours.  Here are the pics I got when we enjoyed our picnic together.

Thanks so much for coming to hang out with us, Lisa.  It was a great time as usual!  We all love you!
Tuesday
Our usual Tuesday playdate didn't work out this week, so I took the boys to the pool.  With it closing Labor Day, I'm trying to take advantage of these final pool days!  No pics though.  Oops!
Wednesday
On Wednesday, we had a very rainy and thundery start to the day, so our playdate at the playground wasn't going to work, so I hosted Adrianne and her kids here at our place.  It got me motivated to clean like crazy, which was much needed as I had really put it off after returning due to the kitchen issues, service guys in and out, etc.  We had a great morning with our friends and catching up, but unfortunately I forgot pics again!  That evening Doug had plans to take Koen to a Pirates game and thankfully the weather cleared so they were able to enjoy the one-on-one Daddy date late into the night.  Here are the pics I received via text.

Thursday
On Thursday, I had my final Momma Mixer playdate of the summer (a little group I've organized with church, neighborhood, preschool and community friends).  We went to the Troy Hill Spray Park this time.  The kids all loved it.  Koen and Tavin were best buds and had a blast doing their brotherly fun.  They thought they were pretty clever to figure out they could go under the water umbrella and breathe in there like a water clubhouse or something.  

They also loved the sprinkler rainbow.  Check out the action shots.

Penn was tentative with the sprinklers at first.

He warmed up to the idea eventually though and had a blast himself.

He also really enjoyed hanging out with Dr. Megan and baby Marshall.

There were lots of other moms and kids and babies there.  And it was a fun morning of catching up and enjoying watching them all play together.  
Friday
Friday was a fun day of being together as a family.  We had appointments, errands, time at home together and a fun lunch out enjoying Little Italy Days down the street in Bloomfield.  We all got some fun Italian food and listened to an Italian singer just belt it out across the street.  

Saturday
On Saturday we again had a nice family-oriented start to the day.  I had a baby shower to go to at 11am, so Doug was on full Daddy duty through lunchtime.  He and the boys did yardwork and then took a walk back down to Bloomfield and hit up Little Italy for lunch again.  The boys shared a table with a few nice ladies and apparently completely had them wrapped around their little fingers because the ladies gave them a $20 to get ice cream!  Hilarious!  This stuff of course only happens when Doug is on duty!  Then when they went to the ice cream stand, they gave Penn a free cup of ice cream which he happily ate on the way home on his own (and got all over the stroller!).  Good job, Douglas.  Sounds like a blast!  Doug had to leave for work around 3pm, so it was just me and the boys in the evening and we had fun with a snacky dinner playtime at Osceola Parklet for a change of pace and a nice way to get outside.  No pics though.  Oops.
Sunday
Today we went to the 9am service at church and then headed to the pool.  (Yet again trying to get as much pool time as possible before Labor Day!).  Today I remembered to take some pictures.  Koen and Tavin played awesome together in the pool.  They made up a game where they were a train pulling each other along with the noodles and then inviting other kids along that were in the pool.  They loved it and it was so great to see them do such a good job playing together.  

Penn enjoyed the pool too, but he loves the sprinkler area the most.  Can't you tell?

It was a super fun morning.  I'm going to miss these summer days when we get into the drudge of winter, but for now we are "soaking" up every second!  

Well, that's a rap.  I caught up!!