Vacation time

I took a vacation from blogging while we were on the road this summer, but I wanted to take the time to catch everyone up on our summer happenings.

Owen met his Calhoun cousins for the first time when we went up North to Cape Cod and Boston. My sister-in-law was lucky enough to grow up on Cape Cod and we were fortunate to be able to stay with her and her family up there. For those who have not been to the Cape, it is beautiful. It has beaches for the kids to play on and a magnificent biking trail. I got to spend a morning with Alan, biking the trail down to Woods Hole. Unfortunately, we received our only rain of the trip that morning, but it was beautiful nonetheless. I would say the part of the trip we enjoyed more than anything was watching our kids play with their cousins. Ellie was in heaven following Rebecca around and Katelyn tried to emulate all that Susanna did. They even put on evening shows for us with the older girls choreographing the dances.

On our last day, we went down to Woods Hole and walked around. We ended up doing a Discovery boat ride. Katelyn was chosen as the chief scientist to document their findings. It was a very interesting little cruise. They measured the temperature, color and visibility of the water. They pulled in lobster cages and touched the sea creatures. They didn’t think twice about holding lobsters. It was a great way to expose them to nature and give them an appreciation of the ocean.

We ended the first part of our trip with a sleepover in Boston at the Calhouns. The girls wanted to see where their cousins lived, so we stopped in for the night. As morning came, we headed to Alan’s mom’s and Kit’s in Pennsylvania. While we have been there often, we have never really done the touristy things, so we decided to see the sites this trip. We visited the Steamtown Train Museum which had restored train cars and cabooses for the girls to climb on. We even went on a short train ride—SHORT being the key word. Ellie was orbidly fascinated by the stories of the train wrecks. She kept wanting to know if they were ok, what happened, is the train still running, etc. Her concern was astounding. She displays such empathy for someone so little.

Our next stop was the coal mine. It was a working mine which now gives tours. We took a train car down to the bottom. It was a very eye-opening experience as to how the miners lived back then and still to this day. To see the 18 inch crawl spaces that they spent 10 hours a day in was humbling. It made me reflect on how fortunate I am to have been born when I was in an era where I am not faced with such a job prospect.

Some of our stops were a little more upbeat. The girls spent a fun day at Costas Fun Park where they rode Go-Carts, Bumper boats and water slides. We also took a trip to Camp Netimas—the sister camp to Camp Shohola. Katelyn was in heaven. She is made to be a camper. We visited some of the activities and saw Cabin 1. You can go to the sleep-away camp at age 7 and Katelyn wants to sign up for the whole summer. We may agree to two weeks since her Grandmom is so close. As it is, she comes home from day camp every day singing camp songs. I can’t believe she is almost old enough to go and that I actually may send her so far away for two weeks.

We ended the week doing some tubing on the lake. The Bargers have a magnificent lake house. The girls loved tubing. And at dusk, there are a plethora of deer to watch. Ellie and I counted eight one evening on the side of the road where we stopped.

Owen turned 8 months old this week. He is crawling everywhere and trying to pull up. I give it a day or two.