Camp Wormy

Any of you who know me know that I love bugs and it's really hard to gross me out when it comes to bugs. Even in our ghetto apartment in New York City I would nonchalantly pop baby cockroaches with one eye open in the kitchen in the middle of the night while I got a drink. Our Friday night camping experience, however, is still making my skin crawl and sometimes I feel like I want to vomit. As we hiked about a mile into our camping spot in the Laurel Highlands, we noticed something strange. All the trees were still bare and it literally looked like winter. That's because there was an inchworm infestation of gigantic proportions that carpeted the forest like an old school horror movie. These worms were EVERYWHERE and it seems like they are programmed to just climb up to the top of whatever they were on because on top of everything, billions of them were congregating. Every time I looked at Justin, he had twenty of these things mangled up together on top of his coat collar with no where else to go. They were all over our clothes, Bea was picking them up and trying to eat them, they were dropping in our food, and were our entertainment as we ate dinner, almost unable to eat our hot dogs with the mass of worms on the pole in the middle of the fire pit. The grossest part was realizing that all the drops we heard on top of the tent were, in reality, worm poop dropping all night long and not rainwater. About twenty of them managed to get into our tent that night and they crawled up to the very top of it and were hanging above our heads all night long while their comrades on the outside of the tent squirmed on top of the skylight. Basically, it was freaking sick. Henry was even grossed out by them and now I'm seriously reconsidering my life long dream of being an entomologist and I'm not looking forward to pulling out the tent and finding billions of tiny worm carcasses everywhere. I'm still shivering from it all. Blech!!!!!

On a more pleasant note, the ferns on the forest floor were amazing, especially since they grew in perfect circles and I found this totally awesome transparent flower on this strange plant. I have to look it up. We spotted some wild strawberries but they weren't ripe yet. Supposedly there are a million blackberries in that area during blackberry season.



Henry had a blast hiking around, playing with rocks, bugs, and both he and Bea slept perfectly through the night. When we finally got out of there we had a nice hike at a rock climbing area called Beam Rocks and then ate lunch at a fabulous place called Out of the Fire Cafe. We ate smoked salmon, soft shell crab, and a carrot/ginger/coconut/curry soup that was to die for. I'm going to try to make it this week so check the food blog for more details.

Phone trouble

Today in the car I was talking to my sister-in-law on the phone about some important matter when Henry decided to throw a "you're not paying attention to me" tantrum in the back seat. The stickers on the play phone he was playing with came off so he got mad and decided he didn't want it anymore. I tried to tell him to wait until I was done talking a few times but he got more frustrated and was thrashing back and forth and kicking my seat, waking Bea up, and was screaming, "I don't want this phone!!" over and over. When I finally got off the phone and turned around. He said with a fake pout, "I don't want this phone." So I took it and threw it out the window. Henry was mortified. Just then a little boy with his mom was walking by and I said, "oh look Henry, that little boy will probably find your phone and take it home with him." Henry was in such a state of shock and agony about it that I don't think he took a breath for over a minute. He started wailing, "I want my phone now, I want my phone now!" I know how much he loves his play phone so I pulled into the parking lot and picked it up (Luckily that boy didn't take it) and told him that next time, I wouldn't go back for his phone. Needless to say, he was an angel for the rest of the trip and the rest of the day.

Sunburned Son

The sun has been beating down hard on Pittsburgh this spring, which is very unusual for us. My garden has been suffering and I'm sure our water bill will be sky high. Henry loves playing in his water table which has now turned into a mud table where he usually makes things and bakes things for the family. His favorite thing to make is cupcakes or maple syrup. The other day he refused to put his shirt on and wouldn't let me put sun block on him and then the next day it happened again. I am trying to not force him to do things anymore and let the natural consequences take over, but the burn he got exceeded the severity of the defiance and now his back is horribly burned, I think second degree in a couple spots. I feel horrible. The good thing is that he will never fight me again when I tell him to put on his shirt or sun block. What a price to pay to teach a lesson. Goodness Gracious.

Pittsburgh to DC bike trip trial

Last Saturday we drove down to Ohiopyle to do a section of the new Pittsburgh to DC bike trail with the kids in tow in the bike trailer. We eventually want to do the whole thing this September. Anyone want to join us? The trail is on an old train track and the scenery is absolutely beautiful.



One of the greatest parts about this trail is that it's never more than a 1.5% grade so that means NO HILLS! which is unheard of in the Pittsburgh area. They started constructing this bike trail in 1978, finally connecting all the parts last fall making it a 30 year long project.

Henry was awesome and even took a nap in his trailer. Bea screamed the whole time, but if we get a trailer with shocks and make sure the seat belts don't bug her ears I think the thing is doable. It'll probably take us 5 days to complete, camping along the way, and then we can just take a rental car from DC back home, which is about a 4 hour trip. We are very excited and hope that things will all work out!

Buy some money?

Today Henry was asking me if we could go to our favorite Italian ice place, Ritas, which is also pretty expensive and since I started this all cash budget I tried to explain to him that we needed to save our money to buy real food like vegetables and fruit and that we don't have money for that sort of thing all the time. He then said, "well, we should just buy some more money!". Ha! Why didn't I think of that before?? Genious!!!

Does it get any better than being a Mother?

Wow, every day should be Mother's Day. This morning Henry thanked Heavenly Father three times that it was Mother's Day during his breakfast prayers. At church we got a CD, a measuring cup filled with chocolates and a nice card with a professional photo of Henry on the front and filled with things he thought about me on the inside. I also gave away a couple hundred of my tomato plants, so everyone else got an extra special gift and I was SO happy to send them to loving homes. I listened to my CD on the way home, had Justin make me dinner and just relaxed while he did the dishes. Bea was perfect as usual and Henry gave me plenty of hugs, kisses and talked about Mother's Day non-stop. It was a very nice day...and the sun was shining. Thank-you my dear, sweet family.

DC Trip

Well we went to DC to visit Christi, Dave, and River for about 5 days even though Bea had a fever, which was probably the swine flu (what in the heck is the big deal about that anyway!?) and we had a great time hanging out with their awesome family, playing in their gigantic back yard, exploring the area and me sneaking into a fancy Gala where I ended up talking to Phillipe Cousteau about worm composting (yes, as in Jacque Cousteau) and mingled with Saudi Arabian Royalty. Too cool. Henry and River loved getting dirty and wet since it was over 90 degrees down there! Our bodies weren't ready for that much heat, especially feverish Bea. Henry and River get along great and are already creating a nice little brotherly bond.