"FU" N in the car

Henry is always singing, usually the ABCs which he NEVER gets tired of.  Today he was singing the ABC tune but only using the letters F and U.  Saying over and over, "F F U U FF U".  Justin and I were trying to hold back our laughs.  We finally suggested another song and he forgot all about it.  I wonder what made him pick those particular letters. Good thing Bea can't really talk yet.

Camping dream come true

After the last camping trip in the cold and rain --wait, it wasn't rain it was inchworm poop dropping on our tent all day and night.  That's right. -- we had the most fantastic camping ever in WV last weekend.  We met up with our best buds Christi, Dave, River, and impending arrival of gender unknown for a sunny weekend at the best camping spot we've found in the East coast.

The campsites at Blackwater Falls were right on a beautiful river and the second night we stayed in the premier spot with a tiny creek running alongside it as well.  There was plenty of dry firewood, a stone firepit, soft grass padding our tents, amazing mountainbiking trails all over the area and a Shop-n-save five minutes down the road. haha.  Schweet.  The area is home to some really fantastic little towns that have been singled out in Outside magazine for being great for outdoor adventure.  I can't remember which one, either Davis or Thomas.  They both looked like they had some really fun boutique stores, interesting restaurants, live entertainment, festivals and the best part is that you feel like you might just be in the mountains.

The mountains aren't anything like the west, but after spending 7 years out east, I'll take 'em!  Henry was counting down the hours until we left and is still asking to go back to our camping site as we speak.  I've never seen a boy so happy and content as when he was sitting next to the roaring campfire in his crazy creek chair with a cup full of hot chocolate in both hands.  He couldn't keep a smile off of his face.  Henry and River played a ton together and I forgot to thank Christi for watching out for Henry the whole time since Bea is in a world of her own.  So thanks girlfriend!

The boys enjoyed playing in the river, exploring, finding bugs and snakes. Henry did get a little rough with cute little River.  I think it's all the suppressed tackling energy he never get to get out with Bea at our house.

Justin and Dave took two fantastic bike rides while we let the kids nap, relaxed and let the kids run around.  We spent some time bouldering around this rocky area just seconds from our campsite where Henry got to use his climbing shoes that my brother gave him for his first Birthday.  They fit perfectly right now and he was a climbing maniac and climbed up everything he could find.

After such adventurous days Henry went right to sleep and couldn't wait each night to get into his super cool sleeping bag he got from my Dad.  The first night he was so sleepy that he went into the tent and fell asleep in Justin's bag and we had to transfer him into his own.  He was tuckered out! We spent one afternoon hiking up Seneca Rock which is a beautiful rocky top mountain which is really rare in the area since all the other "mountains" are covered from base to crest by trees.  Oh and the leaves were already changing so we experienced some really fantastic vistas as we drove around.

On our way up the 1.5 mile hike of Seneca Henry kept asking to be carried and said he was tired, but I think it was just because the other two kids were being carried and he felt left out.  At one point I had Bea on my front and Henry on my back, which got a lot of laughs out of the people passing us on the way down.  It actually felt pretty balanced with him on there and I was getting a good workout.

I have to say that my glutes didn't even get sore after that so I must be in pretty decent shape with an extra 60 lbs to carry.  When we finally got to the top we saw amazing views of the valley below and refuled for the hike down.  There were some ligit rock climbers up there which would have been really fun to try.  Maybe next time.  One of the best things about Seneca Rock is their Discovery Center.

They have a corner just for kids with puzzles, books, bean bags, sand table with molds to make animal tracks with, animal figurines, habitat set-ups, papers to color and crayons.  Everything was about nature so we were in heaven.  Justin and Henry read books together on the bean bag chairs, bea ate sand and I cleaned up the mess.  Henry cried when we told him we weren't going back to camp that night but we assured him that we would be back to our jewel of a find soon.  Anyone want to come on our next camping trip?

Where have we been, you ask?

The task seems daunting to actually write everything we've been up to these past few weeks.  We have been busy harvesting, canning, freezing, and drying food as well as traveling, welcoming visitors and loving life.

Labor Day
Was spent at our friend's, the Nobbs, lake house on Lake Chautauqua which is beautiful and fabulous.  It is also the home to a place called "The Institute" which is an amazing private neigborhood with a central college which kind of reminds me of the Dharma Project on LOST.  Another place called Lily Dale is a place where they teach you to communicate with fairies, gnomes and to bend spoons with your mind.  I plan to go up there next summer to attend the spoon bending class with some friends.  Want to come with? Anyone, anyone? We cooked amazing dinners, played in the lake on a giant tube with my friend Melissa, met a darling Italian family and stayed up way too late.  Henry found his favorite new girlfriend, Eliza, and now I'm singing "There's a hole in my bucket dear Liza and dear Henry" all day.

Then we were supposed to go to NYC but our plans got postponed which gave us time to do much food preparation for the winter.  Check the food blog shortly for the juicy details:)

Henry really loves to play with playdoh so I decided to make some with a recipe from a book I have and Henry was more excited than I had seen him in a while.  We decided to make really thick dinosaur statues but they cracked really badly and fell apart.  Beatrice also ripped some of the apart with her iron grip.  It's always fun to be able to make something you spend a fortune on.

Next, my friend Sarah Morris came up for a couple days to cook gourmet food. She also has a giant baby girl named Eva who is the exact same age as Bea, almost to the day.  In fact, we have three friends who have baby girls only two weeks apart from Bea's Birthday.  Miraculous. Anyway, it was so nice to have someone in the kitchen who knew what they were doing and had the confidence to just do what needed to be done.  I kind of like two cooks in the kitchen! We also spent some good time out back with the swimming pools filled up with warm water, went shopping down on the Strip District, and made her fall in love with Pittsburgh(not hard to do), took a trip up to our local farm, Soergels,  and cooked up a storm.  Henry's favorite was the home-made dark chocolate mint(real mint leaves not the fake ones) ice cream.  Probably the best ice cream I've ever made.

Henry really had a blast with the two babies.  He tortured them a little here and there, but all in all he was pretty decent to them.  He thinks babies at this stage are so funny because they just talk and babble nonsense and I often her him laughing his hardest laughs at these little girls who say such funny things. 

Actually, I think I'm going to do a separate post for the camping trip we did last weekend.