Fresh Air, A Billion Stars and Two Billion Daddly Longlegs

Our camping trip survival rate was 100%! Remember how I was so excited about car camping that I opted to bring everything? Cast iron reversible griddle? Don't mind if I do... We arrived at our campsite (very late, which I will passive-aggressively mention here, in reference to why we didn't make the hike up the falls), only to discover what the map of the campground really doesn't show - topography. We parked in our allotted spot, then we trekked up and down a daunting cliff to our designated site. The good news is, we can now crush our enemies to death using only our calves. And maybe by wielding a cast iron reversible griddle. The two powers together would be unstoppable. Here's what it looked like, walking down that hill:

But then, the payoff!

We were right on a point, and there was a nice-sized beach we could walk along, to take in the views along the lake. The girls couldn't wait to wade in and get their only clothes soaking wet just in time for the temperature to drop to right about hypothermia-degrees Fahrenheit.

They were so happy, though, we decided to risk death and let them frolic. We skipped some stones; it was a shale beach, so there was more than enough stone-skipping fodder to be had by all. I used to be pretty bad at this feat, but things were going pretty well for me that windy Saturday afternoon. Every time I managed to get a rock to make a few hops across the water, no one was watching. So finally I took the kids' approach and demanded Jeremiah's attention. I had a sweet stone, it was going to go clear across to the next outcropping. I took my stance, stretched my arm behind me, wrist ready to flick, then went for it, failing to release the rock at all, until it was much too late, and instead hit myself (with impressive velocity and precision) in the other hand. The bruise didn't even surface until Monday evening. Jeremiah was impressed, of course. I was really glad that was the one everyone got to see.

While we awaited the arrival of our friends, we located a wonderful campfire ring, right on the very tip of the point. Since our tent didn't fit on the nice tent-pitching spot, we'd had to set it up directly next to our site's little fire pit. It was pretty windy, so the campfire ring seemed like a better spot for flames and kumbaya'ing. I am much better at building campfires than I am at skipping stones.

Once everyone arrived (I have no pictures of our group because I was using my phone, and it was dying), we cooked a delicious dinner, then set to work on s'mores straight-away. The children ran through the woods with their glo-stick axes (compliments of Aunt Jo Jo) screaming at the tops of their lungs for what must've been 4 days straight. We did finally get them all into bed, cozied up with their glowing axes and dreaming of roasted marshmallows. We went to the beach and our friend Jerry set up his telescope so we could see that Carl Sagan was right, there truly are billions and billions of stars. It was cool, but also cold, and I had to go crawl into my own bed shortly after looking at moon craters.

The next morning, we made pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs and coffee and ate like kings while packing out all our stuff. Up the hill...with the cast iron skillet and all the other stuff. Up and down, up and down. Then, we headed to the apple orchard. It's an apple-pickin' jubilee, y'all! We saw contra dancing (I thought this would have something to do with Nicaraguan rebels, but I quickly saw I was either mistaken about the dancing, or about Nicaraguan rebels), picked some apples, slid down a 50-foot slide that looked as though it had been constructed by frat boys on a jello-shooter bender, ate some grease, milked the cow and jumped on the jumpy-thing until Kate melted down and we agreed we were getting all funned-out.

At last, it was time to home. We settled into the car with our peck of apples, 1/2 gallon of cider and collective stink and pointed ourselves toward Atlanta. It was a beautiful ride home through the mountains, but the girls didn't notice.

To the Woods!

Next weekend, we are going camping. This will be the girls' first camp-out. I am very excited. We're heading up to Carter Lake on Saturday morning, where we will engage in the first bit of car-camping I've done in years. I'm used to backpacking. I love backpacking, but the mindset is different. When I'm going backpacking, I throw everything I want to take into a big pile, then cull the herd based on weight and collapsability and absolute necessity. But for this trip, we'll be right next to the car. I'm bringing everything.

We only have our little 3-person tent, so, after deciding that renting from REI wasn't all that, we found ourselves the perfect family-sized tent. It arrived in the mail yesterday. It's this tent. I was in the middle of doing several other things, but I stopped everything when the box arrived, and I set the tent up in the living room. Well, sort of. It's a 3-room tent. I was able to set the main part up, but the thing is larger than our living room. I am giddy. I left the tent up because I thought the girls might want to sleep in it last night.

Not only did they sleep in it, they slept in later than they ever do. That would've been awesome, except I was up at 6 for a bike ride. Too bad they didn't get to sleep in the tent Friday night. I rolled the thing back up this morning, and the pets were very, very sad to see it go. Rex the cat kept diving into the folds. He might still be in there now, come to think of it. I haven't seen him in awhile...

Anniversary Weekend

We ditched the kids again. This time only for 2 nights. For our anniversary this year, we rented a little cabin just outside of Helen, GA, in the North Georgia mountains. It. Was. Awesome. Perfect weather, wonderful cabin, plenty of good food and wine, kidless time...aaaaaaaahhhhhh.

We forgot our camera again. I don't know what's wrong with us. I have a few shots from my phone I'll share here, but when I bemoaned the lack of camera Jeremiah said "good, I don't want to post a bunch of pictures of this place and then, when we go to rent it again, find out I've been cock-blocked by one of my friends".

We had a nice drive up Friday afternoon, and when we arrived, and took a moment to get our breath back upon seeing the view, we became reasonably sure that it was, indeed, an eagle we saw swooping around in the distance. I always think it's really a turkey buzzard or vulture, but I've seen those things in flight...pretty sure that was an eagle. The cabin faces due east, with an entire wall of windows that look out over the mountains. There's a hottub out on the deck, there, and we sat in it and drank wine while we stargazed. On the second evening, we watched Jupiter rise over the mountain. The moon, nearly new, made its appearance in the wee hours of the morning, and when we awoke, without even getting out of bed, we had a perfect view of the sliver of moon remaining, while the sky was all purple and star-filled.

Saturday morning, as we prepared to take a short hike, we got to watch 4, no 5, no 6 hawks downright frolicking just above the cabin's roof. They were circling at various altitudes above us, allowing us to just hang out and watch. Then we saw a bluetailed skink on the front wall of the cabin. Lots of little lizards out there, too.

We spent some time in Helen, which, if you're not familiar, is a funny little town. Originally a mill town, things started to go south when all the trees had been cut down (they're back), so a few guys got together and made themselves a tourist attraction out of their town. It's a little German village that sort of looks like the ski resort in Hottub Time Machine. There is, indeed, some very cool stuff there - a great country store called Betty's, an outdoor adventure company that does tubing on the Chattahoochee River, a wonderful coffee roastery, a grain mill that still uses the original parts...but we spent about an hour in the town and we were pretty much done. Why bother when there's that cabin filled with wine and food waiting for us?

Cake Helpers

When we were in Virginia, working on the 50th anniversary cake, I put Kate and Sarah to work. They colored some of the marshmallow fondant for me. I know Sarah looks annoyed here, but I swear, she was having fun. You just have to take my word for it. They slowed me down a lot, but it was well worth it to have their happy presence all up in my workspace.

Not it!

These days, when I say things like "the shoe basket is empty, but surrounded by shoes, please clean it up, girls" to my children, they invariably say, in turn, "I didn't do it!" I don't need that at home, I get enough of it at work.

Yesterday, I was setting up a movie for Sarah to watch while Kate was finishing her homework. When I found the DVDs out of their cases and spread all over the place in the TV room I commented that we all should be more careful to put these things away when we're finished watching them. Sarah said "I didn't do it!" and I heaved a heavy, end-of-the-day-tired sigh. "It doesn't matter, Sarah" I tried (again) to explain. "It just matters that we take care of our stuff, all of us." Then, because it was bugging me, I threw in "I'm so tired of you girls constantly shirking responsibility for stuff." To that, Sarah replied "I didn't do that!"

The Big Par-tay

We traveled to my mountains to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary and somehow managed to forget a camera. So, I've been stealing photos from other, more responsible participants in the festivities and I will slowly add them here in the way of updates. Here's an adorable shot of Sarah and Ro* at dinner that Friday night. Feel the cousin love!

A Brief Conversation With Kate

Kate: [While getting dressed this morning] Hey, this skirt is actually a skort!
Me: Great, now you can just play with reckless abandon!
Kate: Or with the monkey bars.