Spring Break: Newport News & Jamestown...

We had such an awesome spring break - so awesome it's taken me this long to write about it. We kicked our trip off with two nights at Newport News Park which was a first for us. The campground was decent - not too much in the ways of amenities but we enjoyed our wooded site and our views of the water. The park itself huge with a big public area on the other side of the water with lots of biking and hiking trails. 

Adam enjoyed riding his bike around the campground loop - round and round he'd go. Harper enjoyed exploring our campsite, playing with sticks, and going for bike rides and walks to the park. We also enjoyed a longer walk one day on the other side of the park where we got to see lots of turtles sunning themselves. Adam tried to count them all but lost track around 54. 

The campground was also nice because it was in close proximity to CNU where our nephew Drew just completed his Junior year. He came and spent one of the days with us which was a lot of fun. We started the day at Jamestown. The weather was perfect and we got there right when they opened so it wasn't too crowded. Adam really enjoyed visiting Jamestown after having learned about the different Native American tribes in Social Studies this year. It was really cool to see him pointing things out to us - and he schooled Drew on all things Christopher Newport as that was an explorer they had also spent time learning about this year. Adam seems to be a history buff - something his great Granddad would be very proud to know. 

After our morning at Jamestown we headed back to the campground where Drew took Adam for a special cousin's only fishing adventure. The adventure started with a water moccasin sighting - yikes! They quickly moved fishing locations to the boat ramp after that. Drew is such a great role model for Adam so it's really great when we can get time for them to spend together. 

Our spring break was off to a wonderful start.  

Harper's Silly Faces...

I take a lot of pictures of both kids - always have - but I tend to have quite a few more of Harper as he is not nearly as cooperative as Adam is in smiling for a pic. Thus my phone is full of all kinds of random Harper pics that I can't resist sharing.

Of course Adam can usually get him to pose....

Camping at Phohick Bay with Friends...

Once the snow melted and the ground was back to being thawed out (took all of 3 if that) we headed off for our first camping weekend of the year. A good friend of mine from growing up recently got a camper for her family and so we decided to tag along on their inaugural camping adventure. 

The weather was perfect - back to short sleeves and shorts - as we'd been accustomed to! It was also a trip down memory lane driving through our old neck of the woods to get there. 

As we had been packing I was thinking of how we'd need to bring toys for Harper to play with on the carpet outside the camper, you know, since the last time we had camped that's exactly what he did...of course that was in November when he wasn't walking yet, so yeah, this was a different experience. Haha! Needless to say it was a much more active camping trip chasing Harper around - but we loved every moment! 

Also keeping us on our toes was Adam who was so excited to finally be able to ride a bike around a campground! He rode that thing round and round the campground loop at least 50 times and we had fun walking behind pushing Harper in his bike or just keeping tabs on him from our walkie talkies - giving him a bit of leash - but not too much! :) 

We enjoyed an old fashioned dinner around the campfire with our friends. Cooking hot dogs over the fire followed up by smore's of course. 

In the morning, thanks to our early morning wake-up call from Harper, we were able to sneak out for a sunrise hike along the bay. It was so pretty and a perfect way to start the day. Pancakes were the reward. 

The rest of the weekend was all about running around the park, playing lacrosse, chasing Harper around, bike rides, and even some sparklers to top off a great first camping trip of 2017! 

A Snow Day - Finally...

(Disclaimer - yeah yeah, I get I'm way behind...better late than never right?) 

You know the saying "boy if I had a nickle for every time I heard xyz..." well boy if I had a nickle for every time I heard Adam ask "When is it going to snowwwwwwwwww?!" this winter - well, I'd likely have enough nickles to just buy a darn snow making machine to appease him! 

So yeah, it was a warm winter - hence this post about the great weather we'd been enjoying (http://liddycakes.blogspot.com/2017/03/spring-came-early.html) - and it did seem like we were never going to get a single snow day - that is until March when the snow decided to make an appearance. Naturally the weather people had us all a twitter with snowfall amounts predicted to be near a foot - but then that quickly got changed to possibly only a few inches. Needless to say Adam's excitement level was all over the place - and he was sure to have his pajamas on inside out before bed. 

We did wake up to enough white stuff on the ground and roads to cancel school for the day and the kids had a ball! There were early morning snuggles in bed and pancakes for breakfast. The next door neighbors were over nearly all day and forts were built, sledding ramps were paved, and snow balls fights (and snowball snacks!) were enjoyed. While I had been enjoying that spring time weather and the trees that had started to bloom - I will admit it was fun to get that snow day in and to watch the kids have such a great time together. 

Bonus! Harper got to really enjoy his first snow experience (we was a bit too young to remember anything from the blizzard last year). Luckily we had all the gear he needed leftover from Adam including a great sled that has a strap in it. He was loving life out there in the snow and with his friends as well. 

The kids might not have gotten 10+ days off like they did last year, but I'd say they'd consider this one snow day to be good enough.