My brother Pete (that man shepherding eleven children lakeside) and his wife Sarah gave our family one of the best weekends yet. We drove a few hours into the deeper crannies of PA for camping-kind-of-in-a-cabin for the first time ever! Annika couldn't help but jump up and down when she told me how much fun they were all having, using words like "exhilarating" and "magical" in one breath.
I told Aidan to watch out for exhilarating and magical bears.
Pete and Sarah live five minutes from the state park, so their six (soon to be seven!) boychildren could hop over to play without any trouble at all. Two days in a row, the lake was chock full of cousins.
And when darkness fell, two nights running, s'mores and sugar were the rule.
I caught this early morning thief dipping into my coffee.
John and the three biggest girls were gone on an off-trail, lengthy, we're-not-
really-lost hike around the lake when I woke up, so Zeke and I bummed about waiting for the other children to wake up.
After an hour, I couldn't stand the silence and woke them all up.
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Bedhead, bottle, and baby.
She was enthralled by the chipmunks chasing each other around the campsite.
Board games dominated our second night there, with the children duking it out at one cabin while John, Pete, and a friend played at the other.
It all ended too soon! On Monday, Sarah and the boys took us to a little spot on our way home for more swimming, only with a diving board and slide this time around.
Haven, Gussie, and Annika had a competition for best jump. I think Haven was cheated from the title. Neither of the other two could walk on water!
Henry shared nearly all his pretzels with Cadence.
And to round out our vacation, ice cream for all. (P.s. Sarah and I are due one day apart. How cool is that?)
(P.p.s. Cadence and her first ice cream cone. A smashing success all around.)
