Camping, Again

This is my favorite picture from camping. My two boys, occupying themselves as we set up camp. This isn't just a turtle, though. It's a turtle-dinosaur-shark-whale. Bet you didn't know that! All the rocks had a shape of a different animal, unlike the turtle. I love the imagination of Big Boy. His explanations seem so convoluted, yet end up being so obvious.

I think I took more pictures of weeds this year than I did of my kids.

Our second annual tradition of tie dying was in full force this year with the ingenious mind of my sister in law and great friend, Lisa. She bought soda ash. If you've never used soda ash prior to tie dying...you must. The colors are brilliant and I think we used less dye. Well, except for me, I soaked my yellow and in turn used most of it (sorry, Lisa!). These turned out great and I'm already excited for next year's batch.

As we were mixing the shirts in soda ash with Little Man and my niece, LM's stick flew out of the bucket and soda ash water splashed up. I grabbed him and Lisa turned on the water and we stuck his head under the faucet. Well, first I rammed his forehead into the faucet (my alignment was off) and then we rinsed his eyes out. He was screaming, we were frantic. We set him down to look and found that the stick scratched his face and that was the reason for the scream. It had nothing to do with the soda ash water. Hey, at least we were prepared!

Here are all the cousins with their tie-dye shirts. They all had a great time this year. It was great to see them interact and play together.

Oh, Chenango Valley State Park...I do love you, even if you rain on us EVERY year!