Camping July 4th Weekend 2009

Where to start - so much to say and so many pictures to post...

First off both girls went to the doc on Thursday of last week for rechecks. Rowan woke up Tuesday of last week with her right eye puffed way out off her face. Parker stayed home, took her to the doc where she was diagnosed with a double ear infection and possible pink eye (!) and told to return on Thurs for a recheck. So Lily was already going to the ENT that day to check on her tubes so I got double duty in the doc dept that afternoon. Rowan checked out fine, ears completely clear and probably was not pink eye but related to the ear infection she had. Lily's tubes looked nice and clear and she passed her hearing test and we do not go back until November to check on her tubes again.

Then Friday was a holiday for the July 4th weekend so we packed up and headed to the Pine Barrens in NJ to go camping at JoAnn and Paul's new seasonal site.

So there we are with two kids one who is a baby and requires so much stuff that Paul had to take it all up with him when he and JoAnn went up on Wednesday for us! But regardless, and thankfully for that, we had a great time. We pitched our tent on their site and Parker and Rowan slept in it (we were sure she would not but she was totally in to it!) and Lily and I slept in the trailer's living room.

We took all the dogs for a walk the first day and tried to let them swim in the lake near, but not in, the swimming area and got told to leave so we went and found another spot and let them jump in off the embankments and have a grand old time. Rowan had a blast watching them!

After that JoAnn and I took Rowan to the pool for a little bit then we just hung around the campsite, took the dogs for walks occasionally and had a yummy dinner of baby back ribs.

Saturday JoAnn kept Lily and the dogs at the campground while Parker, Paul, Rowan and I went to a town called Smithville - it was really cute, like a cross between New Hope and Peddler's Village. They had a train ride that rode around the town a little bit so we all took that then wandered around, did a bit of shopping and headed back to the campsite.






When we got back we all went swimming where Rowan made a friend named Alexa - as luck would have it Alexa's campsite was literally across and two up from JoAnn and Paul's so once the girls figured that out they were together from that afternoon on playing and running around together. It was great to see Rowan come out of her shy shell and make a new friend on her own and then walk down to see if she was available to play with and everything!





The dogs were a hoot the whole time we were there, Teddi was completely indifferent to the whole thing, Zoey was not as freaked out as she usually is and Molly who is the most hyper dog ever was the best behaved one even though she still excited easily! Rowan is not fond of Molly because she used to jump up on Rowan but Lily was hugely amused by Molly and the feeling was mutual because Molly never left Lily's side and could not give her enough kisses! It must be because were the same height when they were both sitting ! The upshot of their relationship...Lily crawled for the first time this weekend! Really crawling - it was hard to get it on tape because it happened in the trailer and there was not alot of room for her to go anywhere but she did it! Then the grate stopped her because you know that is fascinating and all but our girl is officially mobile now!

All in all it was a great time, the weather was perfect and we hope we are invited back soon!