For Columbus Day Weekend and for Harrison's birthday, we decided that we needed to just get away! Andy needed a mental health break from his phone and we needed some quality family togetherness time. After soccer games were finished on Saturday morning, we packed up the van and headed out. We drove south to Maryland because everyone else in PA had also decided to go camping for every campsite we checked on was full. We ended up at Greenbrier State Park. It ended up being a great place to camp. Usually, you pay $25+ bucks a night for a 18x18 foot cement pad and you are about 10 feet away from the next camper. Here, it was the same price, but you were surrounded by trees and the next camper was about 40 yards away. It was so nice!
We attempted a dutch oven Jumbleberry Pie. It was so tasty, I might add. I just brought some Pillsbury pie dough, a ziploc bag of frozen mixed berries, and a small tupperware of sugar and cornstarch. We mixed the berries with the sugar, put the mixture into the dough-lined dutch oven, and set it on the charcoal and let them do the work. I wish I would have taken an 'after' picture, but we ate it too fast.
(In this picture, dusk is setting in so we were getting ready to put the butt-light on Abric. Zane was demonstrating in this picture where we needed to put said butt-light.)
This huge tree stump was right next to our campsite. I cannot count how much time the boys spent whacking it with some sticks. Good, clean fun. Get that aggression out, boys! Use up that pent up energy! As you can see, it was hypnotizing.
Here is our quaint little campsite. Notice, you can't really see any neighbors. Hooray! Also, instead of a cement slab, they had this fine gravel over the dirt. We were actually able to put the tent stakes in with no problems. Double hooray! Note, I was not picking my nose in this picture that Andy took. I believe I was daintily eating a piece of bacon.
On Sunday night we made scones. This was a trick I had learned from one of my high school teachers. We heated the dutch oven over the coals, put some crisco in to melt into oil, then fried the scones. I had cinnamon honey butter to put on them. Everything tastes better when you are camping, right?
Abric and the life-saving butt-light. I think we would have lost him about 20 times if we had not put this on him. We also added a head lamp to the mix. He had a ball! Note to self: make sure we get enough headlamps for each boy to have his own. This will solve all the headlamp fights that occurred.
Since Harrison is immensely interested in military history, specifically war history, we found out that Antietam Battlefield was about 20 minutes from our campsite. Antietam is a battle during the Civil War, it was also the deadliest one-day battle of all American history. 23,000 soldiers died. Wow.
The old Dunker Church. Ironically enough this pacifist church was right in the center of the heat of the battle.
This is Bloody Lane. Notice the ditch going down the center. The Union soldiers hid in the ditch waiting for the Confederates to attack. When they did, the Union soldiers jumped up and slaughtered the advancing army. Harrison thought that was a great strategy and loved all the action, of course. I thought this may have been a pre-cursor to the trench warfare during WWI.
On Monday morning, Harrison's official birthday, we packed up, showered, then headed east to the Arundel Mills mall. I had never been there, but it was HUGE! (I could get lost in there, which isn't saying much.) It is the closest mall that had a Lego Store. We didn't tell the boys where we were going. Andy told them that we needed to go to the mall to buy me a dress so that I would look nice on Harrison's birthday. Oh how that man loves to tease his boys!
I wish I was able to take a picture of Harrison's face when we walked into that store. Every inch was covered with legos: lego sets, bins of colored legos, minifigs, etc. It was every 4-12 year old boys' dream, including the adult boys. Abric was a little unsure about the giant Lego 'mini'-fig.
I felt awful that R didn't even get a piece of birthday cake because I wasn't finished decorating it yet. I'm sure he was pretty confused with the whole situation.
Later that night, Zane did eventually get to blow out his candles, with his silly siblings and cousins.
You are the mellow-peacemaker in our family. Even though you do have your share of tantrums, I can always count on you to do something kind for someone else and to always ask me how you can help. 
34 years ago today, my mom missed her baby shower because I came 6 weeks early. My mom's water broke and I was born with the longest fingernails anyone had ever seen. Too bad that didn't carry over into adult-hoold because even my boys can grow longer fingernails than I do.
Cake and ice cream with friends and family. Harrison is ready for us to sing to him. He's been waiting one whole year, after all.
My 1/2 hour attempt at a Lego cake. Not too shabby, I guess. Harrison tried to compliment me and tell me that I did a good job trying to make it look like a Lego. I should have used fondant instead of whipped cream icing. I'm sure with their obsession with Legos that I will have many more times to practice.
We attempted a dutch oven Jumbleberry Pie. It was so tasty, I might add. I just brought some Pillsbury pie dough, a ziploc bag of frozen mixed berries, and a small tupperware of sugar and cornstarch. We mixed the berries with the sugar, put the mixture into the dough-lined dutch oven, and set it on the charcoal and let them do the work. I wish I would have taken an 'after' picture, but we ate it too fast. 
This huge tree stump was right next to our campsite. I cannot count how much time the boys spent whacking it with some sticks. Good, clean fun. Get that aggression out, boys! Use up that pent up energy! As you can see, it was hypnotizing.
Here is our quaint little campsite. Notice, you can't really see any neighbors. Hooray! Also, instead of a cement slab, they had this fine gravel over the dirt. We were actually able to put the tent stakes in with no problems. Double hooray! Note, I was not picking my nose in this picture that Andy took. I believe I was daintily eating a piece of bacon.
On Sunday night we made scones. This was a trick I had learned from one of my high school teachers. We heated the dutch oven over the coals, put some crisco in to melt into oil, then fried the scones. I had cinnamon honey butter to put on them. Everything tastes better when you are camping, right?
Abric and the life-saving butt-light. I think we would have lost him about 20 times if we had not put this on him. We also added a head lamp to the mix. He had a ball! Note to self: make sure we get enough headlamps for each boy to have his own. This will solve all the headlamp fights that occurred.
Since Harrison is immensely interested in military history, specifically war history, we found out that Antietam Battlefield was about 20 minutes from our campsite. Antietam is a battle during the Civil War, it was also the deadliest one-day battle of all American history. 23,000 soldiers died. Wow.
The old Dunker Church. Ironically enough this pacifist church was right in the center of the heat of the battle.
This is Bloody Lane. Notice the ditch going down the center. The Union soldiers hid in the ditch waiting for the Confederates to attack. When they did, the Union soldiers jumped up and slaughtered the advancing army. Harrison thought that was a great strategy and loved all the action, of course. I thought this may have been a pre-cursor to the trench warfare during WWI.
On Monday morning, Harrison's official birthday, we packed up, showered, then headed east to the Arundel Mills mall. I had never been there, but it was HUGE! (I could get lost in there, which isn't saying much.) It is the closest mall that had a Lego Store. We didn't tell the boys where we were going. Andy told them that we needed to go to the mall to buy me a dress so that I would look nice on Harrison's birthday. Oh how that man loves to tease his boys!
We had a 'friends' party today for Ewan. I got the idea from my friend, Robyn, to hold a birthday party for kids every 4 years. That way, they can expect when they will get a party and it will also hit the 'big' milestone years: 4, 8, 12, and 16.
We dressed up as super heroes, made our own pizzas, ate lunch, then we painted Fantastic 4 t-shirts, then had birthday cake. My Fantastic 4 pops turned out all right.
Good enough to eat, anyway, and that is what is important, right?
Later that night we had Grandma, Pappy, all his aunts and uncles and cousins over for cake and ice cream. Ewan is sporting his birthday party shirt.
Ben, Anya, Sarah, Pappy, and Grandma with Landon. Bryce decide to jump in on this picture, too.
We let Harrison take pictures of Ewan opening his presents. Can you tell?
A nice close-up of Alexandra. I don't think Harrison could have gotten any closer!
