First Snow 2014

When Our Sweetie was living with us I got up at five in the morning to get up and get showered before she woke up. I am usually up before the rest of the family. This is how my hubby remembers this day:

I pounce on the bed yelling hysterically "Honey...Kids! UP?...SNOW!"

That is not what happened.

The first snow usually is wet and is gone by 9am. It was 6 in the morning, both kids were up, and I decided that now was the best time to get them out, because later the snow would be mud. I had the kids mostly dressed and I went into the bedroom and calmly and quietly asked Jason if he'd like to get up and join us outside in the snow.

He did eventually come out with us and he forgave me for waking him up so early in the morning.

Our Sweetie was the first kid I have ever seen to crawl in the snow. She was undaunted by the cold white stuff on the ground and just kept on motoring! 

The above photos were adjusted for the low light. The photo below is not. We were out so early that the sun had not completly risen and the world was slightly blue.

Fall Getaway: An Adventure

We were riding around in our GMC Safari one day and my husband turns to me and says:

"Honey, I have this idea."

"Oh?"

"It's a good idea."

"I'm sure it is."

"Let's put our mattress in our van and take it camping! We won't even need a campsite. We could just park it anywhere and sleep!" 

"With the kids?"

"Just you and I."

"There are large windows in our van, people will see us."

"So, we will hang curtains!"

So that is what we did!

The week-end after Columbus Day in October we headed out on a wandering trip to visit some more State Parks and to do a little adventuring. No plan, no campsite, no showers, no toilet. Just us, a few supplies, our camp stove, and a sense of adventure. We traveled on Route 1 as far North-East as Calais and as far South as Rockland.

We saw blueberry fields as far as the eye could see, the ocean after a storm blew through in the night, two eagles fishing, and the last few bright colors of fall. We visited Fort O'Brien, Roque Bluffs, The Reversing Waterfalls in Pembroke, and Fort Halifax.

We slept on the side of the road in little turn outs, peed in the dark in the woods behind the van, ate a breakfast of eggs cooked on the windiest day of our trip, didn't shower for two days, and had a good time spending uninterrupted time together.

On Knitting and Campfires

I am positively terrible at taking my own photo either with a self timer or one handed. But I've done my best. I knit myself a hat. It's a bit too small, but I think it will work running to and from the car this winter and when it's a bit chilly around the campfire this summer. 

On my needles now is a scarf that I will loop together with kitchener stitch to make a cowl. This is the third attempt to make a cowl. The first two ended being rewound into a ball. The problem was me, not the patterns. The cowl is also for the summer for the above mentioned chilly nights. I have a pair of fingerless gloves that I test knitted and those too will come with me to the fire.

Do I plan on sitting around a lot of campfires? Yes. Often during the summer we are "Upta" camp or camping (tenting) and I find that the summer night can be quite chilly sometimes. More than once I have wished for something more to wear while we enjoyed the flames.

I supposed if we did most of our camping during the hottest months it would be a problem for me, but we don't do that. My husband doesn't enjoy crowds or tourists so we try to camp when most people aren't camping as heavily. Like last year when we went camping in September on the coast. This summer we have four trips already planned and hope to camp even more than that! 

We will be making our campfire in New Hampshire twice. Once at Cascade and once at Crawford Notch, then closer to home we will return to Mount Blue State Park and to the coast to Searsport. We also hope to try out a campground run by one of the families of the daycare called Silverlake.

I promise that this year I will stay away from the axe. (if you have a weak tummy, don't look)

ER Adventures

Jason and I had a bad parenting moment while we were away over New Years. We had a break down in communication. We stayed in an apartment away from most of the noise while at the Mountain Retreat. I was taking a nap on the 31st while Stomper napped in the next room. Jason thought I had the baby monitor on, I thought he was in the next room and could hear Stomper when he woke up. We were both wrong. I woke up to Stomper crying so I got up and went into his room.

The room smelled strongly of menthol and as I opened the door he dropped a tube on the floor. I assumed it was toothpaste. I demanded, "What are you doing?" He answered, "Eat toothpaste." He had it all over his hands, feet, and face so I took him into the bathroom to clean him up. I reminded him that we only put food in our mouths and went back into the room to get the tube, reciting the number to poison control in my head as I went. I picked up the tube and read the label: Icy/Hot. 

The lady from poison control was helpful and calm. She told me that since I didn't now know for certain how much he had eaten that we should go to the ER to have his aspirin levels checked. 

After about two hours in a hospital room it was determined that Stomper's aspirin levels were ZERO. We all breathed a sigh of relief. We had a lot of fun in our room. Papa played with the gloves and we used Stomper's LeapPad2 to take videos, photos, and make a cartoon. We ended the evening by taking Stomper out to KFC, just to round out our day of bad parenting. 

I was trying to remember the other times I've called Poison Control for this son of mine. The only other time I could remember was when he put a used Clorox Toilet Scrubber in his mouth (he had fished it out of the trash). Is it bad that I have the number to Poison Control memorized?