Millersylvania Morning

Jason took a few days off work and ended up with a 5-day weekend for various activities and adventures.  Saturday morning I thought that it would be fun to recreate a fun activity I remember doing with my family when I was a kid: outdoor breakfast.  We packed up the camping grill and some breakfast yummies and drove to Millersylvania Park.  Jason had never been and there are some nice picnic tables by the water and the dock.  Since the whole process involved delaying breakfast and helping prepare the food, the boys were not enthusiastic at first.

Josh begrudgingly helped cook the bacon.  It was quite an imposition to cook one package of bacon, especially since he cooks pounds of bacon when he camps with the scouts.  So much moping.  So much resentment.  The teen years are guaranteed to be so much fun!

Then there were some technical difficulties cooking the pancakes.  The pan tended to burn the pancakes on the ends of the pan and leave the ones in the middle raw.  We'll get some of the kinks worked out, but Jason still managed to make a lot of pancakes for hungry bellies.

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When all was done and on their plates, the boys were happy with the results.  Of course, who can be upset when eating pancakes cooked in bacon grease and covered in real maple syrup?

While the middles and Jason were on KP duty, Josh and I followed Isaac to the dock.  We found out on Wednesday that not only is Isaac a flight risk, he is also a dive headfirst over the side risk.  That meant we had to keep eyes and hands on him and I, now more than ever, need one of those kid leash things.  (Okay, I know they aren't called leashes, but the concept is the same and it would make it easier to keep him from playing with the fishes in the seaweed.)

It is beautiful on the lake.

Saturday was not about the lake, however.  Saturday was about hiking.  In case you are wondering, I adhere to the school of thought that if you make kids do something often enough, they will love it.  Because that works, right?

This was Jason's kind of forest.  Dark.  Mossy.  Ferny.  Full of huge trees.

The boys warmed up to hiking after a while.  Jason has a gift for finding wildlife and cool plants.  He usually wins them over in the end.

The one kid who didn't need to be won over was Isaac.  He was exhausted after spending the morning throwing rocks in the water and trying to get in the water.  A nice ride on Mom was just what he needed to lull him to sleep.

If you ask of some of the boys (ahem, Michael, Ben, and Isaac if he could talk), the best part of the morning was the blackberries.  We finally were able to get a reasonable amount of them off the bushes at a time.  We still didn't manage to bring any home since little mouths were desperate for the juicy berries.  I asked Josh later in the day if he likes VA or WA better.  He still picks VA.  I figure it may be too late for him.  But, I also figure, if nothing else, we will be able to win the rest of them over with summers of berry picking.

Camping is still a daunting thought with Isaac being so little, but outdoor morning breakfasts bring us one step closer to enjoying more of the outdoor benefits of our new home.