Third Week

I am finally back to taking pictures to document our adventures and so I now present you with WEEK THREE of summer vacation.

Monday

Monday was a sweet day.  Literally.  Sweet.  The coupon of the week at the library was Miss Moffat's cupcakes.  Miss Moffat has recently changed her entire line of cupcakes over to gluten and nut free.  And, the coupon was for a mini cupcake but they were all out, so she gave us all regular cupcakes!  Win!  Delicious.

Monday evening we finally went to a place that the boys have been dying to go.  Boomshaka.  Michael and Josh have already been, so I thought Ben was going to bust something in his excitement and anticipation of going.  It was family night, so we could all get in for $35 - finally having a larger family made something a better deal!

Boomshaka is a trampoline place with pits of foam blocks that you can find all sorts of crazy ways to throw your body into. And throw their bodies into them they did.  For an hour.  Which was about enough.  At least, for their parents.  I will spare you the video of me flailing about trying to escape the foam pits and give you a picture of Ben the cutie instead.

And Isaac who climbed on a ton of things, but had no desire to get in the pits or anywhere near a trampoline.

I had so much fun that I even lost my car keys in a foam pit.

So. much. fun.

All's well that ends well and my friend's husband help me find them.

Disaster averted.

Tuesday
Tuesday was the day we revisited a hike we haven't done for well over a year: Priest Point Park.  Which meant two things: I had forgotten how steep much of it was and Isaac is about 10lbs heavier.  It was a great workout.

The four amigos:

Tuesday was also FREE Slurpee day at 7-11 so, of course, we had to stop by on our way home.

Wednesday
This ended up being crazy errand day as Michael had scout camp coming up but no scout shirt.  But we also made time to stop off and buy raspberries to make jam.  Ben had so much fun making strawberry jam a few weeks ago that he was just itching to make some more.   So, yeah, we be jammin'.

Thursday

Thursday was our shortest hike of the week: Watershed Park.  We were on a time table as we had more errands to run, but this park was on our way so we jumped out and hiked 1.5 miles.  

I managed to talk Josh into carrying the backpack carrier (without Isaac in it).  He and his troop are going on a 5 day camp out that involves a total of 45 miles of hiking while carrying their gear.  So there's no time like the present to start training.

Isaac was a trooper and walked the entire time.  Of course, there was some bribing involved.  And not just a little bit of trickery.  Yes, I have parenting skillz.

Thursday was also the last day of Michael's tennis camp (in case you were wondering why he wasn't showing up in any of our hiking pictures).   He had a great time and now would like a tennis racket and the chance to teach his brothers how to play.

Thursday was also pack for 11yo scout camp day.  It was camp week for Michael.

Friday
Friday early Jason and Michael loaded up the van and left for camp.  Which just left Josh, Ben, and Isaac for our third hike of the week: Millersylvania. We're camping here in a couple of weeks, so I figured we should check it out first.  And for this hike, I had Josh wear his hiking backpack with his tent and sleeping bag.  I think he found it more tiring that he expected.

Add two soccer games, a soccer practice, 2 hours of TKD and an hour and a half service project and you have week three of summer vacation.  The boys keep hoping that I will loose steam and let them sleep in.  Yeah, they probably shouldn't bank on that.  While the sun is shining and our state and national park passes are valid, they are more hiking adventures in our future.