Detours Along the Way to Heaven: Snapshots of May and June: Special Visit and Camping!

Routine BJ's trip...one of the boys' favorite activies

Brotherly love

Sunday afternoon activities

He's gotten really good at putting these together

Rummikub for Mommy and Daddy while the boys sleep

A few weeks ago we met up with a friend and spent the day at the beach, which was nice since it was a hot one!

We forgot an umbrella so we made do with our own makeshift shelter

The boys enjoyed playing in their "fort"

William finally got comfortable enough with the (very) cold water to play in and dragged bucket loads back to dump on Marcellus, who actually enjoyed getting cooled off since he wasn't adventurous enough to venture down to the water.

A couple weeks ago we had a very special visitor! My friend Tess came to spend a week with us and we had a blast. And Zenith finally had a drinking buddy! (As you can see from the picture, these guys went right to town)

We took an evening trip to the beach to walk around...William loved having a friend to play with all week!

We finished the night off with a trip to Five Guys for yummy burgers and fries (and we may have stopped for ice cream on the way home :P)

One of the days we went to Portsmouth to Odiorne State Park where they have lovely trails along the ocean and through the State Park. They also have the Seacoast Science Center with lots of fish tanks and open tanks where the boys got to reach in and touch the sea creatures.

The park also had a nice playground which the boys had fun at

The week after Tess left, we ventured out on our next adventure...Camping!

We had this thing completely stashed

After a 2 1/2 hour drive up to Coolidge State Park in VT, we set up camp at our awesome campsite

The ground ended up not having enough level space for both our tent and the boys' tent, so we put the boys tent inside the lean to and set up our air mattress right next to it. It turned out to be a good set up...the tent inside the shelter kept the boys nice and warm and we didn't mind the cold with our down comforter with us. The cold temperatures at night kept the bugs away at least! It was around 55-60F during the day and got down close to 40F at night which was perfect for us as we'd rather have it on the cool side than too warm.

Can't start to relax until you get that beer out!

Not sure this will work so well...

Soup over the fire

Pretty much sums it up

And what would a camping trip be without evening cuppas??

Breakfast cooked on the fire! Eggs, bacon, toast, juice and coffee

Fatty McFatty on the right here has entered into a bacon coma

Saturday we went on a 2 mile hike through the State Park...ended up being a bit more than we bargained for with steep inclines. The boys ended up with a free ride on Daddy most of the way, giving him a good work out!

Not sure if you can see it, but we had just climbed up this after climbing steeply down from the other side to cross the water. At almost 6 months pregnant with 2 toddlers it was a little challenging but we were more than halfway there and I didn't want to stop!

Ladyslipper flower...fairly close to extinction

And we're almost there!

Just keep climbing, just keep climbing...

We made it! And the view certainly made it worth it. It was a beautiful spot at the top

We sat at these tables for a bit and had a little picnic snack

Little play area at the base of the campground

Trouble-maker trying to instigate

After a long, hard hike, it was time for some grilled steak over the fire, potato salad, and fire roasted corn on the cob!

Sunday morning

Start the day off right with coffee

Packing up and this boy somehow lost his pants...

Sunday after breakfast and packing up, we headed off to Church (Mass was at 2pm) and said goodbye to our campsite. We hope to come back next year!

The night we got home, William came down with the stomach bug...talk about good timing! Can't imagine how miserable that would have been to deal with while camping. Soon after, Marcellus came down with it and after they were on the mend, Mommy and Daddy decided it was their turn. It's been a long week with lots of love, cuddles, Thomas the Train shows (on repeat), buckets, bone broth, vitamin c, and probiotics.