Heath. He asks questions like:

Mom, why do pajama pants have pockets?

Good question. 

Alder is working on a book series called...

Chili Dog and Onion

He has only written one book so far and Onion has already taken a lickin from the chili blaster because he ate 50% of the food. 

Clay Sampler

The boys are in a clay working camp this week. They are loving it and making so many beautiful little things. 

Summer Vacation

In a way Summer IS a vacation, filled with tiny ones all over the place.  We are so fortunate to be able to do this, both of us working, and can, thanks to jobs that allow us to work hard and carve time out as best we can.  Lesley especially does so for the Summer, as it is extremely dificult to do so; Summer is right on the heels of her busiest time of year, even overlapping.  But we do it and it works out quite well.  The boys "feel" Summer with lots of time at home, and on little adventures, with us.

The big vacation this Summer was returning to mountains.  Camping at Grayson Highlands for 5 days, then Boone area for 3 more.  Looking back, we really only captured a few highlights.  It was so packed with fun, alot of which left us forgetting to take pictures, and our cameras/phones were often without a charge.  But we took some....

Family selfie, freshly packed  up and heading west.  This was our maiden voyage in the new van.

Installed the trailer hitch the day before.  This was a puzzle that still has not become easy.

                                  

Standard campsite pic.  This was our set up at Grayson Highlands.  It rained daily and/or nightly, but we did not get wet!  It wont always be that way.  The rain and wind at this place, high elevation is so very intense in the dark, when you are sleeping on the ground, in a tent.  You'd think it was a hurricane.  There was one morning I (dad) got up before 4 to read and just walk around.

This was a hike up to Massey Gap.  We took the boys there two years ago.  It was nice not to have to worry as much about their ability to scramble up these boulders.  We let them have at it.  (This is Les and Alder here though.)  Alder especially enjoyed taking risks and scrambling farther than we wanted, and feeling proud to make it to the top.  Heath, only slightly more cautious, scrabled behind and ultimately made it to the same point.

An Amanita on a hike.  We hiked a lot.  Miles everyday pretty much.

Up on another rock, above the wind-taming meadows.

Mommy down below Heath.

Look at that bigness.  I firmly believe this is so important for little ones to look out into and feel, as much as possible - over mountains, over water, whatever...

…even down the trail of a 17 mile bike ride.  Virginia Creeper trail.  We took our time.  Four and a half hour ride.  So much fun to have "big boys" that can be trusted to ride out of sight and feel that freedom of the wind and speed of relatively tame mountain biking.  The achievement of riding so far.  It makes me feel like we have more years of fun and adeventure ahead as they get even older.

Stopping at creeks.  Striking poses.  Heath is such a character these days.  One day he wants to be a professional dancer and the next a spy.  He has the confidence to think he can do pretty much anything.

Being too cool for striking poses.  This one is more modest and reserved though equally smart and able.

You cant not find something beautiful.

The boys counted somthing like 30 bridges over streams and rivers.  Some well over 100 feet high.

This was a high up to Pinnacle.  Whose hot-natured?

On Big Pinnacle.

After several days in Grayson Highlands, we went to Boone.  I had talked up gem mining a good bit (something from my childhood) and the boys were so excited.

They did score some nice, chunky emeralds, rubies and sapphire, among many other sweet gems.  this was a highlight of the trip for Alder for sure.  He spent hours sorting and admiring the gems in the coming days.

Cabin Creek trail.  

I find this hilarious because we all learned that Heath inherited my incredibly cold-sensitive feet.

We early risers: Heath and I got up very early one morning and just left the campsite to go riding around so Les and Alder (not the early risers) could sleep before we started clanking the campstove.

The hammock.  A nice addition to many things we will do.

the cupboard

a plant we have yet to remind ourselves the name of.

I think we were noticing Alder's tan while he found relief on Cabin Creek trail.

So these sort of sum up much of what we love about tent camping.  There is just not much to do but very low key things.  Everything slows down, probably right down to pulse rate.  For Les and I we read more for pleasure at the campsites than we have in years!  The boys loved cruising around the campground on bikes while we sat and read and piddled and cooked and just did whatever slowly.  Again, it is amazing how grown up our boys are now such theat we literally told them several times to just "go explore" and come back when they were hungry.  We didn't know what the day was, not even the time, for the whole trip.  People need this!

Random hike.

The very last night we were camping, apparently some critter was in Heath's sleeping bag and ate him alive.  Here he is showing the bites off.  It turned out to be, or turned into (?) a rash, which we got taken care of before the trip to Grand Isle.  Whatever.  Good exerciese for the immune system.

Overall, an amazing and incredibly inexpensive summer vacation.  There are more extravagent vacation in our future no doubt, but we hope that we can come back to these simple excursions as a staple in our annual adventures.