After dinner, we headed to the Wizard of Oz cast party. It was really for the adult cast and crew, but it was family friendly so we took our kids. They turned out to be the only ones there. It didn't really matter, though. We had a nice time hanging out by the pool and visiting with our friends for a couple hours. We're really lucky to have met this wonderful group of people. Sophie dressed for the party (she thought she was actually hanging out with the characters from Oz). She was quite disappointed to find everyone in street clothes. She took her wand with her.
Saturday morning was crazy. Sophie, Aidan and I headed to dance class and the eye doctor while Tony and Andrew packed up the car for our weekend camping. (More about the eye doctor later this week...) Sophie was tired just after those two errands - she fell asleep on the way to our next adventure...
After months of planning and Facebooking, we were so excited to welcome our friends Augie and Susan back to the Ohio Valley. They live in Nashville now with their kids and we hadn't seen the entire family since before Sophie was born. They were friends of Tony's before we got married, and have remained dear family friends ever since. Augie was in our wedding. They are the type friends that no matter how far apart our visits are, it's easy to pick up where we left off. Anyway, they wanted to take the kids to Schimpf's candy museum/store and then go apple picking at Huber's. So, that's what we did. Unfortunately, we picked the hottest day of the year so far (no kidding - it was a record 102 temp, to say nothing of the heat index). The kids were troopers, though, which was a good thing because they outnumber us. Seven kids between the two families, ranging from fifth grade down to 2 years old.
Sophie LOVED hanging out with the girls, and was especially tickled to find this little house in the middle of the apple orchard. Someone mentioned that it looked out of place - like there should be witches' feet sticking out from under it, a la Wizard of Oz - and she was hooked.
One nice thing about seven kids is that it makes short work of filling apple bags!
Sophie and Stella stopped for an apple break. Apparently Sophie did not pick the best of apple to taste for quality control!
After we finished in the orchard, we headed to the restaurant for some home-cooked yumminess. Then we said good-bye, and promised to get everyone together before three more years passed again. They headed south and we headed west. Our weekend plans were for camping. Again, I'm pretty tolerant of tent camping but demand flush toilets and showers. I get a little tired of whiny kids, too. We were invited to join several couples from church and pitch our tent on their RV site at O'Bannon Woods in the Harrison County Forestry. The campground met my bathroom requirements. Plus, I was pleasantly surprised to find that camping with several other families was lots of fun - because the kids entertained each other!
I hadn't been to O'Bannon woods in years, but was there pretty frequently when I was younger for picnics, swimming,hiking, and even a couple of camping excursions. It's a gorgeous park and not too far from home. When we pulled in, Andrew immediately took off on a bike ride with a friend while Sophie, Aidan and I went to visit Smokey the Bear who was making rounds in the campground.
That left Tony to solicit help from some other kiddos in assembling the tent.
Sophie did so well on this camping trip. She had a ball just playing in the dirt and roaming around with the older girls.
We were very close to the horsemen's campground, so I took Sophie and some of the other kids and went walking. Sophie was convinced that the horses with spots were actually cows.
Campfires are serious business! Giving the lecture about safety since there were 11 kids to our 8 adults.
Saturday evening, we enjoyed sitting around the fire while the kids watched a movie on a big screen and projector. We also played euchre, which I hadn't played forever!
On Sunday, the rest of the group headed out to go canoeing. We opted to stay in the park, mostly because we didn't want to spend a lot of money on canoeing with the possibility of a crabby two year old. Instead, we decided to explore the park. It was so nice to have an entire day with no obligations. There was an 80% chance of storms, but God was watching over us. It was overcast all day, not too hot, and only sprinkled twice. Our first stop was the 1800s homestead and nature center. On holiday weekends there are all kinds of pioneer activities for the kids, so we lucked into a great event. Sophie enjoyed being nose to nose with a donkey.
Aidan and Sophie also liked playing with the pioneer toys.
Then my boys showed their muscles by sawing logs. Good thing we didn't have to wait on this log for our campfire!
They got to keep their "tree cookie" and even had it branded with a "W" for "Wyandotte" (what the area used to be called).
Another activity was making ice cream. It took FOREVER, but the boys thought it was fun.
After their snack, they washed their hands at the old water pump.
Sophie was extremely disappointed with the quality of her ice cream and decided to throw a big fit.
Mommy walked sleepy, grumpy Sophie to the car for a cookie break while the boys and Tony checked out the hay press demonstration and the Nature Center.
After we'd tired of the village, we drove to the Ohio River overlook for a picnic lunch.
Sophie has to be just like her brother. So much so that she returned from camping with a scraped face and bruised legs. We never did figure out where all the bumps and bruises came from - she'd fall down and get up and keep going.
After lunch we stopped into an old cemetery. There are some really neat Civil War headstones. Aidan and Andrew enjoyed looking around.
Sophie did not understand the cemetery. I had to keep pulling her off the headstones. Although it's probably disrespectful, I had to take this picture before I finally took her back to the van. Is this what they mean when they say you're dancing on someone's grave? What if you're singing, too?
From the cemetery we headed to the fire tower.
Andrew and Tony made it all the way to the top. Sophie and I stayed safely on the ground.
Aidan made it about a fourth of the way up - about three times - and then would get scared and come back down again.
When we finished the fire tower, we determined that we probably weren't going to get rained on after all. We finished up our afternoon with a trip to the pool. It has certainly changed since I used to go there!
We left the pool and headed back to the campground where we got the campfire started. It was actually a little cooler and great campfire weather. When everyone returned from canoeing, we had dinner together and then put the younger kids in a camper with a movie while the older kids and the grownups sat around the fire. I ended up going to bed early with Sophie because she woke up and wanted me in the tent with her. Plus, my allergies were going nuts after two days in the "wild". It rained overnight - the good kind of rain when you're tent camping. It came down hard and sounded great on the rainfly, but didn't blow in. What a great way to sleep! Everyone slept until almost nine, and when we woke up it was cool outside! Cool enough that I was snuggled under the blankets with Sophie and it felt good. We packed up and headed out, and I have my windows open now. Hello, Autumn!
We have had such a wonderful weekend. We enjoyed our new(er) friends Friday evening and reconnected with old friends on Saturday. Then we had a ball hanging out with current friends the rest of the weekend - I just hope we didn't drive them too crazy! It was nice to have time at O'Bannon Woods with the kids to just sit, play in the dirt, and visit. No time constraints, and very little arguing. It was a far better vacation than many I've spent much more money on! We've already began discussing where to go camp next...
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