The Girls at Camp and the Boys at Home

For the past two days, the girls have been away at "camp" (Gram and Grumpy's house), while the boys stayed here. We will "pick up the girls" this afternoon when the rest of us go to Gram and Grumpy's for one more visit to NH before we start school. 

While the boys and I had a great day exploring the Saratoga State Park... 

And eating ice cream while watching trucks go by... 

The girls were at "camp" where they did lots of swimming and playing and also climbed a mountain!

Hopefully the kids will all be excited to see each other after a few days break!

A Monument-al Hike

With the kids' new-found love of hiking (thanks Uncle Chris and Auntr Ruth, we've been trying to find new places to take short hikes.

Today we went to the Saratoga Monument. The obelisk is currently closed due to the pandemic, so we couldn't climb to the top, but the kids were happy enough to climb the stairs jump off the base. 

I'd heard that the trail from the monument was a good hike for kids, so we thought we'd try it out. The first half was just a walk through a cemetery, which surprisingly sparked a lot of interest from the kids. Sadly, by the time we got to the actual trail, the boys were already fading. We walked the whole trail anyway, taking lots of snack breaks. It was very informative for MiniM.E. and LittleL.G., who took turns reading the signs about the people that used to live in the woods and the British Soldiers that camped there after surrendering at Saratoga Battlefield. Most of the trail was an elevated walkway- the boys' favorite since it makes a lot of noise when you run on it. I would definitely hike it again, but use the parking lot at the trail, rather than walking down from the cemetery.  

Even though it was a lot of walking, there was still plenty of energy for jumping when we got back to the parking lot. 

 

Finally, A Day at the Beach!

The kids have been begging for a beach day, but the closest beach to us is always crowded, even with the park limit of 50% capacity. When we tried Lake Luzerne, we felt pressured to leave because of the number of people crowded where the sand meets the water. A friend told us about a beach at Schroon Lake that is often empty so we decided to give it try. 

It was fantastic! Warm water, knee deep forever, nice sand, lots of rocks to collect.

Wishing we had found this gem a little sooner in the summer, but we will definitely be back!

The Little Things

Meamaw and Grampa were nice enough to send the big kids a present to fill our last days of summer. While the girls were thrilled with the gift. The boys just loved the box filled with packing peanuts!

Another thing that made us smile: this "ask me about my moo cow" shirt.

Our First Downtown Trip This Summer

Recently, downtown Saratoga Springs has had a lot of complaints regarding mask wearing, as the sidewalks on Broadway and the side streets are not very wide, and many patrons are choosing not to wear masks outdoors. Since it seemed like such an issue, we've been avoiding our usual summer walks downtown to see the ducks. It also didn't seem as exciting without the promise of a snack at a coffee shop. 

LittleL.G. had the fantastic idea to get frozen yogurt from our favorite "top your own" shop downtown, so we braved the potential sidewalk issue to take a stroll through Congress Park to see the ducks and walk up to Plum Dandy on Broadway. 

The park was a great place for a short walk. The boys loved chasing the ducks! Broadway was a bit crowded, but since we were outdoors, it didn't seem to be much of an issue.

We were fortunate to snag one of two outdoor tables for our snack, and enjoyed frozen yogurt while people watching- something we haven't done in ages!

Glad to have added one of our favorite summertime activities to the last month of summer. 

 

A Hike at Skidmore

Even though MiniM.E. spent two years at Skidmore Early Education Center for preschool, and there were many days I had a one year old in tow for a few hours and didn't know what to do, we never found the awesome trails in the Northwoods.

I heard someone mention hiking the Northwoods trails a couple years ago, and thought we should give it a try. The kids were excited to put another mile on their hiking packs.

It was a fun adventure, with a little too much poison ivy and not enough frogs for MiniM.E.

It was a loop trail, which meant once we got to the halfway point, we really just had to finish. It was probably a quarter mile too long for the little guys, but we managed to make it back to the car in time for lunch!

 

No More Diapers!

What is a family with a 19 month old to do during a social distancing pandemic? Potty train, of course. To be honest, it seemed young, but once we start school in September, we won't have time to be constantly watching for signs of needing to go. I didn't want to wait until next summer: one, because I am tired of changing diapers; two, because all the kids have been trained before two. Early training means more time in the bathroom and more help from mom, but also no defiance about the process. 

So with all the kids on board (because at our house we train with m&ms and TV), we got the potties and tiny undies out and went for it. 

And here we are, two and a half weeks later, done with diapers!