First Camping Trip of the Season!!

We recently enjoyed a beautiful weekend near Frederick, MD at Cunningham Falls State Park. Heather wanted to attend a home school curriculum fair Friday night, so, since the weather was beautiful, we decided to make a weekend camping trip out of it, and we are so thankful that we did! Since it was early season, the only loop open at this state park was the Manor loop, with about 25 sites, and except for being close to the highway, it was a beautiful place! You can check out their map of the loop at this link: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/manor.html We stayed at site #20, right next to the bathhouse. There was a babbling creek running along side the campground, and it led into a wider creek at the bottom of the hill adjacent to a super cool "recycled tire playground" and nature center. The kids loved playing on the rocks and around the rushing water, and at the nature center they had a HUGE bald eagle, barn owl and other really big birds of prey.

We also biked another section of the C&O canal: this time from Point of Rocks north about 6 miles and then back again. It was a beautiful ride, and we learned lots along the way about the canal lock-keepers, and an old aquaduct that carried water and boats across the Potomac River.

You can check out the canal bike ride here: http://bikewashington.org/canal/canal_d.php

and check webshots for more pics of our weekend, though our camera battery died halfway through, so there aren't as many pics as we would have liked!

Easter 07

Well I can't believe it's already been a full week since Easter, and I'm finally getting to this post! We had a very cold Easter this year, and didn't get the kids photographed in their Easter best, but we did have a good time preparing for and spending the holiday with family and friends. It has been really neat to see the life of Jesus taking shape through Bay's eyes this year, he has really been taking much more notice of why we celebrate the things we do. As we read the events of Jesus' death and resurrection on Good Friday, Bay's eyes lit up and said, "You mean that Jesus really died?" And of course I answered him with, "Yes, but did he stay dead?" Bay, "No! He came alive again!" What fun conversations to have over breakfast!

That afternoon, my friend Genia came over and we prepared a Southern Maryland Stuffed Ham (a local holiday regular for those of you who don't know about its wonders!). Once it had cooked and hung for a day, we split the ham with her family to enjoy for their Easter supper as well.

The kids decorated eggs Saturday night, but due to some grumpiness around the table, the only one who stuck with it was Bay, and he had a blast, dyeing, and re-dyeing eggs. He really took the whole operation quite seriously-it was very cute!

Sunday we bundled up in our long-underwear and headed out the door to face the icy blasts on our way to church. Once back home, everyone changed and went outside with gloves and mittens to hunt for frozen candy-filled eggs! We had Easter dinner at Heather's parents house, with Dennis' mom joining and a friend from church.

The cold weather still hasn't broken, but we're hoping for a few warm days soon to be able to go camping! There are a few more pics of Easter on our webshots page.