Day 13 - The day in which our car (almost) explodes

The day started out promising.  Really it did. We were up, had breakfast and while Ken packed up the last few remaining things into the van, the kids played on the porch.  Nathaniel discovered a Luna Moth and immediately, the kids were all over this.  As I'm sure you've figured out by now, my kids love anything having to do with God's creation!

Luna Moth

So while Ken packed up the van, they studied the moth and Nathaniel shared what he knew about the moth.  (Nathaniel is our nature boy. He's like a walking encyclopedia when it comes to wildlife.)

Learning about the Luna Moth

We were soon ready to be on our way.  I hadn't been feeling well, and we weren't on the road for 5 minutes before I could feel the start of a migraine coming on.  Ken asked if I would like a Mocha Frappe from Mc Donald's to try and ward off the migraine instead of trying to have Excedrin on an empty stomach.  I thought that would be a better idea for my stomach, and so we had Worthless Same (our GPS) find the nearest Mc Donald's. True to her name, Worthless Sam pointed us in the direction of the "nearest" Mc Donalds.  The nearest Mc Donalds was actually the next exit at a rest stop, as we would discover 4 hours later.  But Sam decided that since we were closer to this exit than the next exit, this Mc Donald's would be closer.  And so we exited the highway, and went down a few random roads that took us further and further away from the highway.  Just as we were beginning to wonder again, "Is this right??", we saw the Mc Donald's.

As we pulled into the parking lot, I thought I kept seeing wisps of smoke in my side view mirror, but every time I would look to investigate, I wouldn't see anything.  As we stopped to let someone pass the parking lot to enter Mc Donald's, I saw it.  Not wisps of smoke, but big billowy clouds coming from the underside of our car.  I was so startled, I couldn't even say anything other than "Ken....."  My mind was racing trying to decide if the smoke was really just the fog rolling in. (yes, I know - ridiculous thought.  But really, that is what I thought could be one possibility even though it was a sunny breezy morning.)  I thought maybe the smoke was coming from somewhere else.  And then I thought, what if the smoke IS from our car, would we be able to get all the kids out of car seats before our car was engulfed in flames.  The time from when I realize that our car was billowing white smoke to when I was able to communicate to everyone in the car that there was something terribly wrong  was probably only 2.2 seconds, but it felt like hours.  The amount of thoughts that went stampeding through my brain in that short amount of time was amazing.  Just as we pulled into the parking space, there was a pop and a hiss and then a wall of white billowy clouds.  At this point in my panic, I did not put two and two together that white clouds does not equal car engulfed in flames.  Once the thought of trying to get children out of a flaming car entered my thought, that was it.  My focus was not white smoke vs. black smoke, but getting the children out of the car as quickly and as safely as possible.  I shouted out an order for everyone to get their buddy out of their carseat as fast as possible without panicking.  I jumped out of the car, opened the door, helped everyone from the car.  Two women helped the 3 oldest cross the parking lot while I grabbed Felix.  It was then that I noticed that poor Ken was just sitting there, looking at the billowy smoke in a rather dumbfounded way.  He hadn't even removed his seat belt.  Obviously, while I had been contemplating our fiery doom, Ken was contemplating our financial doom.  I said something to him about the car exploding at any minute, and he mentioned that we were fine, that it was steam from something - not smoke from fire.  He sent me and the kids inside while he figured out what to do.  We got settled for what would most likely be a long wait!

I thanked the ladies who had helped my kids cross the parking lot, assured them that my husband said it wasn't a fire and there was no need to call 911, and we piled into Mc Donalds.  Ken got in touch with AAA and low and behold, the nearest AAA certified car repair place was just two buildings over!!  One of the repair guys came over, took a peak at our van, and determined some kind of hose had broken, spraying something all over the engine, which is what made the steam.  (You like my knowledge of cars and all those technical terms like "some kind of hose" and "spraying something", don't you?)  They were able to drive the car over without fear of it overheating because it was the next parking lot over, and our engine wasn't even at normal temperature yet.  The mechanic brought some sort of thermometer to check.  The mechanics were great.  They put all other cars they were fixing on hold, so that we could get back on the road as soon as possible and not be stuck in Mc Donald's all day long.  We saw God's hand in what could have been a very bad situation, and him bringing little bits of blessings!  We could have been broken down on the highway - and with the amount of smoke that poured out of our engine, we would have gotten into an accident because we were unable to see.  We could have been stranded on the side of a highway.  We could have had an overheated and completely fried engine.  It could have been so many things, but He made sure it wasn't!

We were so thankful that we were broken down at a McDonald's instead of on the side of the highway!  And it wasn't only a McDonald's - it was a McDonald's with a Playplace!  That meant, that for however many hours we would be stuck there, we had access to a bathroom, food and a way for the kids to be entertained.  As the minutes passed to hours, we realized that we would not have time to stop by at Fort McHenry like we had planned.  I called my sister in Baltimore to explain the situation we were in, and that we'd be in touch.  I then called my other sisters who were traveling north to Baltimore from a wedding in South Carolina.  I told her that we were going to be late to Baltimore because our van broke down.  Her reply was, "Ha ha.  Very funny.  So I guess you've been talking to Mom."  So I told her that no, I hadn't talked to Mom, that we were in fact broke down.  That's when she started to laugh.  Turns out, they had broken down too!!  Their mechanics weren't as sympathetic to their traveling plight, so they were waiting for the tow truck before they grabbed a cab to stay at a hotel in the area for the night while their car was being repaired.

Four hours later, our car was ready, and we were sent on our way with the warning that once one hose goes, they tend to all go rather quickly.  And so with that happy thought, we were on our way to Baltimore.  The following exit we saw the rest stop with the Mc Donald's.  We noted that this McDonald's did not have a playplace and that based on the time it took us to go from the exit to the reststop McDonald's, we would have been stuck on the side of the highway after the McDonald's.  So once again, we offered up praise and thanks to the One who knows so much more than we do and were once again feeling blessed that He had the wisdom to give me a migraine and send us on a wild goose chase for a McDonald's that was out of out way.  Doing that ensured our safety and our sanity.

We got stuck in traffic just outside Baltimore, and as soon as our car started idling, we could see the thermometer on our car rising, rising, rising.  As soon as we would start to move, it would cool down, but since we were in traffic, we were idling more than we were moving.  It was nerve wracking.  I hadn't fully recovered from the panic attack earlier in the day - so this new added car stress was not good for me!!  We were so close to the hotel, that it made sense to try and make it there instead of pulling over on the side of the highway.  We turned the heat to full blast, which seemed to help the engine from hitting the critical red part of the thermometer and after what seemed like an eternity, we finally made it to our hotel.  It was close to dinner, and we had originally planned on spending the evening with all my sisters, but instead 2 of them were on the border of North Carolina and Virginia, and we were just beat with the stress of the day.  Between the stress and the fact that the car was acting up, we decided to call up Susanne and tell her that we were just so tired and stressed from the drive that we weren't leaving the hotel tonight.  We invited her over to hang out at the hotel, but she declined, and decided to work on some homework instead.

I had booked our hotel on an internet early booking deal.  If you booked it early enough and paid in full, you got a really great deal - the only hitch was that it was non-refundable.  So if we were a no show, too bad, we still had to pay for the hotel we were not using.  If we had a refundable hotel room, we more than likely would have stopped before we made it to Baltimore to have the car more thoroughly looked at.

We had opted to book a suite, so that we would have a little more space. The hotel was beautiful, and included breakfast and dinner in the price.  And, much to the delight of my children, it had an indoor pool.

Living space with pull out couch

Dining Room and Kitchen Area

Bedroom with 2 queen beds

We went downstairs for dinner.  The food was surprisingly good.  I was expecting a mediocre meal, and while it wasn't a 5 star meal, it certainly wasn't mediocre.  It was set up buffet style, like so many hotel breakfast are.  This night was a lasagna with a few veggies, bread and salad to choose from.  We gave our dairy allergy kids PB&J that we made in our room with some salad. 

After dinner, we headed back to our room and got ready for a swim in the pool.  The pool was heated, but not nearly heated enough.  My husband opted not to go in, so he kept Felix with him near the steps, while I took the other kids in the pool.

Papa and Felix

Nathaniel and Ainsley are confident in the pool, and do not need me near them at all times.  Ephraim clings to people like glue, because even with swimmies, he just isn't confident to try swimming on his own.  But that night in the pool, he swam with swimmies for the first time without assistance!  He was SO PROUD.

First time swimming without assistance!!

After an hour or so in the pool, we headed back upstairs to get ready for bed.  If all went well in the morning, we would be headed to the Baltimore Aquarium!

Up next:: Baltimore Aquarium

Day 12 - Car repairs at Lake Anna

So, as we were driving around the day before, we noticed that our car thermometer would go from the normal range and then would suddenly, without warning, the needle would SHOOT up to the overheating range.  And then as fast as it had flown up to the "Your car is about to explode" level, it would drop back down to the normal range.  Very weird.  We (we being my husband and not me, because I know nothing about cars) had checked fluids, and nothing was low.  So, instead of spending a leisurely day down by the lake again, we decided to make a change of plans, and Ken would call up AAA and figure out where to take the car to be fixed.  We were traveling to Baltimore the next day, and decided we did not want to be stranded in the city!

Ken finally found a place that was open on  a Sunday, and he took the van off to be fixed while the kids and I spent a leisurely day in and around the cabin.

Nathaniel spent time carving his walking stick with his new pocket knife.

The kids hunted caterpillars.

We hunted and found the tail-less lizard.

And our favorite pass time of the day?  Watching the men cut the lawn.

We showered, got ready for bed, ate some leftovers for dinner, and waited for Papa to come home with the van.

Finally, after spending the day away, Papa and our van made it home!  They had fixed the problem, our van was no longer saying it was over heating.

We celebrated our last night in Virginia with some fire and s'mores!

Nathaniel starting the fire

Roasting Marshmallows

Mmmm.  S'mores!

Tomorrow we would be heading for a few days in Baltimore, so we sent the kids to bed with bellies full of s'mores, packed up the car and headed to bed.  This was certainly not the way we had intended to spend the day, but not much could be done about it!  We had to fix the car!  And despite being cabin bound, we had a nice day anyway.

Up Next: A continuing saga of car trouble

Day 11 - Monticello and Michie Tavern

Day 11 was our 2nd day of exploring the homes of our past presidents.  We know that there were many options to choose from, but in the end, we decided on George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.  We picked Mount Vernon because we had recently studied George Washington and his role in the French-Indian War and in the Revolution.  And when my husband was a boy, he vacationed down in Virginia with his family, and the two places he loved the most were Williamsburg and Monticello, so they also made there way on our must do list.

When you arrive in the parking lot for Monticello, you buy your ticket and then wait for the shuttle to bring you up the hill to Thomas Jefferson's home.  We opted not to bring our stroller with us, because while there were areas that were accessible for strollers and wheelchairs, the loading and unloading it onto the shuttle, and knowing that most of the area was rough, we decided to skip the stroller.  I think it was a good call on our part.  It would have been a bother trying to push the stroller through many of the areas.

Now, I know George Washington went on and on about the views from his house, but I'm sorry - Thomas Jefferson has got him beat.  The area was flat out gorgeous. 

Near the orchard

It looks like one big hill in the picture, but it's not.  It was like a giant staircase garden.  Pretty neat!

Staircase gardening!

Ken carried a sleeping Felix on the guided tour of the gardens, while I stayed with the other children.  They wanted to explore the gardens on their own.  They were much more interested in the birds that were roosting in the trees, butterflies that were going from flower to flower and bugs that were crawling around the garden plants than in a historical tour of the garden.

After Ken finished the tour, he took me and the children around and shared what he had learned.

The chimney from one of the original buildings.

After spending time in the gardens, we headed over to the main house because it was time for the tour.

After having failed attempts at home tours in Shirley and Mount Vernon, I decided to sit this one out with Felix.  We had just finished up learning about Lewis and Clark, so I thought for sure that the children would want to go inside on the tour and see all the things that they brought back, which we knew were on display inside.  Ainsley and Ephraim decided to "play in Thomas Jefferson's backyard."  Nathaniel was REALLY torn on what he wanted to do.  He finally decided that he would stay with me, and then proceeded to lament that decision the entire time.  He was able to join his Papa towards the end of the tour when they made an appearance outside.

Once Ken and Nathaniel had come back from their tour, we walked the path and looked at the flowers blooming everywhere. The kids found a little pond filled with tadpoles.  They were amazed.  It was their first time seeing a tadpole in real life.

Discovering Tadpoles

I can't exactly remember the original purpose of the next area that we toured, but it was a basement of sorts.  It now houses many hands on examples of Thomas Jefferson's inventions.  The kids had fun in this area.

Just outside the hands-on area for inventions

After spending some time in this area, we were starting to get hungry, so we took the shuttle back to our car and headed for our destination for lunch: Michie Tavern!

Picture time with Thomas Jefferson

Like so many other places in Virginia, I would never have known about this place if I hadn't stumbled onto this site: http://www.virginia-beach-family-fun.com/michie-tavern.html. 

Michie Tavern (pronounce like the mouse - MIC-KEY-MOUSE) offers both a buffet meal and a tour of the house and grounds.  You can either just have lunch, just do the tour, or do both.  We chose to do both.  It is also VERY close to Monticello.  Maybe a 5 minute drive, if that.

Lunch at Michie Tavern

We enjoyed our lunch here, but if I had to choose between the Mount Vernon Inn or Michie Tavern, the Mount Vernon Inn would win hands down.  The food there was better, and we paid less for our lunch in Mount Vernon than in Michie Tavern.  Adults are $17 each, and children over 6 were $7.  One child under 6 per adult eats free.

Now don't get me wrong, the food WAS very good.  And the staff here was great.  They had mashed potatoes and gravy that was amazing. I ate way more of those than I should have, because I adore mashed potatoes and gravy.  They had Fried chicken, baked chicken and pulled pork, cornbread (which my husband loved), biscuits (which my children loved), and a few different veggies that most of my children were unwilling to try.  (Things like beets and stewed tomatoes.)  For dessert, there was ice cream, fresh fruit and peach cobbler.  You can see the full menu here.

After lunch, we went over to take a tour of the tavern.  We had a lot of fun here, even though we had the only kids on the tour.  My kids loved learning the Virginian Reel.  Ken sat out with Felix during the dance because I had sat out during the house tour.  I think in reality, he just didn't want to dance!!

After a tour of the house, we were allowed to explore the yard.  We had two favorite parts.  The first one was the outhouse.  Yup, the outhouse.  Here is why:

Sign hanging in the outhouse

Notice: If ye bottom falls through seat, do not call proprieters.  Use ye rope to pull ye out.  

Mrs. Michie

Obviously, not true, but didn't stop us from laughing hysterically!

The second part that we loved was the fact that they used a spring in the back yard to refrigerate perishables.  It just amazed us how inventive people were when they didn't have the modern inventions of today!  If I was suddenly stranded on a deserted island, I'm not so sure I would have thought of this without reading about it first!

old fashioned refrigeration

We finally wandered down to the gift shop, and if you do nothing else here, you should visit the gift shop.  My children didn't know which way to turn first.  It is filled with tons of old fashioned gifts for old and young alike.  After a lot of hemming and hawing over what souvenir they wanted, Nathaniel finally decided on a pocket knife that had Michie Tavern etched on the side and Ainsley decided on a crocheting set.  We allowed the children to pick one souvenir each for each area we were - so one pick in southern Virginia, one in northern Virginia, and one in Baltimore.  We reserved the right to say no to anything too pricy or foolish - we did  not need another stuffed animal laying around!

After our enjoyable break over at Michie Tavern, we headed back to Monticello.  There were still areas we hadn't explored that we wanted to.  Mainly the Mountain Top Hands-On Kids Center!

For any kid, hands-on equals fun, and this place was no exception!  We spent the rest of the afternoon here.  There was blocks to build with, checkers to play, and a little house to show kids how the slaves lived. 

Cooking up a meal in the slave's quarters

Playing blocks with another homeschooler

Playing with the blocks

I lost.  He won.

We left as the museum was closing.  We had a good day here, but I don't think a full day would be necessary if we didn't leave and spend a few hours over at Michie Tavern.  We left again feeling like it was good that we went, and that we had fun, but that we wouldn't necessarily visit again if we were in the area.  Mount Vernon and Monticello both fell under the "once is enough" category for us.

Day 10 - Mount Vernon

So for our tenth day of vacation, we went over to George Washington's home, Mount Vernon.  We hadn't even made it out of the parking lot before the kids found their first adventure of the day - squirrels.

The kids were munching on a breakfast snack of peaches in the stroller while Ken and I were unloading the car, when I hear a whispered voice calling me.  I turn around to see Nathaniel wide eyed and making the "shhhhh" sign and motioning me to come over to them.  So I quietly walked over to see this:

Super friendly squirrel

A little tiny squirrel trying to figure out to convince the kids to share their peaches.  And of course, the kids were all over this.  Nothing George Washington could offer them could possibly come close to feeding a squirrel peaches!

It wasn't this one squirrel that was over friendly - ALL the squirrels were.  I was glad we had made plans to eat at the Mount Vernon Inn for lunch instead of doing a picnic.  I'm pretty sure the squirrels would have joined us for lunch if we had.

After the squirrel grew bored with us, the children permitted us to go ahead to the Mount Vernon entrance!

 

While Ken bought tickets, we of course spent the time taking photos!

We bought the basic package with the audio tour because we had enjoyed the audio tour of Luray Caverns so much.  The audio tour cost $6 per audio device.  We got one for Ainsley, and one for Nathaniel. 

It was early in the day, and the movie "We Fight to be Free" was just about to start, so we piled into the mostly empty theater to watch the movie.  We all LOVED the movie.  It was very well done, and it was chuck full of action, which of course my boys loved. (Nothing gory or inappropriate).

Then we moved onto the mansion tour, which Felix once again caused me to leave early.  Ainsley volunteered to come with me, and so the 3 of us headed to George Washington's backyard.  I had a seat in one of the rocking chairs and I watched Ainsley and Felix play on the lawn.  I was a little nervous of them getting too close to the edge of the hill and falling Princess Bride style down into the river, but thankfully, that didn't happen!

Can you see the drop off of the hill behind them?

By the time we finished the movie and the mansion tour, we were actually starting to get hungry.  We also thought that since there were plenty of people around, we should get to lunch BEFORE the lunch crowd hit!  So we got to the Mount Vernon Inn just after 11, and waited for our table to be ready.  We had fun wandering around the gift shop area, looking at the different books, jewelry and toys while we waited.

I was glad we went early, because by the time our table was ready, we were STARVING!  I have no idea why we were so hungry that day!  We had breakfast and a snack before we started our tour, and yet, here it was, not even noon, and we felt like we hadn't eaten all day!

I don't have many pictures from inside the restaurant, because I didn't want to be the weird lady who takes a million pictures of her families food in a restaurant.  So here are the two pictures I have from our lunch.  The first one I did not take.  Ephraim took that picture. I would prefer to be the weird lady taking pictures of her food as opposed to the weird lady taking pictures of other people eating.

Ignore the people eating - cute place, right?

This is the only other picture we have from inside the restaurant.  :)  And I took that because I was hoping that maybe the people Ephraim took a picture of wouldn't have noticed and hopefully thought the flash was due to me taking pictures of my kids!

Lunch was really good and reasonably priced.  It wasn't super cheap, but it wasn't over priced either.  The only thing that was "overpriced" were the drinks.  And that was because they didn't have the normal Pepsi, Sprite etc. that most restaurants have for $1 or so.  They had more specialty drinks.  Some of us got the Sparkling Apple Cider, some of us had the root beer.  Both were VERY good.

For our meals, the 3 younger split the Chicken Fingers, chips and fruit.  My younger kids are very light eaters, so they usually split a kid's meal.  We figured if one wasn't enough, we could always add another.  But one was enough for them.

Nathaniel on the other hand, has switched from barely eating enough to keep a bird alive, to eating enough to feed a small army.  He saw a Pulled Pork Sandwich on the menu and asked if he could get that.  Someone near us had one, and I told him that I doubt he'd finish the whole thing, but Ken said he could order it, and take the leftovers home.  The kid seriously must have a hollow wooden leg somewhere, because he ate the ENTIRE thing, and finished off what I didn't finish on my plate!  So much for eating his leftovers later!!

I love Thanksgiving dinner, so I opted to go with the plantation chicken with stuffing and veggies.  The stuffing was very good, but I'm kind of spoiled when it comes to stuffing.  I make amazing stuffing.  So this was good, but mine is better.  :) All in all, mine was very good, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't swiped a bite or twelve of Ken's meal.  He got the Duck and Sausage Cassolet.  It was amazing.  I wish I had ordered it!  But my hubby let me swipe a few bites because he loves me.  He was more than willing to save some room in his tummy for some Pecan Pie.  That is his favorite.  I'm a very good cook, but the Pecan Pie I have not mastered yet!  The rest of us were too full for dessert!  If you are interested, the lunch menu is here, the dinner menu is here, and the information on the restaurant is here. Obviously, we chose lunch for the prices!

After lunch, we started wandering around and listening to our audio tours.  My children's favorite area for the audio tour hands down was the slave quarter area. 

Listening to the audio tour

We enjoyed this audio tour, and it was very informative.  They had a kid and adult version like in Luray.

They also had many farm animals, which all children love!

After touring around, it started to drizzle, so we headed to the inside part of the museum.  There was a lot to take in, and the kids had fun in here.  There was a hands on children section that closes earlier than the rest of the museum, but thankfully we did get to spend a few minutes in there.

Nathaniel and Ainsley as George and Martha

My kids love cut outs!

Dress up!

There was a break in the rain, and less than an hour left before the museum closed, so we decided to make a run for the van and head home for the night. We had a fun day at Mount Vernon.  I'm not sure that it would be on the "must do" list with kids, but we did have fun!

Blizzard Nemo

We moved to upstate NY 10 years ago, because we really enjoyed the snowy weather.  But ever since we moved away, Long Island has had massive snowfalls!!  Not fair!!  We have 6 inches, while my childhood home looks like this:

My Dad shoveling the walkway!  They have 3 feet of snow, we only have 6 inches.

Day 9 - Exploring Lake Anna

We had a nice leisurely day planned for today.  We were planning on simply exploring Lake Anna State Park, and the weather was cooperating nicely for us to do that!!  While we unpacked, and tidied up the house, the kids played on the porch, driveway area, and the back yard.   You can easily see the backyard from the kitchen and the master bedroom, and the porch wraps around the front of the house.  Lake Anna had the houses right on top of each other, when compared to Chippokes Plantation, so I didn't feel as comfortable letting them play outside without constantly checking up on them.  (Not that I felt unsafe in the park, just you never know who is around!)  Having them be in my line of sight at all times put my mind at ease, and I was glad that the house had plenty of windows and doors to check up on them!

It wasn't long before the house was in order and we joined the children in the sunshine.  There were TONS of butterflies around, and my kids were busy trying to convince them to land on them.  :)

Nathaniel trying to convince the butterfly to land on him.

There was another animal that was abundant in this area - lizards.  Itty bitty tiny lizards.  They dash about and make my husband scream like a girl.  Lol.  He doesn't like things that dash about and startle him!  At one point, Nathaniel cornered one and tried to catch it, but it was too quick.  Nathaniel was able to catch it by it's tail and suddenly Nathaniel was screetching in disgust that the tip of the lizard's tail fell off in his hand!

Tip of the lizard's tail

After a while, we convinced them to give up on chasing butterflies and lizards, to change into their swim suits and we'd go down to the lake and play on the playground and swim in the lake.  They were more than eager to comply!!!

Fun on the Playground

The kids played on the playground until they got good and hot, so that they'd enjoy the lake even more.  Even though it was only May, it was quite warm - warm enough that I wish I had changed into my swimsuit as well!

The lake has a nice sandy beach area to have all sorts of beachy fun!  Close to the shore, the lake wasn't very deep, so I didn't need to worry too much about my kids who weren't strong swimmers yet.  In Mid-May, there are no lifeguards on duty, and there is also NO ONE around.  We had the entire beach to ourselves. 

Lake Anna

Fun in the sun

Shallow near the shore - no steep drop off

Great sandy beach to have fun in

Fun in the sand

Tag in the lake

Spots in the lake are deep enough to swim

Summer fun!

Seriously, could he be any cuter!?

 After a few hours by the lake, we started to hear thunder in the distance.  After hearing it two or three times and seeing the clouds black and billowing in the distance, we decided to head back home.

Storm rolling in as we left

 Of course, all the kids were a sandy, lake water mess, so we sent the older two to take turns in the shower, and stuck the younger two into the sink.

Double sink for double baths!

Once everyone was clean and in PJ's, we took some blankets, and headed to the covered porch to watch the storm blow in, the rain pour down and the lightning light up the dark sky.

Thunderstorm watching on the porch

Snuggles on the porch

After dinner, we put our fireplace to good use and built a nice fire and made some S'mores!

Too little for S'mores - at least he can have a graham cracker

Roasting Marshmallows with Papa

Roasted Marshmallows.  Mmmmm.

After eating way too many S'mores, the kids headed to bed.  We had all sorts of adventures to pack into the next two days, so it was nice to have such a relaxing day!!

Up Next: Mount Vernon