Friday, November 21, 2014

Birthday and another cold camping trip

Wow. I started this post a couple weeks ago. By the time I finish writing this, it is probably going to be time for me to publish another one as well.
At the end of October, Memaw and Papaw came in town to celebrate Heather's and Papaw's birthdays. Heather made some amazing German chocolate cake to celebrate the occasion. Hudson was a fan of singing the "Happy Birthday" song, which is good since his birthday is right around the corner.
Hudson asked Papaw to read to him. The expression on Hudson's face is either of concentration or confusion. I'm not sure which.
So we decided to chance it and go camping one last time this year. We selected the first weekend in November as the date. Ten days before we were to leave, the night time temperature was supposed to fall down into the 50s. Five days before we were to leave, the predicted temperature had fallen into the 40s. Two days before we were to leave, it dropped into the 30s. The day we left, they were issuing freeze warnings. Fortunately, I brought a space heater to keep the tent warm at night, so everyone was comfortable after we triple wrapped the kids in fleece pajamas. Hudson did scoot himself off of his air mattress and across the floor of the tent in his sleep to get closer to the heater.
I even had to wear a coat on Saturday morning. We went for a walk that morning and Sara Beth sketched out some pictures of insects that she saw along the path. Hudson liked finding and collecting sticks.
Fortunately, by the afternoon, things had warmed up a bit. Sara Beth took Heather down from our campsite towards the lake to check out some trails that she had discovered.
There was also a playground in the center of the camping area that the kids had fun playing at. Sara Beth made friends with some of the kids her age that were playing there. They discovered a broken action figure while digging in the sand and began to strip mine the area to find the other pieces of it.
The camp ground offered a "Junior Ranger Pack" that had some nature identification brochures, notebook, markers, and best of all, a pair of binoculars. Hudson and Sara Beth both wanted to play with them.
It is nice that Sara Beth is old enough to make her own food. On the rare occasions where she does not like dinner, she will now go make herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with no help from us.
One evening while sitting at the table, Heather was talking about school. Hudson then spoke up, interrupting Heather to say "Racecars are fantastic." He didn't elaborate.
Sara Beth has been having a ton of fun at her every other week horse riding lessons. She was able to properly "post" and just yesterday went on her first outdoor trail ride. I think she would live at the barn if we would let her.
While Sara Beth is riding, Hudson waits around the barn playing with the farm critters. He could tell me the names of the dogs that hung out in the barn.

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