Adirondack Adventures, Part 3 - Buttermilk Falls

Buttermilk Falls is a waterfall on the Raquette River leading into Long Lake. It's a neat place to swim and view the falls from in the river itself. You can actually jump off the falls into a deep part of the river, if you're brave enough! We took the kids and let them play in a gentle pool created by a bend in the river below the falls. They love splahing around in the shallow water. We didn't bring bathing suits for the boys, so we just pu tthem in swim diapers and let them go at it.

Gabe went right in, searching for rocks to throw.

They tried to be very careful when walking across the slippery rocks.

Even Ezra had fun playing in the water.

I can't tell you how difficult it was to get the timer set on the camera and run (carefully) over the rocks and get settled before the picture was taken!

Adirondack Adventures, Part 2 - Fishing Fun

Ever since Olivia heard we were going to Camp, she started asking, "Will we go fishing while we're there?" It seems she caught the fishing bug the last time and has held onto it for 2 years! Well, she's got it bad now... Lake Eaton is great for kid fishing because the lake is heavily populated with Pumpkinseed Sunfish or "Sunnies." Anyone who has ever fished for Sunnies will tell you, they're dumber than dirt and willing to go after anything that vaguely resembles food.

Proud fisherwoman

Gabe wanted to try, but didn't really want to hold the pole, so I held it while he coached. "Catch that one!"

Even mommy got into the action, helping Olivia release one of her many catches.

Ezra just wanted to touch that flippy floppy thing.

Olivia wanted to go fishing so badly, she was willing to get up at 5:30am to go with me.  She proved that Sunnies never sleep.

I told her to hold her worm about 2 inches above the water and watch carefully.

Within seconds, the Sunny jumped clear out of the water to grab the hook.

Adirondack Adventures, Part 1

This summer, we were blessed to be able to go back up to Fenton's Camp on Lake Eaton in upstate NY. It was a wonderful time! :) The weather was beautiful, the lake was warm (enough) to swim in and the kids had a blast! over the next few posts, we'll show some pics and share some adventures we had in the short week we were there.

Olivia settled right into the camp routine.

Ezra tried to, but didn't quite understand that you don't have to move every second of the day.

The kids wasted no time at all getting into the lake.

Well, Gabe wasted a little time... the water was a bit chilly when you first got in.

An evening canoe trip with the whole family.

Riding "horses" in the yard.

Roasting marshmallows.

There were dragonflies a-plenty this year and we managed to inadvertently trap one in my tackle box, where it died.

Olivia got to study it up close and see the details of its wings, eyes and body.



There's nothing quite so pretty as a sunrise over the mountains amd lake.

I can't remember the last year that we saw and heard the loons so much.



A Summer Day

Friends of ours have a great trail with a creek access near us. They shared the adventure with us on a hot day when I did not bring the camera. It was fun! Then we took Daddy back another day to show him. He did brave the camera so here are a few pictures (albeit, some are a bit blurry but then, we were riding bikes and JR managed not to crash so what can we say. :) )

Headed down the trail. Olivia has really gotten stronger this year and is doing well riding her bike.

A stop at the creek to play a bit. Gabe was the first to head right down into the water. He really enjoyed splashing and tossing pebbles.

Then everyone joined in the fun and got in the water. They were all soaked by the time we were done. But it sure was fun! Ezra wasn't sure at first how he felt about putting his feet and hands down in the water and touching the sand but he quickly progressed to trying to eat the rocks and then crawling all around to explore.



Berry Picking

One of the great things about summer is all the fresh fruit and veggies that are coming into season seemingly every day. This week, we took the kids berry picking. First, we went to pick blackberries out in Alamance County, north of Burlington.

This farm grows 7 varieties of blackberries, each quite different from the last. Some were sweet and some were tart; some had thorns and some didn't. After tasting each of them, we decided we liked the "Chester" variety the best, so we spent most of our time picking that particular row.

Each of the kids got into the act, including Ezra, though he mostly picked red ones...

The very next day, Rebecca took the kids blueberry picking. Sadly, they weren't quite in season yet, so they were pretty tart, but they did manage to pick a few. We will be going to pick more in a couple of weeks.

The Bee Of The Bird Of The Moth

It's not often you see a song come to life. There's a song by They Might Be Giants called "The Bee of the Bird of the Moth" that mentions something called a "hummingbird moth." I never really thought much about it, just that the song is goofy and silly like most TMBG stuff.

Then, lo and behold, we were at my parents' house and before our very eyes appeared something we couldn't identify. It looked like a hummingbird, but after looking at it for a minute, we noticed it had 6 legs and it was poking each flower like a butterfly...

After a quick search we found it was in fact a hummingbird moth! Well, what do you know....