Camping - the Boring Pastime

Not too long ago, the Northern Clan decided to go on another camping trip. This would be our second camping trip of the year - the first being a trip to Quechee Gorge. Our destination on this trip was Crown Point State Park in New York. We'll soon find that this is a poor decision...

Here Levi "helps" Northern Daddy with the starting of the camp fire. There's a really long story about setting up the tents and how funky they looked (ever seen a tent lean really far to one side? - imagine a canvas Leaning Tower of Pisa. That's what we had going.) and Mommy going off in search of fire wood and being gone so long that NB/T and Daddy were just about to start begging for scraps of food from other campers - but that story is really long and contains some questionable language (who knew that Mommy knew words like that?!), so we'll just focus on the fire for now, okay?!Of course we got it lit!

Breakfast in the morning was supposed to be some nicely grilled sausage biscuits. You might notice that the sausages are tiny! (They looked larger in the picture on the box!) Regardless of the size, it was a grand breakfast: pretty much anything is going to taste good after a night spent being chased around an inflatable mattress by a toddler who is attempting to kick you in the head as many times as possible. (Not to worry- Northern Daddy has the plan in place: Levi is going to sleep in his very own tent next time!)

Hi! I'm Northern Baby/Toddler! I slept in that tent! I'm one! I love camping! Need me to poop on anything?! Look - a stick!

Our humble campsite. Just beyond those trees is Lake Champlain. To the right - nothing. To the left - nothing. (This theme will be continued.)

Killing time looking for something to do...

There are some cool ruins of the French and British forts....this would be the British one (evidenced by the flag)

Say cheese! No-wait! Say, pile of rocks! That's more like it!

The coolest thing for miles - a lighthouse built in honor of Samuel Champlain. (He "found" the lake, so he got to name it. Wonder what the natives thought of that one? I guess it never changes - the guy holding the gun makes the rules!)

We went to the top of the lighthouse - Northern Daddy got to carry NB/T's heavy butt up the stairs. Didn't stay at the top too long because Daddy had a wicked case of vertigo up there.

After touring the Crown Point historic site and checking out the lighthouse and steamship pier, we drove north for a bit - nothing to do. We drove east for a bit - nothing but farmland. We drove south a bit - found a cremee stand and had some ice cream - but nothing else to do. Came back to camp and NB/T found this to do:

Since NB/T was hogging all the spare shoes, and Northern Mommy and Northern Daddy were bored to death, the Northern Clan bailed on camping. First time we've ever bailed - we've made it through heat and rain and bugs, but we couldn't beat the brand of boredom this place served up - so we headed home half way through our stay. (It's quite amazing how fast a camp can be packed up if you're trying!)

The moral of our little story is that Crown Point is a day trip. Two hours ought to cover everything. Any longer and you're testing your sanity.

(The other lesson is to always camp with friends - they keep things interesting!)

(Hey Jakoby - we're saving some banana bread to grill on our next camping trip - you okay with fuzzy green banana bread?!)

Northern Baby Visits STORYLAND!

The Northern Clan had to be in New Hampshire for a wedding last Friday evening, and decided to spend Saturday at a lovely little theme park named STORYLAND! Those of our readers that hail from the North will know of Storyland. Those readers who live considerably south of the Massachusetts state line might be a little bit confused. The trick for y'all is going to be to think of any grand amusement park - maybe Busch Gardens or Six Flags - and add Mother Goose or the Brothers Grimm. The target demographic for this park is anyone under the age of eight (or one big doofus around the age of thirty-four...I'm still surprised that they let me into the park!)

The first thing that we ran into when we entered the park was Mr. Humptey-Dumptey. (He's quite the stylish clothes-horse, isn't he?!) If you push the button like it says on the sign, a chorus recites the nursery rhyme and ends with, "it took all of the king's horses and all the king's men to put Humptey back together again". If you stop and read the sign two feet away, it states, "and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humptey back together again". SO WHICH IS IT?!! We're not forty feet into this park, and the kids are getting contradictory messages already? Sheesh, I need a drink..... If you look closely at the picture above, you'll notice that Humptey is trying to pinch my butt. (I'm not sure why I'm smiling about that?!)

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe....well she certainly worked in the shoe! There was a real, live old woman that sat inside this shoe all day handing out stickers to the kiddies. You can see Levi running like mad to get away from the old woman!

Little Miss Northern Mommy sat on a tuffet....and this big ol' spider drops out of the sky to terrorize innocent little children....

Trying out the merry-go-round. (Not sure which childrens' story has tigers spinning in circles, but I didn't design the park.)(It was some dude reading nursery rhymes and tripping acid...)

Hot Rod Swan Boats!

(Not so hot rod. We could barely get out of the way of our own shadow, much less boat number two, which was piloted by a demented 12-year-old whose brain had apparently been cannibalized by some bad cotton candy.)


The absolute coolest place in Storyland - Loopy Lab! Two levels of fun: the lower level has a whole lotta vacuum machines - set one of the foam balls in a hose, and it sucks it right up and shoots it across the room (think bank drive through machine - but way more fun!) The upper level has these cool shooters (see below) that are hooked up to compressed air hoses - load a ball, aim it at some poor kid below, and pelt away!

Further proof that this park was designed by someone under the influence of illegal substances: this is a barn that tilts and spins thirty feet off of the ground. I don't think you caught that - this is a BARN that TILTS and SPINS THIRTY FEET IN THE AIR! I'm totally amazed that those big windows aren't plastered with kid puke all the time.

At the end of the day, NB/T was kind enough to chauffer Northern Mommy and Daddy around the garden on his big green tractor. He's quite the driver - he didn't run off the road one bit!

Plattsburgh

The NorthernBaby clan had some free time recently and decided to visit the other side of the lake. Northern Mommy and NB/T had never visited Plattsburgh in New York. (Northern Daddy had visited the less pleasant parts of Plattsburgh for some job interviews when we first became the Northerns.) The bonus in our planned destination was a trip to Target - there are a grand total of zero Target stores in the state of Vermont.

This picture was taken especially for Uncle Jeremy. (To prove that we did in fact drive almost an hour to get to a steeekin Tar-jhay!)It took some effort to get to our magical destination. We drove for endless miles....we boarded a ferry boat to cross the lake....
we drove some more.....

and finally, we reached the Golden(wait - make that Ruby for Target's red) Retail Outlet.

We grabbed a cart (they have really nice carts at the Plattsburgh Target-almost snagged one to take back home with us. Why? We don't really have a use for a shopping cart at home, but these carts were just that nice!) and started looking for a nice new slipcover for NorthernMommy's sofa. We had to browse through some throw pillows....

and play with some dog toys....

and we finally found a suitable slipcover for our home. After all of the excitement of Target, it was almost a let-down to shop the rest of the mall, but we were up to the task.


This thing - I'm not sure what exactly it is (there was a sign explaining it, but I gotta tell you I was so caught up in watching it work that I didn't read one word!) - I think it would be called a kinetic sculpture. (Okay, I just spent way too much time finding this on Google, but it was created by one George Rhoads http://www.georgerhoads.com/) This thing was awesome in its intricacy and just plain fun to watch - there are multiple steel balls travelling the rails and motorized lifts and such. Everything , all of the multiple lifts and ladders, is powered by one small electric motor that connects to everything through gears and belts. Really cool!

After the mall and all of the excitement of stores and the food court, our intrepid adventurer NB/T fell asleep as we drove out through Plattsburgh's waterfront area. It was much prettier than most people in our area would let on. It's no Burlington, but a nice place to visit on a sunny summer day.

As NB/T snored away the miles, we came across this ice cream joint (this was not far from the motel we passed where we saw some really friendly young ladies working their summer jobs......it's not often that we pass through areas with working prostitutes, but we managed to in Plattsburgh!) If you could get past the idea of eating ice cream made in a silo - and past the creepiness of the working 'ladies' not so far away - it was a neat place to stop. And the best part?--NB/T got NONE! He was asleep, so he forfeited his chance at ice cream! Northern Mommy was happy to get a chance to eat ice cream without a pushy little whiner constantly asking for a bite!

What Are We Gonna Do With Eight Pounds of Blueberries?

One lovely day last week, Northern Daddy arrived home from work and Northern Mommy announced that the clan was going to pick blueberries. Now, Northern Daddy is a pretty smart guy, and he's pretty sure that there aren't any blueberry bushes in the back yard, so he quickly deduced that his plans to relax at home with an adult beverage were going to be postponed.

The clan loaded themselves into the official adventure vehicle - aka Mommy's car - and pointed it down the road to the blueberry farm. (How many times before have you heard the term 'blueberry farm'? -not many, I'll bet!) They arrived a little bit before the gates opened (gotta protect the blueberries from predators....!) and waited patiently in the lane...("we're gonna be the very first ones into the blueberry patch, dammit!")

Below you'll see NB/T and his mom harvesting blueberries. (As an aside - Northern Mommy earlier - not ten minutes ago - suggested that I start referring to Levi as Northern Toddler instead of Northern Baby. Does she not read these posts?! What exactly does she think NB/T stands for?! --Northern Mommy: go back and READ MY WORDS! - you'll see that NB/T takes care of the toddler label!) NB/T has the unique harvesting technique of "one for the bucket, three for my tummy". He also has the habit of checking the bucket every few minutes for any "strays" (as he puts it...) that he needs to "clean up for you"!Here is NB/T finishing off the fifth pint of blueberries! Not really - he's just playing the role of quality control inspector as we fill the containers.

I like this one. Patrolling the rows...

A few of Northern Mommy's friends from the moms' playgroup. There was live music playing as we picked berries and had a picnic (hey - gotta come prepared!).

I sure hope the cork is in there real tight!

Summer Fun

Since our last update a few weeks ago, the Northern clan has been busy having fun. Well, as much fun as one can pack into days of work and weeks of rain....

We bought NB/T a bicycle trailer to ride in (because he was just complaining too much when we made him run along behind...!) and have taken a few spins with the little guy in tow. Here we have a photo of Northern Mommy and NB/T rolling. (He really is in there - it's just hard to get a good picture as we're moving)

It's been raining most every day this summer. One day, Northern Dad and NB/T got sent outside after a storm to "splash around in some puddles". Northern Mommy thought it would make some cute pictures if Levi was stomping in puddles with his big ol' boots. We got our boots on, but puddles were in short supply - this is the only one we found. I'm not sure if the water is even covering the treads on his boots! But we did splash in a puddle!
We got invited to a wedding a few weeks ago - held at a beautiful location on Joe's Pond, it was a really cool wedding. (Almost as cool as Northern Mommy and Daddy's wedding, but I'm pretty sure no wedding ever could beat that one!) There was a good time had by all. NB/T got spun all around the dance floor by one of his cousins, Northern Mommy got to laugh at her little boy dancing all night, and Northern Daddy got familiar with the open bar (followed by a really looong ride back home with Northern Daddy scared witless by Northen Mommy's driving - which was fine as usual - Northern Daddy's perception was just a little messed up!)
It was a really good day - we got to see two good people finally get to get married, NB/T got to dance with his mom and dad, and fun was had by everyone.
The one picture that I wish I had but don't is of the 16' canoe filled with ice serving as the beer cooler. (That was the coolest idea!)(No pun intended!)

Grandpa Peter will notice that the picture of NB/T sitting in the old Jeep M38 is missing from this post...so you weren't right when you predicted that picture would make the blog! (It really isn't that good of a picture. Now, if Levi had stolen the Jeep and hooked it up to that big ol' smoker trailer and driven off.....that picture would've made the blog!

We got around another rainy afternoon by visiting Pizza Putt for fun and food. (You didn't really think that you'd find an entry in this blog without a picture of Levi eating, did you?!) Below, he stuffs his face with some most excellent pizza.

After the food comes the FUN!

NB/T pilots a Star Wars pod racer while Northern Mommy hangs on!

Watch out for that wall!

Our big fun last Saturday morning was to take out a kayak. It's been almost two years since we've had them on the water. NB/T recently got his very own PFD and got to try it out in Mommy's boat. He sat for a few turns around the cove before he decided that he wanted out of the boat and into the water. He and Daddy waded in the shallows and threw rocks at other boaters while Northern Mommy paddled out along the shoreline and meditated on the happiness of paddling.

Saturday evening, the Northern clan and Northern Father-in-Law and Northern Father-in-Law's girlfriend and Northern Father-in-Law's girlfriend's son (sheesh, that's a lot of words to say Frank, Shannon, and Kenny!) went to a Vermont Lake Monster's game. NB/T got to eat all of the french fries he wanted and we had really good seats (third row back, behind home plate). The weather was good, the food was good, and our team won - doesn't get much better than that!

NB/T is slightly obsessed with the Lake Monster's mascot, Champ. Levi kept an eye on him every time he came out for the crowd. Below is Levi's reaction after Champ disappeared down a ramp; "Where'd He Go?!"

Note that the Budweiser bracelet belongs to Frank. Levi attempted to purchase a nice draught beer to go with his french fries, but his fake ID was discovered and he was turned away. (I told him that Fisher-Price doesn't make the best fake IDs...)

Sunday, we went to watch the DragonBoat races and support Northern Mommy's team as they paddled the competition into the waves. Unfortunately, we showed up for the first race, where Northern Mommy's team finished LAST in a strategic move designed to lull their competitors into a false sense of security. It would have worked, too, if the second race wasn't cancelled due to waves the size of elephants and sinking boats (I believe that the sinking boat was my workplace team - good thing I opted out of paddling..."ummm, I gotta watch the kid"!)

A lot of money was raised for the kid's camp that was this year's beneficiary, and a whole lot of people had fun paddling and watching paddlers, so it was a good end to a busy weekend.