Kickin' Back in the 'Dacks

John and I always like to have something to look forward to. I think it was during our trip to Cape Cod last summer (if not before) that he started talking about where we could go on vacation this summer. Considering the baby and not knowing how well he would travel, we figured it should be somewhere within New York State (a 3 hour drive max). And he even suggested that it should be somewhere not too far from Syracuse so that the grandparents could join us for part of the time if they liked.

So he started checking out places on the web as soon as we got back. It was probably April when he started getting serious about it. When he got transferred to open a new Target store this summer, we were worried for a while that we wouldn't be able to go anywhere. But he cobbled together 5 days in a row (cleverly needing only 2 vacation days to do it) and booked Camp Garoga on the edge of the Adirondacks. The place was perfect: cute, cozy, charming and comfortable. The location was just about at Aaron's limit for a driving trip, and it was close enough to a fair number of activities to keep us occupied.

We had some good family bonding time. The first two days, before John got there, my parents came up. We went to Howe Caverns, which was the first time I'd been there in about 20 years. It's exactly the same of course, but according to the tour guides they are planning on extending it soon. Genevieve was suitably impressed.

One day we went to the Adirondack Animal Land, which is basically a zoo with a lot of animal interaction and other kid-friendly stuff. Another day we went to Saratoga Springs, and as I already mentioned, we spent a day at Six Flags. We took turns going on lots of rides with Genevieve of course. Even Aaron got to take his first amusement park ride--the Big Red Car in Wiggle World. :-)

I had never been to a real racecourse before, so I thought Saratoga was interesting. When we were on our way there, Genevieve asked if you HAD TO bet--because she wasn't going to lose HER four dollars! (Incidentally she "earned" that $4 by getting change of a $5 bill I gave her to buy a cookie.) Of course, when you don't bet it's not very exciting so we didn't stay long. Plus it was pouring rain much of the time. The horses were really beautiful, though. Oh, and Aaron got his first taste of cotton candy.

Despite the rain we did sneak in a campfire with s'mores and a little bit of hiking in the woods behind the cabin. On the way home we stopped by to see Grandma and Grandpa.

And John started planning next year's trip...

The Acrobat

We went to Six Flags in Lake George on Saturday. Despite the outrageous prices of everything, we did have a great time ($25.99 admission for an infant? $8.99 for popcorn??), and we got pretty lucky with the weather. It was overcast and threatening to rain all day, which kept away the crowds, but it didn't actually rain until we were driving home exhausted from a long day of adventure.

Of course Genevieve had to try the bungee-trampoline thing. Most kids we saw just bounced up and down and maybe managed a flip here and there. My little jumping bean did flip after flip after flip...

When we got home from our vacation we heard that Genevieve had been selected for the gymnastics team at the training center. Since she's been going there all day for camp most of the summer, she's gotten to be pretty good. Her flexibility and skills have improved tremendously. In June she couldn't do a proper cartwheel, but now she's doing beautiful ones, as well as roundoffs, walkovers, almost full splits, and working on back handsprings. She can do seat drops, swivel hips, somersaults and other tricks on the trampoline just about indefinitely. I haven't had the opportunity to observe her on the bars or balance beam recently, but I know she was working on cartwheels on the balance beam (just the thought of trying such a thing scares me). They say she'll be competing at Level 4. She has a whole little routine she's been working on. When she perfects it I will post a video.

How astonishing that a child of mine could have such athletic ability!

Aaron's first camping trip

As soon as school let out, John wanted to take Genevieve camping. At first it was just going to be the two of them, but she very sweetly entreated me to come too. I wasn't sure how Aaron would do but I figured I'd give it a shot. The first time we took Genevieve camping, she was 2 years old and cried all night. John ended up driving her around until dawn. Aaron did great, though. He seemed to really enjoy the outdoors, and at night he curled up with me in my sleeping bag.

So we had a great time. We went to Stony Brook State Park, which is only a little more than an hour away, and the park was beautiful. It's near Letchworth, which is bigger and more well known, but this was just as pretty and much less crowded. We even managed to avoid the rain for the most part (it's been raining nearly constantly all summer so far).

We did all the usual stuff: cooked over the campfire, made s'mores, read Harry Potter...

The next day we went hiking. The trail runs right along the river with numerous waterfalls and bridges. It was great. It reminded me of Watkins Glen, or Taughannock. They even have a section dammed up for a pool (it was freezing, though) and a marvelous playground.

Luckily Aaron enjoyed the backpack carrier. He spent at least half the hike dozing on John's back, and the rest of the time he just looked around and sucked on his hand happily.

The rain started just when we were ready to leave. If only we had packed up the tent earlier, it would have been perfect. As it was, we ended up stuffing a wet tent in the car as usual. At home we pitched it in the backyard to dry out, but of course it has rained practically every day since, so I'm still waiting...