There was a 100% chance of snow and I called and drove to every single location within 30 minutes to try and obtain a sled. No go.
Everywhere within a 3 hour radius of Northern VA had sold out of sleds. So what did we do? Improvise. For $10 we got a blow up mattress and made our own fun!
The kids really came into their own for the 2021 ski season. After 10 days in Colorado and then another 6-8 days skiing locally, they got some quality time in and their skill grew immensely!
This past weekend we went camping at Oak Ridge with another family. It took 20 minutes to reach the campsite by car after passing the initial gate. The park is massive! The kids collected firewood and made a fire. We had a scavenger hunt, cooked shrimp scampi on an open fire with garlic, butter, sour cream, and Parmesan.
We used our map reading skills to hike through the woods and find an amphitheater and other trails. Sheri brought print outs of ghost stories to tell by the fire after we had our fill of smores.
It started raining around midnight and it got fairly cold – down to the lower 40s. The kids slept through it all as usual and I got more sleep more I normally do when camping – a solid 3-4 hours.
We packed up in the rain and SkyPark wore their PJ’s home – oops I may have forgotten to pack a 2nd set of clothes. Nothing that some hot McDonald’s can’t fix.
I’m fairly sure that only 1 or 2 of the boys actually carved a pumpkin. Skylar carved one and then she and I played some soccer and threw around the lacrosse ball. Parker was in non-stop motion the entire time with his buddies except for the occasion grazing of candy or a juice box.
We went to Sandbridge Beach at the end of the summer. I had never been there before and it was akin to Virginia Beach lite. The strip of land is very thin and there is almost exclusively houses, so the beaches are not packed at all.
It felt a bit like going back in time to Nags Head 30 years ago. All the amenities of Va Beach are about 20 minutes away, so you can still get to a water park, movie theater, or go-carts.
The Friday before we had to leave we gave the kids the option to do whatever they wanted and they stayed on Road Blocks from 8:30AM to 8:30PM. Susan and I walked to dinner and offered to get them dessert and even that couldn’t dissuade them from leaving.
BTW – “Old Town Road” is one of Parker’s favorite songs this summer and while stopping in Williamsburg we drove past “Old Town Rd”. Hadobogee and Parker did some fishing and I was amazed to see the size of the fish that came out of the Atlantic right where we were swimming – and no, we didn’t catch that one!
I guess Susan was getting stir crazy in June and July because we took a lot of weekend trips. Most of the museums in D.C. were closed, but the Museum of Art was still open as long as you scheduled a time to visit.
The city was eerily quiet and parking was easy to find – one of the benefits of Covid-19. We walked around the museum and looked at the various art exhibits until the kids started demanding ice cream, at which point we went to Arlington and found a spot at a location with outdoor seating.
We went to the Pentagon for July 4th. They had a flyover with all kinds of planes from WWII relics to modern day fighters. The most impressive was the B-52 stealth bomber, because it’s profile is so unique.
After the airshow we walked over a bridge to a roped off area and spread out as best we could. Skylar and Parker caught lightning bugs as we waited for the show to start.
But for Covid-19 I don’t think we would have gone White Water rafting. As we were looking for fun weekend trips, we found an option at Harpers Ferry for rafting and playing in the river.
Saturday we went White Water rafting and then Sunday we rented canoe’s, paddle boards, and kayaks and played around in the Rappahannock river.
We stayed at a KOA campground which was also a first for us. The cabin had 2 bunk beds and a window air-conditioner. It’s about as bare bones as you can get. Parker and Skylar were convinced it was Abraham Lincoln’s childhood home. They probably weren’t far off.
Sometimes I get confused and think that I had twins:
Getting to the pool was significantly harder this summer than previous years because you had to sign up to a time slot and you could only go for 1 hour at a time. While we did get to the pool several times, we also set up a slip and slide in the side yard.
I had lots of baby pink vinyl at the warehouse that was never going to sell, go figure, and so I brought home a roll and we created a slip and slide that the kids used for hours during the hotter days of summer. Soap, water, slick surface = instant fun!
