Camping! We made it!

We finally managed to make it through an entire weekend camping trip!  Lodge camping of course, but still, we made it!!

This was the lodge we went to about a year and a half ago, when I drove home in the middle of the day so she could stay Saturday night.  This time, we were prepared for the whole weekend.  Jocelyn was very excited when she found out it was the same lodge!

Camp Woodlands, Annapolis MD.

Planning our day.  The girls all worked hard to earn there Eco Camper over the weekend.  Jocelyn and one other girl previously earned two other badges that all together completed another Journey!

We did some hiking through the woods and down to the lake to learn about leave no trace.

All the adults brave enough to spend the weekend with 19 girls!  Leslie, me, Colleen, Kelsey, Kerry, Carol, and Stacie.

Me and my favorite camper!

One requirement for the badge was to make a snack using little to no trash.  They made fruit salad.

No camping trip is complete without a campfire, singing and s'mores!

Our next camping trip is supposed to be at a different lodge in January.  Jocelyn can't wait!

A Girl and Her Horse

No, he's not really her horse, but she loves him more than any other, by far.

Two years ago, I took Jocelyn to her first Scouting Day at Days End Farm Horse Rescue.  She loved everything about it, especially this guy - Officer Barney.  She has had a love affair with him ever since. 

Now that we are volunteers, she gets to say hi to him whenever we visit the farm.  And the last time we volunteered, she had him all to herself!!

She especially loves the Fall Festival when she gets to ride him!

Scouting day was even more fun for her this year because she got to brag a little about being a volunteer and how special Barney is to her.  I got to take some really nice photos of her and her best buddy.

💜   Looks like love to me!  💜

We have a 5th Grader!!

Today is Jocelyn's first day of 5th grade.  Today is also the first day of Jocelyn's last year in Elementary School.  She's now one of the oldest kids in the school.  She's about to have a year full of "lasts".

-  Last first day of Elementary School
-  Last Halloween Parade
-  Last Cozy night of reading
-  Last time sharing Valentines
-  Last field day
-  Last end of year picnic
... and many more

And I'm pretty sure she doesn't realize it, but when this school year ends, she will say goodbye to all her teachers K-5 for the last time.  But we aren't ready to think about that...

Today is the beginning of her 5th grade year, and we are so hoping that it is better than last year.  She has her two best buddies, Kate and Ryan, in her class, and her teacher seems really bubbly and fun.  She has only 2-3 trouble makers in her class, near as we could tell from the open house.  So we have high hopes for the year to come.

My baby is growing up.

Five years ago...  First day of Kindergarten

Today...  First day of 5th Grade

Summer Wrap Up

The end of summer has come, and once again, I am so sad to see it go.  I love the time I have with Jocelyn for these 11 weeks, and it always reminds me of how fortunate I am to be able to stay home with her.  Some parents dread the summer with their kids, and others have to work all summer and don't get to spend time with their kids.  I feel so lucky.

We wrapped up the summer with some more fun.  We headed to the pool a couple more times.

We all went to Pat's company cookout and Jocelyn got to eat crabs for the first time ever.  She's of the same mind as her parents - it's a lot of work, for very little food!  (Not to mention they have beady eyeballs...)

We went out for lunch at Red Robin with Dad.

And finished our summer history tour.  We didn't make it to all the sites, but she got her prize.  We may still head to some of the other locations before the winter comes.

And of course, the summer is not complete without Mommy and Daughter pedicures!!

Hershey Park!

We've been waiting all summer for the right time to go to Hershey Park.  We had the tickets, we just needed the weather to cooperate for once!  It finally did last Monday, so we were off!!

Jocelyn finally made it to the Twizzlers ride height!  Which means she is allowed to go on rides that she has absolutely no interest in, like roller coasters!  Fine with me!  I have no interest in spinning in circles until I'm sick, thank you very much!

We were in the park no more than an hour and it was time to tackle a funnel cake!  Jocelyn is holding on to Hershey the cow.  He was purchased at our first trip to Hershey, and got to come back for a visit!

We took a train ride - definitely more our speed!

Then Mom beat some whack-a-moles so Jocelyn could win a narwhal.  Yeah, I had to look it up too.  It actually is a real thing!!

No trip to Hershey is without it's character photos!  We happen to be big fans of York Peppermint Patties and Kisses.  Don't tell the "ladies"!

Have you seen the old man dance?  This is their version.  Quite amusing I must say!

We did spend some time in the water park area.  The Lazy River was a favorite, no surprise, but Tidal Force (disclaimer in line "You WILL get soaked on this ride"), was an unexpected favorite!  We all loved it!  --There are no photos of the water park for obvious reasons...

I did however get photos of these two in bumper cars.  Guess where I was sitting taking this picture??  It took me half the ride to get myself unstuck in this corner, but once I was free, I happily slammed my car into the back of the kiddo.  She didn't complain!  :) 

We ended the day with the Chocolate tour.   Hershey the cow did in fact live to see his friends on the tour!  Another great summer memory!  But the summer is sadly almost over...

Ellicott City Revisited

In July, we took a guided tour of Ellicott City.  We had originally scheduled the tour for a date that ended up being right after the flood and much of the road was still closed off.  Since the tour is monthly, we postponed it a month and fortunately Main Street was open by then.  We started up near the Museum where Jocelyn and I have gone to the Children's programs, and ended at the bottom of the hill at the B&O Railroad Museum.  This was the first really good look we had at the damage done from this second flood.

These two pictures are what our tour guide called "the gorge", the area of Ellicott Mills Road that completely washed away, and the area behind the Thomas Isacc Cabin.  It was so much larger than I had imagined.

All up and down Main Street we saw markings on buildings like these on the Howard House, that were made by First Responders making sure no one was trapped in the building by flood waters.

In the center of this photo is the vertical sign for Caplans.  Sadly, last week the announcement was made that all the buildings from Caplans down to right before the B & O Railroad station, will be torn down.  I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, but it makes me so sad at the loss of history.

This building is right before Caplans.  It used to be a bank and you can see in the center what was once the vault.  It is not supposed to be demolished, but restoration will be a huge task as water flowed from the back windows through the building and out the front windows onto Main Street.

Everywhere we went, we saw these stars.  They came from Stars of Hope -  http://starsofhopeusa.org/hopealert-for-ellicott-city/   and they were something special to see amidst all the devastation.  This one was one of my favorites.

After our tour we stopped in the B & O Railroad Museum.  This is one of the stops for the summer Passport book, and we wanted to take the tour. 

Ellicott City has a long way to go to recover from the flood and it will be so sad to see the buildings come down, but there is so much strength and courage from the people who live and work there.  You can only have hope, as they do, that it will be enough to bring the town back.