Very Big Update

This update covers about a month, including closing up camp, the start of school, and other trips and adventures. See captions for details...

The first day of school for Sam. Now the neighborhood boys meet at our neighbors' driveway to wait for the but. Two boys are added this year, twins who've been attending Catholic school until now and are entering fourth grade.

Took the boys on a super brief hike a few weeks ago at a park up by Lake Ontario. It was brief because Sam started acting sick and very weary so we had to curtail it.

But we *did* manage to stop by the oldest mini golf course in the US. Which is not as great a claim as you might think, since it doesn't have some of the features which make newer courses more fun.

Painted the garage doors! Here's Susan, working hard.

Attended a classroom open house at Sam's 5th grade class with Mrs. Streiff. I found this element of their schedule entertaining. So far Sam's new teacher seems like a peach.

Closed up camp. Very quick trip! Up Sat a..m., back Sun p.m.  Amazingly, still managed to pack some fun activities in. Here we are playing on the beach created by the very low levels. This must be the weekend each fall when the power company lowers the water so folks can work on their bulkheads. 

Josh with a new friend.

Susan's Only Selfie Ever

Got Sam's help sweeping off the roof, as is now tradition.

Went down the Stone Valley Trail. The water was so high we couldn't play on the same rocks we usually do, and had to go further downstream around the bend. Found some really fun things to clamber over, and managed to have a great time before the rain arrived.

Love how Sam is the only object in focus.

Fun with panorama mode!

The afore-mentioned rain that evening.

To kill time while Susan ran into the Price Chopper I gave the boys $1 each to spend in the dollar store. Always a hit! Sam got fake teeth, and played with them nonstop all evening. 

Josh got a mermaid doll. Which btw seemed to keep losing its clothing. Here, though, it's clothed and in its idiom, luring sailors to the rocks.

Sam "taught" Josh to play chess.

Cool but beautiful Sunday!

If I leave my ipod unattended Sam takes selfies and sets them as my wallpaper. This is the current one.

Honestly can't remember why Josh wanted to kiss his reflection in the mirror. But do we really need an explanation? Surely it speaks for itself.

Found this doodle in Sam's classwork.

That's all for now! Been a super-busy fall: Closing up camp, start of school, start of small group (and a gigantic potluck), a week away at a conference for me, and this weekend we depart for a quick trip to Columbus. More photos after that...

Camp and since...

 Below are some photos from the second half of our week at camp. The week was split in two by Sam's being ill with a stomach bug--ill enough to go into urgent care, here they prescribed anti-nausea meds so he could get re-hydrated. (Though by then he was on the mend, thankfully.) Despite that, Sam and Susan both report this being an excellent week. 

Here are two pics from when Sam was sick and I took Josh to the state park to run around. I used the trolling motor on the canoe, and we visited the park as well as the Black Lagoon. 

In the Black Lagoon we saw this large turtle sunning himself.

After Sam was better we took a morning hike at the state park. Saw this little guy:

And had a picnic lunch, the boys sitting on the big boulder you encounter on the top of the first hill on the Beaver Pond trail:

  

Below is the rocky top of the highest point on the Beaver Pond trail. That trail (which usually makes use, for us, of a return trip on the Pine trail, as I recall) is about 45 minutes. Not at all strenuous, but enough to stretch one's legs because of the hills. However, we missed a turn partway through and turned it into a 2 hour hike in which we explored the extensive and poorly labeled trails in the interior. And while Susan and I were getting increasingly grouchier, and Josh lost it and wept for a good 10-15 minutes because he dropped a leaf and I wouldn't go back for it (ugh), SAM was the one who kept a good and cheerful attitude and even helped distract Josh. What a blessing!

At the end of the week Susan, who has been doing amazing crafts with the boys all summer, had them do something she'd tried a VBS, where one puts down strips of masking tape on a stretched canvas, and then paints over it. (In VBS the masking was in the shape of a cross.)

Below is a shot from the obligatory Sergi's dinner out. Sergi's can be a little tough cause the characteristic wait time is slightly longer than Josh's sitting-still time. For some reason this time it worked out well and we all had a delightful time. Here you can see Sam laughing his head off at something

I am not sure, but country gas stations in the summer, when it's warm at night and the bugs are loud, are very evocative places for me. Hard to really capture the feeling of being at one. 

The final morning we took another family canoe ride to the Black Lagoon. They are still decorating it nicely:

 And we paused at the sand bar/beach we used to, as kids, refer to as the "private beach" back when we camped here as a family:

Suffice it to say, the boys slept well:

Now we've been home at week. The Zinkand-Dills had us over for dinner last Sunday, and aside from breaking a wine glass with a frisbee we had a great time. Here's Sam reading Harry Potter after dinner:

I think we read over 2,000 pages of HP this summer. 

Hope you are all well!