Local Fun

Have I mentioned that (much to my parents' and grandparents' dismay) we love living here?

There's so much to do, and it's GORGEOUS during the summer.

Humid, but gorgeous.

On one of the not-so-humid days, we decided to hit the MA & PA trail for the first time:

Seth was whining in this picture.  And for a good chunk of the walk.

It's pretty standard fare around here right now.

Princess chasing her daddy down the trail.

Then a few days later we headed to Rocks State Park for a dip in the river/large creek: 

This girl loves the water

Two babies in a river

We met up with some of our friends there, and within 30 minutes they had reverted to the classic childhood activity: building things out of mud and rocks.  In this case it was a mudslide down the bank.

It's amazing what they were willing to do to run this thing.  One of the other moms commented that her kids were willing to run bucketfuls of water up the bank (over and over and over) but wouldn't put their clothes away.  If only chores were as interesting as mud building!  

(I have great memories of building dams in creeks with my sisters and cousins, so it was fun to watch Seth have a blast doing something similar).

Catherine was a bit too small and a bit too OCD about dirty hands to participate.  

Instead, she opted for her favorite activity: searching for gum in Mom's purse.

The first thing she emptied out was my wallet.  When I went to start putting my cards away, I couldn't find my wallet anywhere.  After an extensive search, I found it:

Nothing I own is sacred, apparently.

Our next adventure was the county Farm Fair.  

We weren't sure what to expect--just hoping for some entertainment for the kids.

You wouldn't know it from this picture, but Seth was very excited to ride a school bus to the Fair:

Catherine was also thrilled: 

As it turns out, it was a pretty miserable day.  And the Bloods don't do well in heat & humidity.

Seth and Catherine had a great time jumping in the little bounce houses and getting lost in a corn maze: 

Okay, the maze wasn't that fun.

But they got candy when they came out.

Seth spotted a carriage ride and was bouncing up and down while we waited for our turn.

But once we got on, he just couldn't contain his excitement anymore:

You'd swear we had to force him on this ride.

Catherine was pretty happy, mostly because she had a sucker: 

After lunch and a partial viewing of a frisbee-catching dog show, we decided we were plenty warm and headed home.  

Hot & humid at the Farm Fair