Making This Time Count

The days go by fast.  Some days Parker and I get out and do things, but more often than not it seems like we are around the house.  Between feeds and Parker's naps, many days seem to fly by and at the end of it I wonder, what did I do today that was special?

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my time at home with Parker.  We have a million special moments in our day.  From his morning smiles, to how proud and happy he is while he sits up and plays, to evening snuggles and giggles with his dad.  Every day is special.  But I feel so lucky that I get a year to spend exclusively with him and I want to know that I'm making the most of it. 

Is what I'm doing enough?  Or should I be trying to get out more, explore what is around us with him.  But what does he get out of that?  Would I be doing it for me or for him?  

It's a struggle because I feel we can get stuck in the rut that is our life.  We stay at home because we have laundry or cleaning or nap time.  Right now, Parker is quite content at home because he knows no different.  But even 6 months from now when he's more involved in the world I want him to be out experiencing new things and I don't ever want the real world to take over and allow us to forget what's important.

It's September.  I have less than 5 months until I'm back to work.  The weather is getting cooler and I feel time slipping away from me.  I have a life time with this baby, but he won't always be a baby and I won't always have so many hours in a day with him and that's scary for a mom.  I have less than 5 months to do as much as I can so that I know that when I go back to work I made the most of this year.  5 months might seem like a long time to some, but when I think of how quickly the last 7 months have gone, I feel like my time is up tomorrow.

Watkins Glen and other New York Places

 Get ready for picture overload.  

Last week we spent a week camping in New York.  We started out at Four Mile Creek State Park, then travelled to Watkins Glen in the Finger Lakes and ended up at a little private campground called Adventure Bound which is minutes from Letchworth State Park.  We also travelled to Buttermilk Falls State Park for a hike.  Needless to say, we now love New York State Parks!  Who knew that there were so many beautiful things to see within 5 hours of home!

First up we have Watkins Glen.  Watkins Glen is right at the bottom of Seneca Lake.  Within the park, there are 19 waterfalls and a gorgeous gorge.  The first time we hiked it we went up.  We went without my mom because she wasn't feeling great that day.  It was a tough hike and had a lot of stairs, plus it was crazy hot out, but it was worth it.  Watkins Glen isn't even so much about the waterfalls as it is the gorge.  It's hard to describe, but it's just beautiful.

Later in the week, when my mom was feeling better, we hiked it again.  This time we hiked down the gorge.  Much easier!  You get a completely different view point, and although I found I had to make a conscious effort to turn around and see the waterfalls, I felt like I enjoyed the gorge itself much more on this hike.

Another day we went to Buttermilk Falls State Park just outside of Ithaca.  There are 12 waterfalls in this park.  The hike started with us climbing about 500 feet straight up.  (Well that's what it felt like).  What a workout!  Then it evened out a bit.  These waterfalls were beautiful as well.  There were kids playing at the bottom of some of them and it was really fun to see.  There were lots of people, but nothing like Watkins Glen, it's more of a hidden gem.  And those are the types of waterfalls that I love, the ones that aren't over saturated with tourists.

At the end of the week we started back home and stayed in a park called Adventure Bound for one night because Letchworth State Park was booked.  However it was super close to the park.  We didn't spend a ton of time in the park since we only had the one day but what an amazing place!  They call it the Grand Canyon of the east.  It had 3 waterfalls in it and luckily for our tired legs they were all easily accessible.  Parker was also waterfalled out by this point and was a bit grumpy.

Middle Falls

High Falls

On our way out of the park, at the top of high falls there were some cops and a ton of people.  We asked someone what was going on and he said the train was coming in 4 minutes.  So we decided to park and see what all the fuss was about.  Apparently they are tearing down the bridge over the river this year and rebuilding.  They had a special passenger sightseeing train travelling over the bridge that day and so tons of people had come to see it.  

It was an old steam engine and it was pretty neat to see!  There were 800 passengers on board all waving at us.  

Just some of the peole up on the hill taking pictures of the train

 We had a fantastic trip and saw some amazing things.  It was a great year to do this trip with Parker because he could literally be strapped onto one of us and just go.  Next year we might need to come up with a few more baby friendly vacation ideas!

Our First Family Vacation

After a week of camping, we're home again.  We just returned on Sunday from our very first official family vacation.  

We started off the week at Four Mile Creek State Park, which was right on Lake Ontario outside of Lewiston, New York.  We had a site backing onto the lake and had the most beautiful sunsets.

At Parker's six month appointment, the doctor told me he was ready to start solids.  So I brought along some rice cereal and we made our first attempt.  He spits a lot of it out, but he is interested in it and opens his mouth for the spoon.  It's a work in progress!

After a couple days there, we took off for Watkins Glen.  I will share more pictures of the hikes we went on in another post, but we had a great time seeing all the sites in the Finger Lakes!  Daddy carried Parker for the first time in the carrier (because I'm clumsy and didn't trust myself in waterfall country with a baby strapped on).  Parker loved it!  For the first part of the hike he would smile away and look around and then he would eventually fall asleep.

 We hiked Watkins Glen twice and Buttermilk Falls.  They were both beautiful and had completely different things going for them.  I've found it so hard to keep up with workouts now that I have Parker around and so it was so nice to be able to do something active as a family. 

We have a 22 foot 5th wheel trailer.  I'm kind of a prissy camper and I still think it's a bit too cramped.  It was definitely difficult for us to pack for a week and stay organized in the trailer, but it got the job done.  Parker had his baths in the sink, which actually worked out pretty well.  Now that he can support himself in a seated position bath time was easy breezy.

 The bumbo got lots of use.  He eats in it and we would put him in it when we were busy to keep him upright so that he could see what was going on.

Overall Parker was pretty good, but I found him to be a bit off all week.  I'm not sure if it was just being out of routine, or if he's teething (typical mom excuse) or if there was something else going on.  He didn't eat real great all week and we had a few nights where he was up.  I even fed him in the middle of the night twice and he slept with us one night.  I haven't fed him in the middle of the night since he started sleeping through about 3 months ago!  Funny how now I don't even know how I functioned getting up in the middle of the night. 

 Here is Parker Pants just hanging out on Gram and Gramps mat while the rest of us get stuff done.

We had a great time on our week away.  The Finger Lakes is an amazing area.  Obviously Ryan and myself love waterfalls and it was awesome to share our love of hiking with Parker.  We saw some beautiful areas and enjoyed lots of wine tastings on Seneca Lake.  I grew up camping and going on trips like this with my parents and I can't wait to have so many more fun camping adventures with my own little family.

In a Speedo Trying to Tan His Cheeks

So he wasn't actually in a speedo, and of course my 4 month old baby isn't actually trying to get a tan.  I want him to be as white as his mama!  But Parker did go swimming for the first time.  

My Aunt and Uncle had a pool party this weekend, the pool was 86 degrees, and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to take Parker swimming for the first time.  I was expecting screaming and dramatics.  It turns out, I think Parker liked the pool.  He just kind of sat there in the water thinking "What's the big deal mom?"  We didn't stay in long but I'm thinking that this pool might be somewhere that we frequent this summer.

This picture is from exactly one year ago today at the same pool party.  I remember while we were there I said something about being pregnant and my cousin said is there a chance you are pregnant?  I said well every month there's a chance, but I really don't think I'm pregnant this month.  Little did I know that teeny tiny Parker was growing already.  It's funny how much can change in a year.  I went from wondering if we would ever have a baby to having the sweetest little guy in the world. (I might be biased.)

That Time We Went Camping

This past weekend we went camping for the first time this year.  And Parker went camping for the first time ever.

While I was pregnant I was kind of nervous about camping with a baby.  If you have a baby who is up crying 3 times a night, the last thing you want is to be waking up all of the campers around you as well.  Luckily, Parker isn't that baby.  And he can sleep through pretty much anything.  

So basically Parker did amazingly well this weekend.  I think that the fresh air was great for him.  He slept tons during the day, but when he was awake he was happy and content.  I would just set him in his stroller and he would sit there and smile at us. 

At night he was his typical good baby self and would go to sleep as soon as I put him in his playpen.  The first night he woke up at 5:45 and was fussy, so I did feed him (but being so close to him and being able to feed him in bed is super easy).  Then he went back to sleep until 8.  The second night he slept straight until 8am.

So first camping trip was definitely a success.  Plus the rest of us had a great time too.  We went with my parents and sister.  We had a nice long bike ride.  It was supposed to be a leisurely bike ride but I tried to take a short cut back and we ended up on a mountain biking trail.... oops.  We played games, had camp fires and ate.  

Now we just have to plan the next camping adventure!

Hidden Gems

After camping with my parents for the first weekend of our vacation, we went to our cottage for a few days.  And it was still cold.  I didn't put on a bathing suit, or lay on the deck at all.  But once again, we tried to make the most of it and kept ourselves busy.  

On Wednesday, when the boys decided to go golfing, we figured that we needed to find something to occupy our time, so I suggested we go to Georgian Hills winery.  This is the only winery (that I know of) in the Blue Mountain area and I had been there a couple of times with bachelorette parties.  Their wines are delicious and at the end of the tasting it's always hard to decide which one to buy.  That's a sign of a good winery!

While there, they suggested that we check out the Ravenna Country Market just down the street.  They said they had lots of baked goods and also had soup and sandwiches for sale.  It was lunch time, so this seemed like a great idea.

Ravenna seemed like a very small town and basically the only thing there was this market, which we never would have stopped at had it not been suggested to us.  But we were sure glad that we did!

First thing when we got there, we were looking at the fudge and the man working there (who may have been the owner) started giving us samples.  By the time he was finished, my mom had a pound and a half of fudge purchased and we were on a sugar high.

But fudge isn't a good lunch, so my mom and I ordered a sandwich to split and my sister ordered the Cauliflower soup.  These sandwiches...I don't even know how to describe them.  You pick your meat, we went with roast beef.  Then we added caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, lettuce, roasted red pepper mayo and goat cheese.  Amazing!  Best sandwich I have ever had.  Oh and it's grilled.

Tali also bought this chocolate milk that she shared with us.  It was 3.25% milk which explains why it basically tasted like a milkshake.  But we're on vacation, why drink 1%?

Apparently since it was our first time there, we also got a free butter tart.  This guy knew the way to my heart!

They also sell Kawartha Dairy ice cream cones, and if you've never had Kawartha ice cream, you are missing out!  There's just something about it that makes it better than all other ice cream.  They had freezers full of premade meals as well, which I've heard are very delicious!

 This little hidden gem of a store made our vacation.  We are so glad that we found it and will definitely be back!  

That Vacation Post

So I wrote a post about our vacation last week, and it made me bored.  If a post about my own life events bores me, I can imagine it would probably bore you too.  So I'm trying it again.

Here are some things to do while camping in Kincardine in winter weather conditions (ok maybe not winter, but it felt like November):

1.  Go Golfing.  Or go to the driving range, because me actually golfing would probably be painful and would result in me picking up my ball and moving it to wherever I wanted to be.

 2.  Go to the Kincardine Pipeband parade.  It happens every single Saturday night.  The pipeband walks down the main street, the entire town follows them, and then they walk back.  I'm not much of a bagpipe fan, but this was pretty cool.

 3.  Take a walk on the pier.  Because if there is a pier, it has to be walked on, right?

 4.  Make pancakes.  Because they are delicious.

 5.  Go to the beach.  Don't wear your bathing suit.  It's cold!  But the walking can still be enjoyable.

 6.  Tour the lighthouse and remember why you were terrified of lighthouses when you were younger.  Those stairs are steep!  And while you are going up them, all you can do is think about how you are going to have to get back down again.  But it was still really neat.  Plus, the top of the lighthouse is so hot that it actually feels like summer.

So that's our camping vacation with my parents in a nutshell.  We were actually only camping for 2 days last weekend, then we headed to the cottage for a few days.  But I will save that for another day!

Bare Bum Bay

This pontoon boat got a lot of use this weekend.  What did we do before we had a pontoon boat?  I guess we were young and into things like tubing.  But now we just want to lounge around all weekend.  And this past weekend that's pretty much what we did.

Bare Bum Bay has become a cottage tradition.  A small bay off the end of our lake, it has a narrow entrance and a no wake rule.  I think it got it's name because it's secluded and you can skinny dip there.  We're all family, so that would be weird, but we still call it Bare Bum Bay.  We drive the pontoon boat over there, anchor it and just sit.  For hours.  On Saturday for example we went out in the morning, went back for lunch for about an hour and then headed back out until dinner time.  Some people drink out there.  This girl isn't much of a drinker, so I sipped on lemonade and read my book.

 Oliver is quite the boating dog these days.  However, he's not a fan when we all go out onto the party dock and he's left alone on the boat.

 The other highlight of this past weekend was watching my three year old cousin water ski.  Have you ever seen such a thing?  I haven't!  

And next weekend?  We're going to do it all over again.