Sunday, August 19, 2012

Girl Scout monsters

Last night Aisling and I were able to attend a sleepover at the Vermont Lake Monster's field through the Girl Scouts. The Vermont Lake Monsters is our local minor league baseball team. Find them here, We've been to their games every year, but we've never slept on the field until now!

Before the game the Girl Scouts were all able to go out onto the field for some picture taking and general milling about. After that they annouced that we were there, and they took an official group shot of us. I don't have a copy of that yet, but when I do I will share it.

Aisling doesn't have a troop at this point, so she and I went alone. We took this picture with some other girls from Milton. Aisling doesn't know them well, and they are all older than her, but it was still fun to see girls from the same town.
 

 We did find a mom and daughter with whom we have done several girl scout events. Emily is a year older than Aisling, making her a junior girl scout this year. They only know one another through scouting, but they hit it off just fine when they are together. We've known them for a few years now, and they had fun together.

 After time on the field it was time to watch the game.

 Neither Aisling nor Emily knows much about baseball. They entertained themselves mostly through stealing my camera and taking silly pictures of themselves!

 There were more but I'll spare you. ;)

After the game we set up our tents. That was cool; seeing all the tents out on the field! Aisling also found two of her friends from her Irish dance class. They had a blast together, and they put their tent right next to ours. 

 After that we put on jammies and settled down to watch a movie. That was fun; sitting in the stands watching a movie in our jammies! It got really cold though. In addition, I didn't realize they wouldn't be providing snacks during the movie; and AIsling and I got really hungry. However, she still kept a super attitude and we had a blast! The movie was the Sandlot.  It was a very cute movie and appropriate for a ball field.

After that we walked around for a few minutes, and took advantage of being alone at the stadium. We took some pictures and chatted before we got too cold.




Next it was off to sleep. Aisling was very excited that she had stayed up until Midnight....


Of course it was less exciting at 5:30 in the morning when the huge flock of seagulls flew in to eat up all the food left over in the stands! They were incredibly loud and a little startling. We were able to doze a bit more though.


They had coffee and bagels for us to eat for breakfast. Aisling and Emily also took some time to scour the stands to see what they could find. They ended up with two huge bags of returnable bottles. We sent them home with Emily. They were good scouts though; leaving the place better than they found it!


After breakfast we posed for a few more pictures and headed home. 




 It's always such a treat to hang out with one kid at a time. I love having the opportunity to do such fun things. I had fun with Aisling and I know it's a memory she will treasure as well. We can't wait to do it next year too; but Aisling has already reminded me that next year I need to bring snacks!











Wednesday, August 8, 2012

A wonderful weekend with friends!

This past weekend (August 2-5, 2012) we spent the time camping with our dear friends Shel and Dave and their two daughters. Shel and I went to graduate school together. We don't see one another nearly enough. I believe it's safe to say, however, that we have begun an annual tradition of camping together, particularly at this campground, because it was phenomenal! We had a blast together and our children have become fast friends. The campground is also amazing. It's called Pine acres campground (find it here) and it was clean, beautiful, full of amazing and pleasant staff, and so full of things to see and do that there is no chance of boredom. It's also accessible, which was fantastic as Wyatt was with us. Clearly there will be more (and hopefully longer) visits to Pine acres!





One of the best things about this campground is the water park that they have at the pool area. 
Truly fun times were had there!



















There was also a beach there. We went to the beach Friday night. 
At that time of day, it turns out there are snakes!



Of course we roasted marshmallows and had s'mores!





There were a ton of caterpillars! 
The kids had a wonderful time catching (and naming) all of them!






















This campground also had a sluice box! 
Connor was in his glory and found a ton of large stones.




There was also a dance Saturday night with a live band.

The photos below are out of order but are from my phone.