Hocking Hills Camping Trip

Several months ago, our college friends, the Pullmanns, suggested doing a camping to get together with all their Ohio friends. We settled on Hocking Hills State Park, which was really convenient for us as it's only 60 miles away. The Petries, Kevin and his girlfriend, Morgan, and Lydia were all able to join as well. There were five children under three years old on the trip, which made it a little more chaotic than I am used to. 

Sam and I drove down on Friday evening after work. Saturday was a beautiful summer day. We hiked around Rose Lake at the campground and then walked around Ash Cave.

Inga in her little perch

Morgan, Kevin, Nathan, Joy, Lydia, William, Inga, and Sam (L to R)
Stephen and Laila were in the car napping. Little Esther is napping on Nathan's back and Ransom was running around somewhere.

Ash Cave

The girls minus Laila (and William snuck in there)

The kids loved playing in the wa-wa.

Kevin needed a shower :)

I was tempted to stand under the fall, but thought it would be a bit cold.

Beautiful Ash Cave

Unfortunately, Sunday morning we woke up to rain. Inga didn't really get enough sleep on the trip and was super cranky when she woke up at 7am. We just decided to pack up and head home. I would have liked to see more of the park, but I figure we are so close we'll just go down for a day trip later.

Also, unfortunate, I have to say the campground was very noisy and not tent friendly. The fire ring at our campsite was several inches off the ground and would have been dangerous if we had used it. The Saturday movie night was very near our site. The movie was very loud and played late into the night. It made it difficult for Inga to get to sleep. The upside was the pool and swing set. The kids really loved going to the pool Saturday after hiking.

Memorial Day Weekend in Baltimore

For Memorial Day weekend, we went to Maryland to visit my cousin and her family. I hadn't seen my cousin since my wedding and during that time she'd gotten married and had a baby! Sheesh, it was about time we visited. 

We arrived Saturday afternoon and relaxed a bit from all the driving. We decided to grab dinner at the nearby Dogfish Head pub. We all chowed down on some tasty fish and then decided to work of dinner at a park. The park had a castle themed playground. Inga went down every slide. She climbed everywhere and wanted to do everything. Good thing Mommy still fits in all the usual playground apparatus.

Driving the choo-choo.

 The next day we headed to the Baltimore Inner Harbor for some sightseeing. We toured the USS Constellation. Inga had a blast running around all the decks. Plus, she was able to pretty much play with whatever she wanted. It was much fun.

Ringing the ship's bell.

Fox and Ornery manned the cannons!

It was a little touch and go pulling up to the dock.

The whole family

 After a snack-time break, we took the water taxi over to Ft. McHenry and walked around the grounds. Inga was super cranky at this point and really needed a nap, but refused to nap in the stroller. She really loved all the boat rides, though. She talked about boats for about a week afterwards and really wanted to go on more boat rides. Sorry, sweetie, you live in the wrong part of the country.

The Twinting family and two cranky Wileys.

We ended our Baltimore adventure with dinner on the water with my uncle. The kiddos were actually really well behaved in the restaurant. I mean, Inga stood next to my chair for the second half of dinner getting in the way of all the waiter, but she wasn't screaming.

We walked around the neighborhood Monday morning and then all took afternoon naps. We headed back home and, just my luck, hit a deer outside Wheeling, WV. My car does not play well with that stretch of I-70 (she had an unfortunate encounter with a truck tire 4 years ago outside Washington, PA). Fortunately, no one was hurt and my car just sustained body damage so we continued our drive home. Other than the stupid deer, it was a great weekend.