Tiger Cub Acheivement 5G - Go on a Hike

After lunch I talked Alex and and Aaron into going on a hike around a nearby lagoon here at Bay City State Park. We started at a nature center that had some neat exhibits about the surrounding wildlife, including this bear.
The staff member at the nature center recommended we pick up the lagoon trail near a fishing pier and walked all the way around.
We found a few side trails that led to great views of the lagoon.
Alex has started taking more pictures, and he took this picture of a bird sitting on an old sluice gate. We kept hearing frogs, but couldn't find them amongst the lily pads and cattails. There were a couple of benches for us to stop, drink, and regain our wind. It took about an hour in all and the kids did great. Alex needed to go on an outdoor hike as part of his Tiger Cub Badge Requirements, so I'm glad we had this chance.

Playscape on the Bay

Instead of going back to the beach, this state park had a huge playground with plenty to climb, swing, and slide on.
Alex and Aaron pretended to be Mario from their favorite video game and bounced all over the place for an hour.
Alex found a wasp nest and got a great shot, and then got out of there.

AARON in Camp Letters

Notice that Alex took 2 different pictures of the fire for the 2 A's in Aaron's name. He did ones for MOMMY and DADDY too that were quite clever.

ALEX in Camp Letters

Alex took these as part of his Flash Bee Club assignments. He looked for items around camp shaped like the letters in his name.

Camping on the Bay

The evening at the campsite was much better than the day at the mucky beach. The weather was great and we mostly liked our campsite. We did have to be careful because the campsite was surrounded by poison ivy and about the farthest possible point from the bathroom. No wonder it was the only spot left in the campground. We actually only got the spot by reserving it for Saturday and Sunday night. We left after one night which effectively doubled the cost of the site, but since we've only camped once this year, it didn't matter that much. We roasted hot dogs and made s'mores for dinner.
After tucking the boys in, Becky and I sat by the fire for awhile until we burned up our wood. We heard a noise right behind us in the direction of the picnic table. We spun our flashlight around quickly and and caught a fat raccoon running off into the woods with a bag of our snacks. I chased him, hoping not to stumble in a patch of the poison ivy, and caught his trail. I found the bag he dropped and found he had grabbed a package of baby wipes too. I retrieved them from a disappointed raccoon and we discarded anything near the hole he made - something about raccoon spit I believe. Nothing like a little adventure to round off our camping trip. The groceries spent the night in the van.

Saginaw Bay

After last summer's side trip to the Jersey Shore, we wanted to get back to a beach this summer as well. We thought we'd combine it with a camping trip, so we looked for an open campsite in a state park near a beach. We found what we wanted at Bay City State Recreation Area in Michigan, or so we thought. As we pulled into the parking lot, the attendant told us that we should be careful of the muck on the shore. The what? Apparently Saginaw Bay has been plagued by a mysterious ooze that creeps onto the shore and harbors E. coli. They built a pier to let us climb out over the muck and into the Bay. The Bay at this beach was shallow so we could get quite a ways away from the shore, but we didn't really feel comfortable.
We spent a lot of time on the beach, hunting shells and playing in the sand. It was nice - except for the smell of the muck.
Alex wanted to take a picture of us. It occurs to me now that we have many pictures of the kids or shots of one of us with one or more of the kids, but very few of the two of us. Now that Alex is learning, we'll give him the camera more often to try to even the score.

Fossil Park

We decided that we needed to spend the afternoon after sleeping on the Mudhens outfield in a shale quarry looking for fossils. We've never been in the 10 years we've lived here, until today.
Actually, Alex went as a part of a day camp field trip, so he was familiar with the routine. Every few weeks, they dump a load of shale here that dates back to the Devonian Era.
We spent a couple of hours sorting through the shale piles looking for fossils. I found that breaking open large rocks sometimes yielded promising results. Alex and Becky sorted through piles of rocks on a table. Aaron looked cute near other fossil hunters and they gave him some. Hey, it worked.
We mostly ended up with brachiopods - prehistoric clams basically. I found half a trilobite - fairly rare - but it got lost in the pile we brought home and I haven't seen it since. Oh well, another reason to go back.
brachiopods, trilobite,

Camping on the Ball Field

Today was Cub Scout Day at the Toledo Mudhens stadium. Alex has been looking forward to this ever since he first learned about Scouts and the activities they do.
Soon after we arrived at the ballpark, Alex and I got to go on the field to participate in a Scout parade around the front of the stadium. Behind home plate, Alex took a pretend swing and hit a pretend homer.
Unfortunately it rained for much of the game. It was warm enough that we threw on our jackets and toughed it out (the red jacketed figured to the left of Alex is Aaron, and the blue jacket to the left of him is completely covering Becky). The Mudhens lost, which put an even bigger damper on the wet evening. The rain let up and we got to watch another great Mudhens fireworks display.
Then we all went to the vans where we said good night to Aaron and Becky and hauled our tent and camping gear into the stadium. We could hammer stakes into the outfield, so I had worked out a system of weighing down the tent from the inside with 2 liter bottles filled with water that worked surprisingly well, especially when supplemented by our change of clothes, sleeping bags, etc. The biggest danger to the integrity of the tent didn't turn out to be the lack of stakes, but rather the enormous game of tag that was going on around us. As it turns out, this spontaneously erected village of tents made a unique maze that proved tempting for at least half of the kids there that night to run through. We sat in camp chairs and drank hot chocolate while they played the Cars movie on the big stadium screens. The night was noisy and bright because we were still in middle of downtown, but the movie was over after midnight and we were tired enough that sleeping really wasn't a problem.
The next morning we had breakfast in the Roost above the field after packing up our gear. We were well fed, slightly damp, and happy that we could spend the night camping on the baseball field.

Aaron's 1st Dental Checkup

Aaron has been able to watch his brother and mother get their dental checkups, so he knew the routine. Today it was showtime. He did amazingly well. When they remodeled their office, they put TVs in all the rooms. His was tuned to cartoons, which meant he was tuned out.
He did try to help her polish his teeth at one point (note his little hand above her tool hand). The sunglasses are to keep the light of "Mr. Sunshine" out of his eyes.
By the time Dr. Turner came in he was ready for his inspection. No cavities!

Flash Bee Club

Alex's Flash Bee Photo Club met today. They challenged him to take candid pictures, such as these girls swinging...
...posed pictures like this closeup of Aaron...
...and studies in light and shadow, such as this lily pond. He's really enjoying taking his own pictures, so we're lending him the camera more and more to see what he can capture.

Sliding Home

Alex had a another fun baseball game today. He smashed this one and got on base. Then after a few more hits from his teammates, he was able to run home.
Now, no one was rocketing the ball home to try to tag him out, but to get the big league experience, he decided to slide home. No injuries this time, and he was very pleased with his sliding skills.

Light and Shadow

As part of Alex's Flash Bee Photo Club, his teacher asked him to take pictures of interesting shadows. It was a very sunny day, so Alex and Aaron started by making shadow pictures with construction paper. They placed a piece on a cookie sheet, covered it in small items, and set it out in the sun. A few hours later, the sun had faded all of the exposed areas leaving a reverse image of their collage.
The sunny day also made for great shadow pictures for Alex to gather. This is the back of a plastic deck chair.
His new bike.
And a water bottle. He thought this was neat because it made a shadow, even though it was essentially clear.

Sparklers - Happy 4th!

We don't usually break out the big personal fireworks, but we can't avoid firing off a few sparklers. We brought out a candle and lit that, then used that flame to light the sparklers. These were cheap, but small. Maybe next year we'll find some larger ones.

Happy 4th of July!

Shish Tawook

I made this from a recipe that was published in the local paper, but originally came from The Arab Table, by May Bsisu (William Morrow). Becky loved it - not a surprise - but Alex loved it also. I've modified it only slightly with more convenient pre-prepared garlic and lemon juice.

Combine 5 tsp jarred minced garlic, 1/2 c. bottled lemon juice, 1/3 c. olive oil, 2 Tbsp plain yogurt, 1/2 tsp ground cardamom, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. white pepper in a large bowl and thoroughly mix with a fork or whisk. Cut 2-3 lbs of bone/skin-less chicken breasts into 1 inch chunks and place them in a gallon Ziploc bag. Pour the mixture in on top and seal tightly, forcing out the excess air. Put that bag in another bag and park it in the fridge for 2-8 hours.

Soak a bundle of wooden skewers or find your metal ones.

Meanwhile blend 10 tsp of the minced garlic, 1/2 tsp. of salt, and 2 tsp of the plain yogurt in a blender or small food processor. With it running, trickle 1/3 c. of the olive oil into the mix until incorporated, then do the same with 1 tsp. of the lemon juice until a paste is formed. Stick it in a plastic, lidded container in the fridge until you're ready to cook.

With a grill hot and ready, skewer the chicken and then grill it over medium high heat for about 6-8 minutes until cooked through. Before taking it off of the grill, brush it with the garlic paste and serve over rice. I made six cups of saffron rice using chicken stock and 1/4 tsp saffron - pictured above.

Fireworks at the Fort

Each year we go on a quest to look for the best place to see fireworks this time of year. There is a great display downtown, but the traffic and scope of the crowd has left us looking for other, smaller venues. This year's discovery was the display on Independence Day Eve at Fort Meigs in Perrysburg, just down the road from my office. We were so excited that we turn the camera over to Aaron for his first group photo credit.
This large monument is found in the middle of the restored Fort Meigs itself. This replica is of a fort used in the War of 1812 against the British and Native Americans.
The interior is filled with numerous long low hills, called traverses, that helped shield the Americans from incoming British shells. The kids loved running up and down these.

We laid out some blankets inside the fort and watched a great display set up on the bridge between Perrysburg and Maumee over the Maumee River. Becky and I have seen fireworks framed by the St. Louis Arch, but these were the most patriotic, if that's the right word, watching them from inside an American fort replica. The trafic leaving was worse than we'd thought it would be, but next year we'll be ready for it. (We'll still get stuck in it, but next time we'll be ready to get stuck in it.)