2. A Trip to Pennsylvania! We had a lovely time getting to see Eric & Linda & Co. in their home in Pennsylvania! While there we enjoyed lightning bugs, thunderstorms, homemade ice cream, swordfights, bedtime stories, late-night chats, chocolate milk, and some good ol' fashioned creek swimmin'! We hope to return again soon for some more of the same!
3. A REAL Camping Trip (with the WHOLE family)! Yes we did it, and we even survived to tell about it! The girls were dying to go on a real camping trip and sleep (or at least try to sleep) in a tent. Truth be told, most of our family camping trips have been in Grammy & Papa's meadow using their firepit for our s'mores and our very close bathroom and beds as a back-up. It was definitely time to break out of the comfort zone. So we got Nathan & Jenny & Co. and Grammy & Papa to come along and we decided to go to Mt. Rainier National Park the weekend before public school started (we weren't aware since we homeschool). We had a lovely time (once we finally found a campsite). I felt like we did amazingly well considering we got to our campsite much later than planned and had no bathrooms or running water (yes, we were really roughing it)! We even managed to catch a few snatches of sleep; and, with all seven of us in the same tent, that is a pretty incredible feat! 
The next day we had a lot of fun picnicking at the base of Mt. Rainier and then hiking in the Grove of the Patriarchs. It was a very easy hike and the children really enjoyed learning all about the enormous, ancient trees from a friendly park ranger. All in all it was a great trip with lots of fun memories. Who knows, we might even try it again!
