First Camping Trip!!

We finally got our act together to get Maddie off to the woods for her first camping trip. She loved every minute! We stayed at a state campground near Wells, NY called Sacandaga. The campground was very empty the night we stayed and they participate in the Junior Naturalist Program. Maddie was so excited to complete her journal and turn it in for a patch. One of the careers on her current short list is to be a Forest Ranger. We saw a lot of frogs, listened to the river going by (I should say the rocky river!), listened to the sounds of the woods (easy to do when you are out on a point of the island and the nearest campers are 3 spots over!), ate dinner over the campfire then finished with smores. Brian made an excellent breakfast on his new camp stove. All in all it was a great time!

West Branch of the Sacandaga River from our campsite

 Maddie having fun on the rocks while still dry!!

Our froggy friend!

 The campsite from the riverbank

 Of course Raggey and Emily came along!!! Raggey kept trying to get into the strawberry jam....

Maddie on the rocks after getting wet! We went through 2 sets of clothes....  

 Mmmm....cereal eating with a spork! While waiting for spam and hot chocolate!

 Quiet time with Daddy in the morning by the river

 Turning in her journal to get the patch! Maddie completed the whole journal in one day.

 The patch has a bullfrog on it! We sewed it onto Maddie's nature bag.

 Our walk home over the bridge!

Here is Maddie's video tour of the camping site

Maddie was very disappointed that we had to leave after only one night! In fact she had some silent tears as we traveled back down to Johnstown where we visited Johnson Hall. We were on our way to see Maddie's owl box at the State Fair but it just didn't make up for the fact that we had to leave the campground and frogs and her buddy, Chippie the chipmunk! However she did enjoy our tour of Johnson Hall. It was just the three of us with a tour guide. The time period is during the Revolutionary War, one of Maddie's favorite history subjects so she engaged in the discussion at hand pretty quickly. The tour guide also became quite engaged with Maddie! She asked some pretty good questions and actually understood the time period to the point that he was surprised and delighted with her knowledge. Once we did that and got a PB&J down her Maddie start to feel better and looked forward to the next adventure of staying at a hotel! A hotel with a pool! She practiced swimming on her own quite a bit and was doing a great job.

In the morning we packed up again and headed off to the State Fairgrounds. Parking for the fair is quite a bit away from the fairgrounds so they have city buses for shuttle buses. Its one of Maddie's favorite parts of going! Emily ended up coming along because the day was sooooo hot that we were afraid to leave her in the van. I'll admit we were nervous about taking her along too but it seemed the lesser of two evils.

We always head for the rides first. We learned the first year that its better to get them out of the way then Maddie can concentrate on the rest!

 Isn't this neat! It was a giant slide. Maddie climbed up then slid down. We had watched a documentary the night before about the lunar landing so she really wanted to try it out.

 Can you see her making her way up the stairs?

 Yay!! The owl box! She got excited for a minute because there appeared to be a blue ribbon on it but that was one of the older girl's projects. Maddie's didn't qualify for that yet.

 Maddie is now a chick holding expert!

This was so much fun! We waited in line to got into a tent that contained 400-500 monarch butterflies. We purchased "feeding sticks" (aka a cotton swab) to dip in nectar and feed the butterflies. However they seemed to like hats, shoulders, hair and ipods just as much!

 Maddie looks so serious in these pictures. I think she was trying to be sure not to hurt the butterflies. This one sat on her stick for quite a long time and then she offered to pass it off to a lady having trouble catching one. The woman just about melted when Maddie offered it to her. To be candid about things many of these butterflies were very busy, ummm..... making other butterflies! I had to explain this to Maddie at one point because she kept trying to coax some "busy" ones onto her feeding stick. Then an elderly lady came up behind us and tried the same thing. Maddie quickly said "Oh, please don't bother them. They are making more butterflies you know." I wished I had my camera at the ready because, to be honest, that woman's face was priceless when the meaning of what Maddie said hit home!

Aren't these horses pretty? The day was so sunny it was hard to get a good shot! They were waiting to enter an arena for a competition.

The butter sculpture....a nod to Greek Yogurt Production in NYS.

At the end of our journey!! Emily on the couch sporting her matching "lost child tag" to Maddie's "lost child tag". Fortunately we all made it home without getting lost!! Tired for sure but a great time was had by all..