Fishing below the dam near our house

Fishing during our family trip to Geneva-on-the-Lake on Lake Erie

The monstrous walleye haul when he went across the Canadian border in Lake Erie with Boppa and Tim:

Mostly, she played what the rest of the world calls football (and this IS a tiny fraction of the pictures I actually took)!

Not exactly rock-skipping conditions, but rock-tossing was good enough for Benton:

Carson and Julie scavenged for interesting stones:

Sand play collaboration occurred in fits and spurts:

And the sunsets weren’t bad, either (that’s Julie in the middle-right of the picture):

Julie and Benton

Alana putts at the (allegedly) oldest putt-putt course in the country:

Not far from the (allegedly) oldest putt-putt course was a nice putt-putt course, which Benton and Tim played (Benton won by 2 strokes):

Nothing brings out Julie’s determination than returning her to her childhood love: Ms. Pac Man:

“I’ve still got it!!!”

If there are guns or gun facsimiles involved, you know Carson won’t be far away… wait… Alana?!!

Bumper boats — Carson wasn’t going to miss THAT!

Our one just-the-family-the-whole-family trip this year was up to Geneva-on-the-Lake on Lake Erie in northern Ohio. Among other things, Alana and Carson both took turns bungee bouncing:

Carson went through three different walking sticks — hamming it up a bit when the camera was pointed in his direction:

I really should pick up a book on the local flora, as I have absolutely no idea what this flower is:

While crossing a bridge on the trail, Carson spotted this little guy hanging out half-submerged.

And, being a 10-year-old in possession of both X and Y chromosomes, he plopped down on his stomach to try to grab the frog for a closer inspection (he failed):

Halfway through the hike, Carson was pooped and cold (lying on his stomach on wet ground while plunging his hands into cold water didn’t help!), but, since it was a metro park, we found a shelter for him to hang out in while I completed the hike and then drove back up to retrieve him. At the observation deck towards the end of that last leg of the hike, I came across this guy bedded down:

Following the hike, we stopped for gas, and the gas station had a Dairy Queen, so Carson scored a Peanut Buster Parfait. Following that, we passed a Michael’s, which prompted a stop for some blue powdered dye as an ingredient for the homemade smoke bomb we made the next day. Needless to say, Carson’s memories of the day might not include anything related to trails, hiking sticks, flora, or fauna.

And this:

The week after Julie and the kids returned from spring break, and thinking it was Julie’s last weekend before heading back to work, a hastily-planned “girls’ weekend” up at Lake Erie was planned. That left a neighborhood full of fathers with their offspring. Conveniently, one of the neighborhood dads (who’s wife did not head to the lake, as she was almost 9 months pregnant) received a shipment of 1,000 tree seedlings on Friday afternoon for some property he has north of town.

Combining the opportunity to help a neighbor out, spend some time outdoors, and have the kids entertained by fresh air and sticks, Pat and I spent Saturday afternoon planting ~3/4 of those seedlings.

Alana, Marty, and Pat haul the seedlings back to where they are to be planted (yes, that box holds a thousand little trees):

Taking a break to give the kids a ride. Jack and Alana on the front…

…and Carson and Andrew on the back.

Because they were outside in the woods for more than 12 minutes, Josh and Benton, predictably, built a fire and a makeshift bench:

All geared up:

Up the ropes to the zip line:

And zipping down:

Then, onto the ropes course: