Saturday Outing: Raven Rock

Our Saturday mornings are filled with gymnastics and ballet now, but we were feeling the need for an adventure a few weeks ago so we headed to Raven Rock State Park for an afternoon hike. It's located less than an hour away and was a great spot for a winter hike. The rock formations were really cool and many had icicles hanging from them. The kids loved climbing all over and exploring. They were distracted enough that they didn't even complain during the 3 1/2 mile hike. There weren't many other people out on the trail which was also nice.

annual indoor winter campout

The kids had a day off of school last week so we decided to do our annual indoor winter campout. We started this a few years ago as a way to make January less depressing. Ben took the day off and he and I took turns doing a run at Lake Johnson to enjoy the beautiful weather that day. Then we all headed to Lake Benson and went on a short hike. We came home and had a fire in the backyard (and Ben burned our Christmas tree) and we had tinfoil dinners and s'mores. We set up the tent in the playroom and the kids slept in there (Ben slept in the playroom with them, but opted for the guest bed and Simon and I opted for our own beds). We had a pancake breakfast in the morning. I love this simple tradition and the kids always look forward to it.

Putting on a performance at Lake Benson.

Skipped the marshmallows and went straight for the chocolate.

New Year's Day Hike

We had a yummy breakfast casserole (made with Great Harvest bread) to start off our New Year and then headed out for our annual New Year's Day hike. We decided to try a hike at Eno River State Park. When we showed up, we found out they were having a huge hiking event that day and there were hundreds of people at the park. The last thing you want when hiking is hundreds of other people on the trail. Luckily they directed us to another park entrance where the crowds were far less and we were able to explore and hike in peace. It was fun to have Grandma join us. The kids were good hikers and had fun climbing around the rocks at the river. We'll have to return in the summer when we can get into the water. Oliver didn't bring a coat so he wore Amelia's coat the whole time.

new year's hike

We have a tradition of doing a hike every New Year's Day. The weather was looking iffy so we decided to hike on New Year's Eve. Winter hiking is great because we usually have the trail to ourselves. We went to Turkey Run off the George Washington Parkway where we've hiked a few times before. There is a perfect size hike for kids. Although Elsa was having so much fun that she declared it to be too short when we neared the end. You have to navigate rocks to cross a stream a few times which the girls loved. Amelia is our little adventurer and loved climbing on the rocks and running ahead to check things out.

 The rest of our evening was pretty low key. We played some games, ate lots of food, and watched a movie. Amelia stayed up until midnight for the first time and was pretty proud of herself.