summer vacation

We just got back from the best vacation ever at a mountain lake in Maryland (Deep Creek Lake)

I love this picture of our niece Kylie at Muddy Falls. Doesn't she look like a fairy?

One afternoon we went on a canoe ride. So much fun! Although I was so worried about it tipping and all of us falling out that I could hardly relax to enjoy it.

These two sure had a good time. (Isn't that face adorable?)

Alfredo talks ALL THE TIME. Mostly these days he's talking about being a dinosaur super hero and learning Kung Fu so that he can be a Kung Fu warrior. I love this picture of Alfredo talking Rich's ear off.

The whole family went out on a pontoon boat one afternoon and we had a great time tubing. Just look at my daredevil husband.

This is how I spent most of the boat ride. Alfredo started looking super sleepy as we pulled out and, before I knew it, the waves rocked him gently to sleep. I love holding him when he sleeps...it's the closest we come these days to him being a baby.

I have to tell you a story about my brush with the law because it's a story I know you'll "get". When we were at the falls surrounded by towering 300 year old hemlocks and a blanket of moss covering everything I was so inspired to make a terrarium. I confess that I knew it was wrong to take elements from a state park. I just thought I would take a tiny bit of moss and maybe one little fern. For a terrarium, you know? I'm not a rule breaker usually but the temptation to make a sweet little microcosm was overwhelming. And if I'm going to break a law, it would probably be for a craft.

So picture me guiltily crouched over an expanse of beautiful green moss, carefully but quickly extracting about 4 square inches of the miles of moss all around, when a shadow appears over me. You guessed it...a park ranger! "Excuse me, ma'am, but what you are doing there is against the law. I'm going to have to ask you to put that back where you found it and I'm going to have to watch you do it." Snap!

See what happens when I even try to break the law?

(and now I will brace myself for a lecture or two about the importance of leaving nature for everyone to enjoy...but I swear, it was a piece of moss 2 inches by 2 inches!)