Labor day 2011

Friday, September 30, 2011

In following with Labor Day traditions of the past, our family headed up to Allegheny National Forest to spend the weekend with our husband&wife duo:  the Kochs.  We've been spending Labor day with them at their hunting/fishing camp for a few years and now it was time to introduce Booboo to the fun.  

He slept peacefully for the first hour or so of the trip


....And then mysteriously awoke when we pulled into our favorite little town (and past home) of Punxsutawney, PA.  B and I lived there together in the smallest imaginable apartment (truly, I've lived in apartments twice its size in Brooklyn!) for about a year.  It was before pets and babies and even before being husband&wife...so despite the fact that the town is filled with over-sized statues of groundhogs on every corner, it was a time that holds a little sweet spot in our hearts.  Since Booboo was up, we stopped at one of our breakfast spots from days gone by.  



After a yummy Punsxy breakfast, we finally made it to camp after only a few hundred thousand nursery rhymes later.  Brandon and I are both impressed with the amount nursery rhymes I can remember from childhood.  It's seriously impressive; some of our go to favorites include:
Down by the bay
Oh, Mr. Sun
John Jacob Jingle Heimer Smith
and any counting song because they last a long time (like The Ants go Marching and Knick Knack PaddyWhack)

The song I stay away from is Old McDonald because its seriously exhausting to sing all of those animal noises and is uber-annoying to anyone else in the car.  Although, it is one of Grey's favs so it makes its appearance occasionally.

We finally arrived at camp and booboo was scooped up by his Uncle Jonny and taken for a walk in the woods almost immediately.  After awhile, we made use of the scorching sun and headed to the river to float down on inner tubes.  We dont' have any pics documenting this, because I've already had horrible luck with my camera meeting water and we're not going there again.  So, you can imagine our group floating down the river, while Booboo dangles over the side of Dadda's tube and screams joyfully and splashes the water.  He had a total blast and was hooting and chanting "go! go! go!" as we bounced along the teeny rapids.  Uncle Jonny had booboo laughing as he got dunked 100 times by Grey pushing his head underwater, Dadda and booboo tipped over (under water) once (both were fine and laughing), and almost everyone lost their sandals while Ninny grabbed them like a soccer goalie about 40 feet upstream.  

The evening consisted of yummy dinner, lots of cornhole for the boys and a relatively early bed time for mumma and booboo.  It was a relaxing, fun, catching-up kind of Labor Day -- exactly what we all needed.  

On Sunday, we made the trek west to our old house in Erie to pick up a few straggling items and clean up a bit.  Our old house was so empty and it was a little sad to be living it.  It seemed like Grey vaguely remembers it, because he would point to the basement and say "Alllp, Allp" (which is what he thinks is the noise cats make).  Dadda and booboo weeded the flowerbeds while I ran the vaccuum and cleaned the bathrooms.  That was probably one of the last times our whole human family will be in the house and it was a little bittersweet.


sorry - I don't know what that face is about
So then we had a three hour drive back to our current house.  It was painful.  Booboo was not having it - and by it, I mean being strapped in the backseat and not being able to run/jump/climb/fall on anything.  So we resorted to more nursery rhymes, playing with dadda's work keys (that have the bungey cords), and eating granola bars with chocolate in them




It was a very long trip home, but we made it and picked up Bully and all was well again in Booboo land.  Thanks for the fun Labor day (as always!) Kochs and Confers:)  

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