The Photojournalist's Soapbox!: Shan

After 2 months of weddings every weekend, we finally come to a weekend where we have no weddings to shoot. So the only logical thing to do is....Go Camping!

We left on Wednesday night for East Harbor State Park in Lakeside-Marblehead, OH. It was great to get away for a few days and just get to be a family. As we pulled into camp, it was sprinkling and I was worried that it was going to rain the entire weekend. But setting up the tent in the rain wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

It rained all night Wednesday night and had continued to be rainy on Thursday morning, so we decided to go to Train-o-rama, the largest indoor setup of model trains in Ohio. The boys loved it. They ran around the displays trying to take it all in. Christian would get down to the level of the trains to watch them closely.

When we left train-o-rama, we decided to drive down to Marblehead to see the lighthouse. The Marblehead Lighthouse is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes. We bought tickets for the tour that would allow us to go up to the top, but we had about 15 minutes to kill.

The boys wanted to wander closer to Lake Erie, so we went past the lighthouse to a group of flat rocks. The waves were crashing up onto the rocks and Ian loved letting it roll over his feet.

Christian...not so much! LOL

After a speech about the lighthouse by a volunteer, we climbed the 70+ steps in a spiral up to the catwalk on the lighthouse. Shan was quite nervous since he is afraid of heights and Christian only wanted to run around the top!

Thursday night ended up being a decent night for a campfire, so we hung out around it for awhile. The boys toasted corn dogs and made s'mores. Before too long though, a very large storm cell began to pass over our campsite. There was a lot of thunder and lightning. Ian was nervous...but we reassured him that we were fine. For the rest of the evening, we hung out in the tent. The boys played with a leap pad, tag books and Christian's Thomas the Train Laptop. Shan and I played some 2 man Euchre. (He won!)

Friday's weather looked like it was going to be fantastic, so we packed a lunch and loaded up on the boat. We sailed out of East Harbor and out into Lake Erie. Ian got to "drive" for a bit.

After sailing east along the coastline so that we could see Lakeside from the water, we decided to sail out toward Kelley's Island. The sail was actually quite easy and we made it over there in about an hour. From there, we decided to sail over to Put-in-Bay. Along that stretch of water, both boys went to sleep for a bit. (We had to use a bungee cord to keep Christian from rolling off the seat! Don't worry...I sat there with him the whole time too.)

We decided to run ashore on South Bass Island so that the boys could get out and stretch for a bit. They threw rocks into the lake and Shan was teaching Ian how to skip rocks.

After a brief forray with a tree while trying to get of the island, we were off again and we sailed back to East Harbor. The lake was a bit choppier on the way back, but still a pretty easy sail. I even "drove" for awhile.

That evening, we went over to Lakeside to visit some of my old friends at Lakeside Institute. It was great to be back at Lakeside. It was wonderful to see everyone. We had dinner at Sloopy's and then got some ice cream from the Patio and walked down on the dock.

It rained again through the night and was still a bit rainy on Saturday morning. Luckily, the boys were so worn out from our day on the lake on Friday, that they slept in very late on Saturday. By the time we were ready to go do stuff, the weather was beautiful.

We decided to go to the beach on Saturday. Ian really wanted to fish, so all the men got their fishing poles out and fished just East of the swimming beach. (Don't worry...Christian only has a weight on his pole...no hook! LOL)

Within minutes, Ian had caught a Big Mouth Bass. He was so proud and so excited.

Shan caught one after that and then Ian caught another one!

The boys really enjoyed the beach. It was extremely shallow in the swimming area. Even Christian could walk out about 30 feet before it was up to his waist. Shan helped Ian build a wall in the sand and he and Christian had made a "tower". I took a self portrait since I am rarely in any images on our vacations! LOL

The weather was still nice into the evening, so we picked up some more firewood and had another campfire. Some of the logs needed to be cut, so Ian worked like a true pioneer and sawed some of the wood with the camp saw.

Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast and then prepared to pack up camp and head home. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn off my camera on Saturday night and the battery died. So the only picture we have of the whole family at the campsite is from my camera phone...and it isn't great. But it will have to do.

The vacation was fantastic. I am so glad that were able to get away and recharge for a bit. It was great being away from the computers! And Shan was pretty proud of how I held up with camping in the rain. (This was only the 2nd year in my life that I have camped in a tent!)

This is definitely one family tradition that I will continue for many years!

I really love summer carnivals. I know the food is bad for me and they are overpriced, but they scream SUMMER to me! (And I absolutely love funnel cakes and homemade lemonade...once a year won't kill me!)

We always take the boys to the carnival when it stops here in our little town. This year, Shan ended up having an engagement session on the night that we do the carnival. (We always go when they are doing the fireworks!) So I decided to be brave and take the boys for awhile by myself and then Shan could catch up with us after his session.

It actually went really well. Ian was JUST tall enough to ride the big slide by himself. Which was a good thing because I don't ride the big slide anymore after cracking or bruising my tailbone on it one year! (That thing hurt for over a year!) He really liked it, but you could see that he was a bit scared at how fast it went when he was by himself.

Christian isn't much of a ride lover, but we talked him into trying the Crazy Bus ride. It is pretty contained and just goes up and around in a circle. He got on, we got buckled in...and then he panicked and wanted off. So Ian rode that by himself.

In the meantime, Christian spotted the kiddie roller coaster, Dragon Wagon. To him, it looked like a Dragon train, one of his favorites from Thomas and no matter what I said, he was convinced that he wanted to go on it. As you can see...that didn't turn out so well...but he stayed on the whole ride!

Ian played a little skeeball. He has a wicked side-arm throw that accomplishes very little...but don't bother trying to talk him into doing it right...he will just keep doing it his way! LOL

Then we found something that Christian LOVED....the playground! Both boys played on that for a long time, which was perfectly fine for me.

Christian enjoyed some of the lemonade that is one of my favorite treats. And Ian rode the small ferris wheel.

Now while we ate our snacks, this very interesting cloud formation kept rolling in over the carnival. I really hoped it would hold out and not rain because Shan wasn't back yet and I didn't have a car. Just the boys and the stroller....and our house is about a mile from the park. I grabbed this shot just minutes before the sky opened up. Luckily, Shan was about 3 minutes away at that point, so although we got wet, it could have been much worse!

We went home for a bit, but we were very lucky and the storm passed over quickly so we went back when it was over and were able to watch the fireworks.

Ian also got a chance to ride one of the BIG rides with Shan. Once again, he was JUST tall enough. I think he was scared and loved it at the same time!