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The Adirondacks

Camping and fishing was how most vacations were spent with my family as a kid. And for as long as I could remember we spent the majority of them at Lake Eaton in the Adirondacks. Contrary to popular belief, as I’ve unfortunately learned first-hand after moving away from home, the state of New York is not all pavement, people and skyscrapers. I grew up in a VERY rural area among farmlands and dairy cows (and as I type this on the porch of my childhood home a mama cow is mooing in agony across the field as she gives birth. I’m so not even kidding). New York City might as well be on another planet. And about 2 hours north of here lies a publicly protected park…just a tad piece of land…a modest portion of woods, lakes and mountains…about, well let’s see….6 MILLION acres or so. Surprise! That’s our Adirondacks.

The Adirondack Park is the largest park and the largest state-level protected area in the contiguous United States, as well as the largest National Historic Landmark. It covers some 6.1 million acres – a land area roughly the size of Vermont and bigger than the National Parks of Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Great Smoky Mountains combined. Lake Eaton is a small little lake pretty much dead center in the Park.

For the past couple years as mine and my sibling’s families grew, we had been talking about coordinating a trip to ‘ol Lake Eaton with our parents. It had been a good 10 years since I’d been in the park and I was eager to get my boys there – a full-circle kinda desire. So this was the big year we all made it happen. My parents and all of my siblings except for one came with their spouses, kids and significant other, as well as a couple good friends of the family. We all had a great time…the kids especially. Lillian even got to celebrate her 7th birthday there! I think I speak for us all in saying that we really hope to do it again someday.



Paul taking the kids for a spin in the canoe on Lake Eaton



Lily, Silas and Sawyer



Ivan with his grandma



Grandkids going fishing with Papa. If you listen closely you can hear Silas’ squeals, I’m sure.



Katie and boyfriend Richard doing their fishing from shore



Back to camp with no fish. Not even a bite! 🙁



Meanwhile, grandma is still hogging Ivan all to herself



Cute Jeremy taking in all the action



And then the action comes to him. Uh oh. This could end in tears.



Whew.



Dinner time with cousins!



And now it’s time for Jeremy to get re-aquainted with his other Tucson cousin. Papa is pleased. Ivan isn’t quite sure yet.



Birthday party with ALL THE COUSINS! From left to right: Ivan, Silas, Jacob, Carley, Lily, Sawyer and Jeremy.



Birthday girl



Grandma making the birthday cake and cupcakes over the campfire



Success!



Gettin’ wild with dad in the wild







The girls



A couple of the boys



Paul and I taking the kids for yet another spin in the canoe



Sawyer and Ivan wishing they’d climbed aboard



Beautiful Lily and her daddy



Our tent site and Hazel



“Happy Birthday to youuuuuu…”



Make a wish!



Last wish. Lily making certain it’s a good one.





The whole crew.



My own wish come true. I love being here with family in the gorgeous Adirondacks.

posted by arr

This entry (Permalink) was posted on Thursday, June 27th, 2013 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Cute Kids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.

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