Camptown Races

We started off our end-of-summer vacation week camping in Saratoga.

Run, horsie, run! Sadly, the pink horse was not the winner in most races.

Posing with Seabiscuit, whom we vaguely recall from the movie we watched before this same trip last year.

Riding the restored carousel in Congress Park.

Our new tent, with Daddy in it "sawin' wood" while the kids and I make bannocks on the fire. At midnight.

We mixed our bannock dough at home, and just had to add the wet ingredients. Too lazy to find sticks to wrap the dough around, we cooked them in the skillet. Slathered with butter and jam, who could tell the difference?

The slathering station at approximately 11:30 pm. Notice the jar with leaves in it -- that houses our monarch butterfly larva. Have larva will travel.

Staying up late, eating bannocks by the fire.

The beginnings of black bean chili, the end of which I forgot to photograph.

The next night was veggie soup, forgot pics of the process, but here's a shot of the tasty final product. All chopped with Dante's swiss army knife. Next time we pack real knives.

Pippi sits atop one of the random woodland creatures at the campgrounds.

At the lake, Dante caught this little catfish. He also managed to fall face first off the dock and smash his mouth on the paddleboat below. Which hastened the exit of his loose tooth.

Now he's got a hole on his bottom left to match the one on the right. Luckily the tooth fairy has an updated location map when you're travelling...

Lucia, sporting her new yellow floating vest, but not realizing she doesn't need her butterfly tube any longer.

The not-quite-finished mini golf course at the campgrounds, with cool waterways throughout and some funky housing.

All done, and ready for phase 2 of vaca: Nonni and Nonno's at Lake George.