A few snaps of the holiday season.

My parents came up for the annual family Christmas bash a couple of weeks before Christmas. It's probably the first time Jamie really knew who Grandma (Geee-ma) and Grandpa (Cow-pie) were. He's started asking to talk to them on the phone and was really excited about seeing them.

There was lots of snuggling and book reading time on the couch:



We also braved the cold and took Jamie for a family trip to the playground.

Swinging high!


Grandpa pushing:


That night we drove up to Baltimore to check out the famous lights of 34th street.



You may remember we were there before just before Jamie was born.

Christmas day came and we had lots of loot!



Jamie had a great time opening all the presents. He especially enjoyed his KitKat bar stocking stuffer!



This is a rare picture where all the cats are in arms reach of Jamie. Doesn't happen often and Christine captured the moment.

Preliminary Christmas Photos.

We went for a carriage ride and then visited Santa. Jamie was very impressed with the carriage. Not so impressed with Santa.

"Down the street we go on a one horse open carriage"



Santa didn't smell like pee so we let Jamie sit in his lap.



Pretty lights. Next year you'll be bigger than the Angels.

Emo boy wishes the grass would just cut itself already.

(actually not lipstick, but blue magic marker)

Turkey and Riding in Richmond

So we loaded up the truck and joined the national turkey day migration. Our flock headed to Richmond to intermingle with the Noodle flock. We got there just in time to eat. It was a good old fashioned feast with all the fixins and delicious pies of both pumpkin and pecan varieties. The boys had a grand time tearing up the house.



Natalie was out scoping the local thrift stores and found a $20 trike so we went and bought it for Jamie. He loves it.



Let the racing begin:



Natalie was nice enough to watch Jamie while Christine and I took off for a bike ride. Michael and Ian accompanied us on the road for the first 5 miles until we got to the trailhead then we took off into the woods. It's really cool to have a mountain bike trail this close to home. No cars needed. Just ride to the ride and ride!

Just before ducking into the woods:



We rode most of the James River Park System Trail loop. We hit the trail going east on Buttermilk. Christine was in a little over her head skills wise and ended up walking lots of sections on the first half of Buttermilk so it was kind of hard to get a flow going. It wasn't really that the trail was that hard, but it was narrow, and the drop off to the left into the river below made you feel pretty exposed. I made the mistake of looking down once and didn't do it again. Definitely not a place to fall. There were lots of cool features on this section, rock skinnies, a couple of short slick rock sections, the "ramp", lots of tight switch backs, etc.

About half way, the trail kind of mellowed out and we started getting into a groove and we made it down to Belle Isle pretty quick. The highlight of the ride for me was riding around on the big flat rocks out in the river itself just before crossing to Belle Isle. There are these huge flat rocks the size of foot ball fields you can just ride around on. Real neat!

We rode around the island on the crushed gravel path dodging dozens of people with unleashed dogs and darting children, then crossed the really cool suspension bridge over the James. Then we hit the Northside trail. I really liked this section. It's basically carved into the side of the hill and has lots of bridges, some of them really high up, with no railings. Nice. It also had some cool bermed switchbacks that you could really rail. We ended up pulling off the trail at TX Ave because of time and rode back to the house on the road. We did about 17 miles in just over 2 hours. Maybe 7 or 8 of those miles were dirt.

Overall, I liked the trails, but at the same time I didn't. They were very well built, almost too well. It was very man-made looking. While it was fun to ride it kind of it felt kind of manufactured. I guess that makes sense since they are right in the heart of an urban area and not off in the mountains somewhere.

We headed home before the huge rush and bad weather on Saturday. Jamie says sitting in traffic in Walforf MD sucks. It rained all day Sunday and I was able to get in my full allotment of football.

Some exicting local news!

New Trails 11 miles from our house:

New Trails Coming to Anne Arundel County?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 21, 2008
Contact
Michael Klasmeier

Millersville, MD -- The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Mid-Atlantic Off Road Enthusiasts (MORE) have entered into agreement to survey the current state of trails in the Severn Run Natural Environment Area. The process will involve volunteers cataloguing the current trails and ascertaining their viability as part of a sustainable trail system on the 1800 acre piece of land.

Severn Run NEA encompasses the headwaters of the Severn River in the Millersville area. Currently the piece of land situated in the central part of Anne Arundel county and is underutilized. MORE's partnership with DNR is purposefully limited to feasibility for multi-use trails. If the soil and topography are appropriate for natural surface trails, design and construction could begin in early 2009.

'Many hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers head to Rosaryville State Park 30 miles to the south or Patapsco Valley State Park 25 miles to the north. There are no other large tracts of land in the immediate area for these users,' said Patrick Miller, Maryland Advocacy Director for MORE, an all-volunteer group that does trail maintenance and development in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC. 'Where there are trail users, there are people willing to act as stewards of the land to ensure it maintains its natural beauty.'

MORE is interested in getting hikers and equestrians involved in volunteering for this project. 'It will benefit everyone in the area to have a sustainable, healthy activity that is easily accessible,' said Michael Klasmeier, a member of MORE and local resident. 'I'll have my kids out there every chance I get. This is something great for the citizens of Anne Arundel county.'

Founded in 1992, MORE is a 501c (3) representing thousands of area mountain bikers. MORE maintains over 250 miles of natural surface trails in 25 parks around the region. Members contribute over 3,400 hours of volunteer labor annually, and have opened or constructed over 80 miles of new trail since 1995. The club leads hundreds of rides each year at local parks. MORE is committed to environmentally sound and socially responsible mountain biking, facilitating recreational trail cycling, educating about the sport of mountain biking, maintaining local trails, and advocating for increased multi-user trail access.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the state agency responsible for providing natural and living resource-related services to citizens and visitors. DNR manages more than 449,000 acres of public lands and 17,000 miles of waterways, along with Maryland's forests, fisheries and wildlife for maximum environmental, economic and quality of life benefits. A national leader in land conservation, DNR-managed parks and natural, historic and cultural resources attract 12 million visitors annually. DNR is the lead agency in Maryland's effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay, the state's number one environmental priority. Learn more at www.dnr.maryland.gov.

MORE INFO, STATUS UPDATES, ETC.


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Jobs...

So far this year, I have sent out over 100 applications to schools across the US (and even a few in Canada!) To kill the time and take my mind of the waiting game, I plotted each school on a map. It looks pretty impressive. Wish me luck.


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Best friends

We recently stopped giving Jamie bottles. He's a big boy now and he can drink from a sippy cup. Actually truth be told, he figured out how to take the top of the bottles off and pours the milk out on the floor so we said enough is enough.

Here's Jamie sharing one of his last bottles with his best friend Rico.

Another Camping Trip

Last weekend we went to Blue Knob State Park in western PA. It was pretty darn cold and probably the last camping trip for the season. We drove up early Friday and almost immediately built a fire. The site we stayed at had an electrical outlet. We were fairly clever and brought a space heater to keep the tent warm. Yeah, that's cheating I know, but hey the tent stayed a cozy 45 or 50 degrees inside instead of 20...



Most of the weekend was spent trying to keep mittens on Jamie with little success.



Saturday we got a late start and went for a really short hike. Jamie wasn't much into hiking in the backpack so he got out and walked. That means we didn't cover much ground. After our short morning hike, we headed back to the campground and cooked up a quick lunch and when Jamie went down for his nap, I took off and met some friends for a bike ride. The mountain has 1500 ft of vertical elevation change so we drove to the top and rode down and had someone meet us at the bottom to pick us back up. The trails were great, really fast, and not to rough. Nice relaxing riding (at high speeds). After a few trips down the mountain, I headed back to camp to give Christine a turn.

We got out the map and plotted a route that we both thought she could handle, maybe 5 or 6 miles of mostly flat trail with one good gradual climb to the top of the mountain and about 2-3 miles of road for the return trip. She left the campsite around 4:30 with an estimated return time of 6pm. Jamie and I hung out and played on the campsite playground and gathered more firewood, built a fire, had a snack, played with blocks in the tent and generally tried to stay warmish.

6 rolled around and still no Christine. 6:15, 6:30 still no Christine. Keep in mind that the sun went down around 6:15 but doesn't get real dark until 7:00 so I'm starting to panic a bit. We jumped in the car and drove to the top of the mountain to see if she was anywhere to be found. Nope. Now of course lots of things could happen while riding a mountain bike, a flat or other mechanical malfunction, a wreck, an encounter with a hungry bear, God knows... So after I didn't find her, I went back to the campsite and alerted the camp manager that we might have a missing camper. Since it was so close to dark, he went racing off looking for a ranger. This was right at real dark. Meanwhile Jamie and I had to stay put (and keep the campfire burning.) Right around 7:15 Christine rolled up looking real tired and cold. Turns out she was never lost, exactly, but she did take a wrong turn on the top of the mountain that took her about 3 miles out of her way (then 3 miles back up the mountain). To top if off her water bottle had fallen off who knows where so the entire ride was waterless. So we called off the search party and had dinner and a glass of wine (or two) and called it a night. Whew!

Our lovely campsite:

The latest from Christine

I will play a G and you will like it.

G...................

Vacation! Deep Creek Lake

Yea! We finally got to take a vacation. Better late than never as they say and for the most part that held true in this case. We loaded up the truck and headed to Deep Creek Lake State Park where we had rented a yurt for the week. The yurt was tucked away at the back of the campground, away from all the other campsites, nice and private. (Turns out this didn't really matter, because it rained and 70% of the camper reservations canceled).

The Yurt:



The yurt is set up with a full-size bed, a pair of bunk beds, and a nice large table and chairs. There is electricity, but no running water or cooking space. All the cooking takes place outside on the fire or the camp-stove. So it's like camping but with the comfort of a bed.

Christine enjoying our bed:



We managed to get there early enough in the day to take a nice little hike around the lake front and headed back to camp to whip up my famous chicken potpies in the dutch oven.

Old photo of my famous chicken potpie:



The next day we took hike around the perimeter of the park. It was kind of a mellow hike, one good climb and lots of fireroad. It's maybe 5 miles long. After naptime we loaded up the boy in the bike trailer and headed down to the beach. Originally we had planned on coming in July when it would be warm, but this didn't work out. We had to settle for September. When we arrived at the beach it was maybe 70° outside.

That did not deter the boy from playing in the water though...



Or the sand:



Or the water:



Later we went out for ice cream:



We grilled a steak for dinner and had hobo vegetables on the side with s'mores for desert.

That night around 5 am it started raining and didn't stop for 2 days. The first day we tried to go outside for a hike at the Cranesville Sub-artic Swamp. It cleared up so we made a go of it. Of course it started pouring as we reached the furthest point on the trail from the car. Needless to say we got kind of wet. Jamie was a good sport of it and didn't complain a bit.

Back at the yurt, things were different:



He complained quite a bit about being cooped up inside. The next day was a little better, even though it still rained off and on, it warmed up and being wet didn't seem so bad. We got up first thing and went and rented a kayak for Christine. She paddled from the rental place back to the park (2 or 3 miles) exploring all the little coves along the way.

Leaving from the rental place:



Bye Bye:



After she got back, I took off for a bike ride. Things were a little on the sloppy side but the trails were mostly gravel and rock so it wasn't as muddy as it could have been. I think I managed about 10 miles. When I got back, Christine went for another paddle. Then we went out for Pizza. Jamie now knows what pizza is so when we said we were going to get it he got really excited and then really mad because he doesn't understand that "going to get it" means that you have to wait a little while before you can have it. Toddlers only know the meaning of NOW!

Speaking of toddler stuff, there was a little short trail right behind the yurt and all that boy wanted to do was hike. He would go and find our hiking pole and announce "I'm hiking" then take off. It was cute but got to be a little tiring chasing after him every 5 minutes. He doesn't come back or answer when you call. It's kind of unnerving.

Hiking with Dad:



Admiring a daisy:



Well that's pretty much it. We packed up the next day and hung out at the beach until lunch, when we fired up the camp stove and reheated the leftover p-i-z-z-a (don't you dare say pizza with in earshot of the boy unless you have a slice to give him, I'm warning you!).

All-in-all, it was good to get away. Deep Creek Lake is a nice place, it's kind of touristy and has that touristy feel and all the touristy type stuff to do. However, if you stay in the park, you can get away from the people if you want or if you choose to get ice-cream, or if you forget all your groceries on the kitchen counter (which we did) you can run out and get it.

Update time.

I haven't stopped taking pictures. Seriously. But it has been one busy summer... So here's a few semi-recent to recent photos of the boy and life in general for your viewing pleasure.

1. Yet another of Mom's great projects. I was cussing my Mom when she sent this thing to us. It's huge, and came with exactly 1 million and 1 pieces, but once it was up we really started to enjoy it. May I present the Gazebo:



2. The baby bacchanal rights of summer. (Disclaimer: no grapes were smashed during the filming of this project)



3. Shovel's a little big for that sandbox don't ya think boy?



4. I'm pretty



5. I'm not pretty



6. This wagon is too small

Sandy Point State Park

Well with the real beach being 2.5 hrs away, gas being so dang expensive, and with Jamie hating riding in cars, we decided to try the next best thing, Sandy Point State Park. It's in the shadow of the Bay Bridge and practically in our back yard so why not? Turns out it was a great place for a first trip to the beach. The waves at a whopping 12" high were pretty much perfect for a little guy! He loved it.

First he tested the waters:


Then, completely fearless, he marched right in! The waves were just big enough to knock him over but he didn't mind in the least. He'd just crawl out and then go right back in again.

Splash!


Momma got in on the act too! I think that wave may have taken her by surprise.


They even took a stroll down the beach together. (all together now, say Awwwwww!)


I took him out a little deeper and tried to get him to kick his legs a bit (and to wash the sand out of his pants). There's the bridge in the background.

The boy keeps growing up.

This recent picture shows just how much Jamie is starting to change from being a baby to being a boy...



He sure do got purty eyes.

Camping and Trains

Well, I have 15 minutes of free time. 15 minutes of time I haven't had in months and might not have again for a couple of months, so what better way to spend it than to update the old bloggeroo. ;)

Last time I had the camera out was the last weekend of May. Christine, Jamie and myself loaded up the camping gear and headed out to New Germany State Park in western MD. The idea was to meet Natalie, Michael, and Ian, who were coming up to take an excursion on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. They stayed in a nearby hotel while we roughed it.

We got to camp, set everything up and took off on the bikes to ride some of the cross-country ski trails. They were pretty flat, wide, and mellow, if not a little muddy, perfect for trailering Jamie.

After our ride, we headed back to the campsite and started cooking. We had invited everyone to the campsite to eat and I cooked up a lemon ginger trout and curried vegetable feast over the fire followed by marshmallows, of course. The boys had a great time. Their big game is to have a screaming contest. I'm not sure who won. but it was very exciting for all. Jamie also learned how to climb in and out of the camp chairs and onto the top of the picnic table, a feat he has oft repeated on the kitchen table now at home. Hmmmmm. Can't take your eye off that one for a minute!



The next morning, the park rangers stopped by the campsite bright and early to report that Pittsburgh had issued severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings for our area. Just about then, the wind started picking up and the sky went black. We quickly finished up our breakfast and secured everything that wasn't nailed down before it commenced to storming (which didn't take long). We thought we might drown if we stayed in the tent so we jumped in the truck and drove to Cumberland to meet Natalie and Michael and check out the trains.

Obligatory "son standing in front of a caboose while standing on a baggage cart" picture:



Here comes the engine!


Another view:


We hung out in Cumberland, found some lunch, and tried to wait out the rain as best we could then headed back to camp. We were trying to decide whether or not to just pack it up and leave or stick it out. We decided to put Jamie down for his nap (and use the opportunity to take a little nap ourselves) and make the call after he woke up.

By the time we all woke up it was bright and sunny. It was really just a clever ruse to get us to stay. We went for a hike and then put dinner on. By the time dinner was done, it started raining again so we had to eat in the tent. Jamie proceeded to throw his dinner all over the place. Thank god no bears came by to visit. Then it stopped raining again. So we got out of the tent and played in mud puddles.

Boy did we play in mud puddles!


I've heard of cookies and milk, but cookies and mud???? Yuck.


Then to get rid of the mud we went and played in the trout pond, which I think was about 33°F. I thought I saw penguins. It hurt my toes to wade in it. Of course that didn't stop Jamie from diving in head first.

Splash:


Then we went back to camp and made s'mores. Then it rained again so we went to bed. The next morning, it was bright and sunny again so we went for another hike. This time we hopped in the truck and drove to Big Savage Mountain. Turns out this trail was somewhat unmaintained. It wasn't particularly rugged or anything, just overgrown. The kind of trail that when you walk you can't see where you are putting your feet. Did I mention that it had rained for 2 days straight and that the sun was now out in full force. Perfect weather for reptiles, of which we saw plenty. We lost count of all the garter snakes we saw and we knew that if we were seeing that many garter snakes, how many rattlesnakes and copperheads were we not seeing? If you've never seen a rattlesnake or copperhead in the wild, there is a good reason why, they are perfectly camouflaged. You just don't see them unless they are moving. We were getting pretty stressed out over it as you can well imagine. Some where along the trail we flushed a bear who was sitting about 10 feet of the side of the trail in a blackberry bramble. Fortunately it took off and we never really got a good look at it. Finally we made it to a fire road that led to a firetower and overlook. Just as Christine was stepping out onto the road I looked down and saw a copperhead slithering off the trail right in front of me. She had just stepped right over it and never saw it. Yowzers!@%*&#$*(&@(~~~!!! We hiked the fire road to the tower, and enjoyed the view and then followed it back out to the main road, avoiding the trail for the return trip.

We made it back to camp, cooked up lunch, then yes, once again it rained while we broke down camp and got ready to head home.

That was our trip in a nutshell. Hope y'all enjoyed hearin' the telling of it.