Tucahoe State Park

We spent this past weekend camping and exploring

 near Tucahoe State Park in Maryland with Jared's parents - 

Paul and Melodie Stanley.

There were thunderstorms in the forecast for the evening,

but Jared constructed a very comfortable, dry setup. 

S'MORES!

The kids had fun looking for creatures at camp...

These two moths were their favorites

And Caleb caught a frog!  These little guys were everywhere ^_^

By Saturday morning, the rain had cleared, 

so we went to the playground.

It was made of recycled tires -

The kids were so excited!

The playground was right next to the lake-

It was such a lovely day,

 that Jared took the kids out in shifts explore.

They saw tons of turtles, fish, and flowers-

and a beaver house!

They even went under a bridge

After all that excitement, we had a picnic in a pine grove.

It was so pretty ^_^

That evening, there was a hot air balloon festival 

only a few minutes down the road. 

Melodie loves hot air balloons, and it was the reason we'd 

gotten together for the weekend.

But, because the venue was at a winery, and we don't drink

(and the ticket prices reflected the free alcohol being offered)

we decided to just drive in that direction

and find our own vantage point to enjoy the mass balloon lift scheduled.

We saw them inflating when we drove past the vineyard,

and found a perfect spot a few miles down the road

We watched each balloon float up above the trees, and right overhead!

We had a clear view of them as the flew out over the farms & fields.

We got back in the van, and followed them to see if we could watch some land.

Melodie recognized one as a balloon from Bridgeton, NJ,

 where she had lived for many years.

In fact, she knew some of the crew.

**They invited us to follow them**

They finally landed at Willow Hill Farm,

in the kind owner, Florence's, yard.  

She was taking pictures alongside us,

and said she'd only ever had one other balloon land there,

about 25 years before.

Jared, Melodie, and Paul helped with walking the balloon to a safe place,

and the initial deflation.

Timber!

Then they invited all of the kids to join and help them wrap and pack it up.

The sun went down as we drove back to camp, 

and we packed up on Sunday morning.

We all agreed that we were happy we didn't go to the festival,

because we would've missed such a unique and fun opportunity.