Right after the parade we headed straight for Greenfield Village for the Civil War Remembrance Weekend. It was super busy so we had to park way out back. We met our good friends, the William's and Ruesch's, for some neat reenactments and demonstrations. The whole village was decked in army camp gear. You could even enlist, like is was back then. Looks like the parade followed us to the village! This is Alyssa, Kyla, and Katie watching the march while the rest of us take a potty break.
We met the Williams and went to a neat dramatic play about what it was like for the slaves after the war was won. It was really interesting to see how scared they were of both the North and the South sides and although they were free didn't really have anywhere to go or the means to do so. We all hoped aboard the train for a fun ride and timed it right to see them do a "blow-down" in the woods. They blow out a bottom chamber with steam so they don't get build up. It is pretty impressive when they blow it out four times in a row.
It was so hot that we actually didn't go exploring the village very much that day, but just camped under the trees at Walnut Grove and waited between each demonstration. We splurged and got lunch from the Southern Style Lunch Stand. It was great: sweet potato fries, hush puppies, fried okra, fried catfish, fried chicken, and coleslaw (at least EVERYTHING wasn't fried). This is a picture of the cavalry demonstration. They practiced riding in formation,
cavalry drills, and then a mock battle at the end. Myka was excited to go and pet one of the horses and patiently waited for a long time to take her turn to ask the man herself what the horse's name was. I can't believe how big she is getting. So during one of the waits between demonstrations. I got the hankering for some Greenfield Village custard. Unfortunately, the only place to get it was a good walk away. Daniel, Kyla, Myka, and Addie all offered to go get some.
Daniel was just going to carry Myka and have the girls run but as I raised my eyebrows I suggested he take the stroller. This picture does not do justice to the situation they were just covered in melting ice cream pretty much from head to toe. Daniel told me he was pushing the stroller with Myka holding an ice cream and Addie holding two, melting all over them. Kyla got a
lot of strange looks as she tried to run as fast as she could with an ice cream cone in each hand dripping to her elbows and then on down. Needless to say, the shirts never came all the way clean and the girls were still sticky after a pack of wet wipes. But the custard was yummy! Thanks to Birgitte who remembers to take pictures at these crazy moments.
The girls missed the canon demonstration while they were on their ice cream run, but that is O.K. they can catch it next year. Nora and Alyssa came back from the glass blowing shop just in time to catch the battle demonstration, where the two armies showed different techniques they used back then in fighting (i.e. all lining up and firing all at the same time, firing in succession, sending >
in smaller groups first and coming up with the second brigade later) This is a picture of the Union Army with their sharp shooters going in first and the brigade waiting to come in and help when needed. And the Confederate Army is in the next one. It was kind of neat how they did the whole "play dead" thing. At the end of each demonstration they would say over the intercom "The wounded will please arise and join the ranks".
The girls needed a little convincing that no one was actually getting hurt and it was all just for show. At the very end both armies lined up on the opposite side of the field from us and all fired their guns in unison and then charged the audience with their bayonets, well not really of course they stayed safely behind the ropes. By the time the village closed we were so done. It was very nice to come home, shower, and slather the vinegar on sunburns.
The weekend of May 30 we joined the Ruesch's on a fun camping adventure. It was pretty interesting to actually get all our stuff out and do the whole camping thing. This is Myka peeping out of the tent. She did great and loved following her sister's around everywhere. She was so tired by the time we got around to putting her to bed, she begged to get in the port-a-crib, asked for her pacifier and blanket, and was asleep while the rest of us were tromping around the tent.
We were really close to the lake with this fun dock. The girls loved playing on it, except Myka was pretty scared because it moved and she could see the water through the cracks. They also like playing in the water (a little too much) at the little beach area next to it. During our stay, we heard from some other campers of a couple turtles that had been hanging around and went to check it out.
There was one by the road buried down under some bushes and then this one just up the hill from the road. I am sure you can't tell from the size of the picture but it is a quite large snapping turtle that has dug its nest and is laying its eggs while Nora and Rachel watch.
Daddy was too busy cleaning up to come check out the turtles with us so Myka decided to go show him it a little later. Well for some reason they couldn't find the turtle but Daddy caught her this cute frog and she was very proud of it. 
She loved showing it to all her sisters and friends and then was very nice to let it go on the dock and watch it hop back into the pond. 
On Saturday morning after we got mostly packed up, we decided to check out one of the trails and go for a hike. It was really pretty and green everywhere. The girls were really good hikers but had a little competition issue about who was going to be the leader. We liked this cool vine that hung across the trail. I think we decided it was a Virginia Creeper. This is Nora after letting her hang there too long while we dug the camera out and got it ready:-).
We saw on the map that the trail we were following had an "overlook" only 1/2 a mile away and decided that would be our turning around point. Daniel of course got pretty excited about and "overlook", we haven't been able to look over the land in quite some time now. We didn't even notice the "overlook" as we passed it and kept on walking. We finally decided that we must have passed it and decided to turn around anyways. On the way back we did notice hiking up a small hill and then there was a bench at the top. We concluded that this must be the "overlook" and decided that they need to write (seasonal) under the overlook on the map since with the trees all green you really couldn't see anything. Guess we will have to try it out on cross country skis this winter. (ha, ha yeah right) 
Daniel also noticed that the "overlook" seemed to be right over the campground, so he decided to take the girls on an adventure through the woods instead of taking the trail home. He was right, of course, they were there in less than 3 minutes and had us wonderfully made sanwiches when we got there. 
I also didn't mention that just as we were getting into s'more making it started to sprinkle. We took it pretty seriously, since there were some severe weather warnings for the area, and tried to get everything put away and the kids in the tent quickly. It was coming down steadily by the time we got everyone inside and we got to go to bed listening to the thunder and watching the lightening. We were lucky and didn't get too wet, just the edges of our bags and pillows. It rained for about 3 hours; I kind of wish it had rained longer and harder. I have turned into such a light sleeper; with all the campground noise it was pretty hard for me to fall asleep. But that is O.K. I didn't actually expect to get much sleep in a tent. All in all we had a great time, minus the nasty mosquitos and the rain and it would have been perfect.
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