Places to Go (Vacation) - Camping at Seneca Shadows (Seneca Rocks, WV)

I never know whether to include camping posts in the local category or the vacation category. Is camping really a vacation? I go back and forth on this. Usually, I base it on the length of the car drive; this one took 3 hours, so I'm categorizing this as a vacation.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th! These photos are a few weeks old now, but we had a fabulous time camping with friends under towering West Virginian cliffs.

The campground has large group sites, allowing multiple families to stay together. Plus, the sites have tons of room to run, scooter, and/or kick a soccer ball around. But the highlight for the kids was walking to the camp store, where candy sold for under 25 cents. We all enjoyed a nice hike up to green vistas - not a city in site for as far as the eye can see. And a great nature center, that had live bluegrass the weekend we visited.





On the drive home we toured Smoke Hole Caverns and watched goldfish glide through a subterranean lake (oxygen for their water is pumped in). Beautiful.

Things to Do - Cherish This Day & Random Links

A few more photos from our solstice party, the fireworks seemed like an appropriate post for 4th of July weekend.

Have a great 4th everyone!! And don't forget to check out this week's awesomeness over on Cherish This Day!

RANDOM LINKS:

* The worst classical children's books and what to replace them with. YES!!!!

* This gorgeous picture book is perfect for summer.

* LOVE!!

* Beautiful Belarus bus stops.

* Commedians on fatherhood.

* I want to eat everything on this middle-eastern food blog.

* These gorgeous photos made me want to take a trip to Shenandoah.

* James Mollison's Where Children Sleep is one of our most read/looked at/talked about family books (you can read my review here), so I can't wait to check out his new work, Playground.

* 25 Famous Women on the Best Advice They've Ever Given or Received.

* The Building Museum's beach in DC looks like SO MUCH FUN!! I can't wait to go!

Things to Do - Summer Solsticing

Throughout my childhood, I (somewhat superstitiously) believed that the way one celebrated the last day of school dictated the entire summer's awesomeness.

I always hated the feeling, after weeks' worth of of excitement centered on the last day of school, that all of a sudden everything ends. A quiet house. Confusion on what came next. The realization that you would suddenly miss people who up to this point you'd taken for granted you would see every day.

Anyways, I don't think our summer solstice celebration resulted directly from childhood superstitions, but there is something wonderful about heralding in the beginning of a season. Good friends. LOTS of good friends. A keg. Snow cones. Multiple bounce houses. Water balloons and a hose. All of a sudden the long nights feel full of possibility. No ends, only beginnings.

I was too busy hosting to spend much time on photos, lucky, my friend Hector borrowed my camera for an hour or so and captured the fabulous shots posted above.

HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE!! (And, yes, I know the solstice is already old news, but everything moves slower in summer, including, but not limited to, blogging motivation).



Happy the dog really knows how to terrify a toddler. This is also a great example of why REAL firearms should be locked away at all times.

Things to Do - Moms Demand Action's Be SMART campaign

We haven't heard from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America in awhile now, so I asked them to update us on their campaign for common sense gun laws. As a gun-owning family (Dan hunts), Moms Demand Actions's new BE SMART campaign is near and dear to my heart (all of our firearms are kept in locked gun safes).

No matter how strongly you feel about gun rights issues, I think we can all agree that, as a society, we need to keep children away from loaded firearms in the home.

So please read below as Moms Demand Action member Kristin Jones updates us on how best to do this.
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How often do we hear about children unintentionally shooting and injuring — or even killing — themselves or others after accessing an unsecured gun? Many of these shootings have a common thread: they may have been prevented if adults safely stored their guns. Tragically, as happened recently in Lunenburg, Virginia, a two-year-old boy unintentionally shot and killed himself after accessing a handgun in the dresser drawer of a family friend’s home.

Gun safety starts with everyone – gun owners and non gun owners alike – to ensure that a gun never gets into a child’s hands in the first place — and that means practicing safe storage, like keeping guns locked in a safe.

These types of shootings are preventable and why Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America recently launched a campaign called Be SMART. Moms Demand Action is a grassroots movement of American mothers fighting for public safety measures that respect the Second Amendment and protect people from gun violence.

Be SMART aims to prevent unintentional child shootings by promoting the safe storage of guns. This new public education campaign asks gun owners and non-gun owners alike to come together to reduce the number of unintentional shootings, suicides and homicides that occur when firearms are not stored responsibly and children or teens get ahold of a gun. Every year, about 100 children 17-years-old and younger die in unintentional shootings, and more than 400 die by suicide with a gun. Many of these deaths are entirely preventable with responsible gun storage. These are five steps that can help keep kids safer:

S – Secure guns in homes and vehicles.

M – Model responsible behavior.

A – Ask about unsecured guns in other homes.

R – Recognize the risk of teen suicide.

T – Tell your peers to be SMART.

I know it’s difficult to talk about guns with other parents but as a mom of two elementary school kids, I now make sure to ask other parents about guns in their households and how they’re stored prior to my children’s playdates.

It may seem like an awkward conversation to have the first time, but parents already ask about allergies and backyard pools. Access to guns is a safety risk too.

I recently posed the question to the mother of my son’s new friend when I took him to the house for their first playdate. She said they do have guns, followed by an emphatic, “we keep them secured in the basement.”

Yet, with all the playdates my kids have been on, no one has ever asked me about a gun in my home. I think it’s because they do not think about it or they feel too awkward about bringing it up. If we are to increase child safety by lowering child access to firearms however, not only should we ask the question we should also be transparent. When kids come to our house for instance, I now ask about allergies and self-disclose that we do no have guns in our house.

Having conversations about gun safety and safe storage with children and their playmates’ parents are conversations that no parent can afford to skip. Maybe if we all start these awkward conversations, our communities will endure fewer tragedies like the one in Lunenburg. But talking isn’t enough. It is important gun owners take the necessary steps to properly secure their guns when children are in their homes.

For more information on the campaign, visit www.besmartforkids.org. Click here to download a useful handout to help you learn how to talk about responsible gun storage.

- Kristin Jones

Things to Do - Grateful List (May 2015)

ARTS
* Watching Footlose (the original) with P
* Watching Empire
* Reading Station Eleven
* Reading The Wallcreeper
* Wyatt Cernac live at the Arlington Cinema Drafthouse
* The Tallest Man on Earth live at the Lincoln Theater
* Watching Jasmine Star's The Complete Wedding Photographer Experience on CreativeLive

ETC.
* T and his whoopie cushion (so much happiness)
* Fitbit challenges (even when I lose)
* Soccer practice at dusk
* F's straight A report card (neither P nor T receive grades yet)
* A perfect Mother's Day - Monkey Kingdom at the drafthouse with cheese fries, the library, a fantastic photoshoot with a new client at night, and steak salad for dinner (thank you Dan!)
* Moms and wine on our porch
* Cava, Legally Blond, and facials for mom/daughter night with P and F
* P as Sacagawea for wax museum night
* Family dog walks at dusk
* Fris-bat (frisbee baseball with a stick) - the children's newest front yard obsession
* F's spring concert
* Dinner under the stars for dinner club
* 2 new family photoshoots with fantastic new clients
* P - "Mom, we used to be so little and have such great imaginations and now all we want is an iphone."

VACATION (Savannah, GA Moms' Weekend)
* Peach sangria at City Market
* Billy's Place for dinner ("In My Life" on the piano)
* "Big Ugly Fat Fuckers Eating Together" - The Lady Chablis on buffets
* J Crew and Gap sale racks
* Slow ride pub crawl
* How skinny I look next to drag queens
* Watermelon ice tea
* Fried green tomato BLTs

VACATION (Memorial Day Beach House)
* Everyone's signature "thing" - The Dori, hairstyle; The Hector, howl; The Melissa, mango-rita, tonic, vodka, and a splash of lime
* Sunday night dance party
* Pool, hot tub, beach, repeat
* 39 people working together
* 75 degree weather
* F kayaking with dolphins
* Smores on the beach and glowsticks in the dark
* F helping with the little kids

THE KIDS' LISTS:

F - Minions, peace, love, my family, a nice house to live in and food to eat, that everything is so great, my teacher, reading, the beach

P - Freya's amazing concert, my family, Minions, my teacher, dog walks, our beach house, the swimming pool

T - Freya's concert, my long playdate with Ian and Mateo, my teachers, the beach house, playing, my family, the hot tub