Last year, we started a new tradition. Each boy gets to pick a special activity to do with Kevin … just him and Kevin. Last year, Kevin and Owen went camping and Kevin and Jack went to see Manchester United play Glasgow Celtic.
This year, Owen said he wanted to go camping for TWO nights. So they did. They went to a Pennsylvania state park about 2 1/2 hours from here. Once they got camp set up, they said they went for a swim before cooking dinner.
The first night, they had one of Owen’s special “recipes” — Spaghetti Sandwiches. (Dont’ worry, I’m not archiving this entry under “recipes”, but just for posterity: to make a spahetti sandwich you heat up a can of spaghetti-o’s and pour it onto a hamburger bun.) Of course, s’mores were on the menu for dessert. The first night they also had an animal encounter: raccoons figured out how to open the cooler and snacked on all the hamburger and hotdog buns as well as the s’mores marshmallows.
The campsite was near a beach, so they did a lot of swimming and fishing (or, Kevin fished and Owen cheered, petted the fish and was in charge of throwing it back.) 
They rented a rowboat and fished out on the lake, rowed to an island and took a two-hour nature trail around the island.
The second night they had a lot of rain, but I guess the tent leaked only minimally. Owen said it was the “best camping trip ever.” Jack and Kevin are going to a soccer game later this week.
As I’m feeling a bit left out of all this (I was stuck at home in the pouring rain with a dog, a six-year-old and a baby who all had a severe case of cabin fever) I’ve added a twist to the tradition. As Kevin and the kids do a special event together around their birthdays in the summer, I’m going to do a special even with them in the winter, after Christmas.
Jack has already decided he wants to go snowboarding (I *used* to snowboard, pre-kids) so we’ll go up to Jack Frost or someplace and spend the night and take a couple snowboard lessons.
I haven’t talked to Owen yet about what he wants to do for his “Mommy and Owen” special event in January. I sure hope he doesn’t want to go camping …..
Owen , the next time we visit I’d like to try your smores. I haven’t had them in a very long time. I think I’ll skip the spaghetti sandwiches though and leave them to little campers and racoons. Love Aunt Mary Jane
Sounds like they had sooo much fun!! Camping… I’m ready to tackel that one BUT Joe is a little too young yet! Whew!! lol