Caves, newts and screaming

We had a fun romp at Thacher Park today. It's about a 30 minute drive away, on the other side of Albany on the Helderberg escarpment. We started out hiking on a wooded trail, looking for letterboxes. We did find a couple, and a cool-looking newt. But after we found the second box, we were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Thomas kept screaming, "I'm itchy! I'm itchy!" and we couldn't take it anymore! :) So we had lunch at a tent until security kicked us out because it was reserved. It started thundering; we weren't sure if we should go hiking anymore, but it seemed far away and blew over. We hiked the Indian Ladder trail and the boys (and Chester) loved it. It's short but has amazing views. You go down steel staircases along the side of limestone cliffs. Two waterfalls plumet from the top of the cliff, so we could walk behind them and look up at the water shooting off the cliff. There are caves to explore along it too. See more photos here. Despite the haziness, it was really a cool place to go. It's gotten Nolan interested in exploring more caves. We want to go back in the fall. The last time Chris and I were there was in the fall with our friend Mike and Indy was just a puppy. It was nice to share it with the boys.

This week will be different than expected. Both boys were going to be at playground camp in the mornings. But we've discovered it hasn't been the best environment for Thomas. So he's done. Nolan will go and Thomas and I will explore other adventures together. Tomorrow, Chris has the day off but no big plans. Thomas finishes up swim lessons this week, we have story times at the library, baseball on Wednesday and probably some playdates. Who knows what fun will fill our days--that's what's so great about summer!