Daytrips and Daydreams

These past few weeks have been glorious weather. Except for a few thundershowers here and there, the sun has been out and everything is green and vibrant. The kind of days that make me want to lay by the pool and Daydream. Don't get to do that too often, however, we have been outside a lot enjoying nature, and we have gotten to the pool a few times. Tristan's favorite new thing is picking strawberries out back. He doesn't understand where they come from, but every day there have been some red ones for him to pick and eat fresh. If we go out more than once a day he wants to pick the unripe ones, because they are the only ones left. I try to explain that they aren't ripe yet, but he doesn't quite get it.
We took a family daytrip to Hershey Chocolate world and to Gettysburg. Tristan got his first taste of a chocolate bar and loved seeing the elementary school students on field trip everywhere we went. Daytrips are, however, exhausting for me and J. It's fun to get out and do things, but just packing the necessities for a day away with a one year old is a project in itself. It's a bit more involved than just going by ourselves. At the end of the day, a lot of great memories are made, and though the immediate impressions of missed naps and fussies and the exhaustion of keeping a toddler intertained through the Gettysburg cyclorama (not to mention the museum and the 3 hour car ride home) stay for a short while, the more permanent memories are wonderful time spent together as a family.