Zoe's first camping trip

A few weeks ago Zoe went camping with her parents, Meeshka, aunt Melissa and uncle Brad.
This was a really exciting event for everyone, but especially for Zoe as this was her VERY FIRST camping trip!
That weekend the weather was great and our destination was Devil's Fork State Park in the South Carolina Apalachees.

Before getting to our camping ground we made a quick hike to the nearby waterfalls.

Here are Zoe's uncle Brad and aunt Melissa in front of the waterfall.

Zoe got to ride in a backpack-style wrap on her daddy's back all the way to and from the waterfall.
She seemed to enjoy this new arrangement, dangling her feet and looking around from her new height:



And here's the view of the Lake Jocassee where we were headed next to pitch our tents:
And here's a Stowe family portrait:
Our camp site was right on the shore of the Lake Jocassee- a gorgeous mountain lake with a crystal clear water and a stunning view of the surrounding mountains.

The water was too cold to swim, but Zoe did get her little toes wet.

Zoe enjoyed all the camping activities-from sitting next to the camp fire to sleeping in the tent.
Surprisingly to all of us she didn't even mind hanging out in her play pin (also for the first time) while everyone was preparing the camp site.

Next day after a long and leisurely morning we reluctantly folded our camp and asked one of the neighbor campers to take a good-bye picture of all of us in front of the lake. Here we are: all but Meeshka, he must have been chasing something at the moment:

Before leaving the mountains and heading back to our city and went for a short hike along one of the park's trails around the lake woods. Zoe was already tired from the morning activities, so she slept through the entire hike, securely strapped to daddy's back.

Here she is, looking so complacent as though she is taking a nap in her crib at home:
Too bad she missed the beautiful scenery- I guess we will have to come back and hike the trail again, this time with Zoe wearing her own hiking booties!

The Great Outdoors or Park Junkies

Once again, another photo-report on baby Zoe's life is long overdue.

The weather has been great in the past couple of months and Zoe has been enjoying spending a lot of time outdoors.
She loves going to the nearby park on play-dates with her friend, little boy Aiden, who is 4 months older than her. They ride together around the lake in Aiden's red wagon and watch Meeshka chase the ducks.
Here's Julie (Aiden's mom) pulling the red wagon:

Meeshka makes sure the ducks don't come too close to the shore:
Zoe and Aiden learn to share their toys:
And play on the blanket when they get tired of riding around:

On some weekends Zoe likes to come along to a park and hang out with 'the girls' while daddy and his friends play disk-golf.
Zoe likes to crawl on the play grounds filled with soft squishy rubber chips- it's so much fun and the coolest thing is that it doesn't hurt when you fall on it!

And finally here's a pic of Lyubka and Zoe, on a hot afternoon, which just happened to be her 9th birthday, at the Winthrop Lake park, just a few meters away from where her parents got married long-long time ago:

Although baby Zoe enjoys every little trip to the park, 2 weeks ago she was thrilled to go on her first BIG encounter with nature- a camping trip in the mountains!!! This deserves a separate post...will be back soon!!!