3rd camping trip: Cook's Forrest PA

This last weekend, we traveled to Cook's Forrest with the girls.  They had a great time, although, we noticed that back to back camping weekends may be a little much for them.  They definitely seemed more tired & grumpy during the day & lot harder to get them to preschool on Monday…..but despite all of this, we did end up having a great time.  On Friday night, we made our way out of the city to a very family friendly campground called Rustic Acres.  If you have little kids, this place is great.  It has a very nice playground & the campground owners love children (parents to 5 kids themselves).  They have a Kids Corner program on Saturday mornings, with singing/guitar playing, crafts, & nature walks.  The girls had a blast with this.  I love it because it is basic old school fun, which I feel our kids sorely need considering the over technologically advanced world in which we are raising them.  After Kids Corner & breakfast we headed out to find some fun things to do in Cooks Forrest.  Interestingly enough, we had previously been to this area when I was newly pregnant with Jessica for our 6th wedding anniversary….Michael & I couldn't help but reminisce on how different things are now.  The girls are absolutely crazy for horses so we knew pony rides were in order.  Our first stop was Double W stables, where they had sweet little ponies for the girls to ride.  So cute & such nice people.  Ella threw an absolute fit when it was time to leave….did I mention she loves horses….so we headed over to another larger stable in the forrest to see if she could ride another pony.  Little did we know that a 1 hr. trail ride on horses would ensue, but the folks at Pine Crest ranch were more than happy to oblige us & Jessica got to ride a small horse/large pony all by herself, with the help of a guide, of course.  And Ella & I ended up riding a large (rather ill-behaved) horse, named Blitz.  We had refueled on ice cream before the 1 hr. trail ride through the forrest, but boy was I not prepared for 1 hr. on Blitz.  Blitz appeared to be a quarter horse mix of some sort, but he was very strong willed & decided it was a good idea to gallop & eat along the trail whenever he saw fit….not exactly the best fit for the only woman trying to balance a child & stay on a saddle.  Ella of course loved the galloping & each time Blitz would gallop she would squeal with delight & yell, go Blitz go!  Of course, this made it not so easy to control the horse & my gentle urges that Blitz walk or slow down…didn't seem to register.  Although Blitz did make the ride a little more interesting than I had expected, a horseback ride through Cooks Forrest was absolutely gorgeous & I would highly recommend it if you are in that area (just don't get on Blitz).  I didn't get any pics of us on the trail ride due to the shear balance that would have require to hold on to the horse, Ella, & a camera, but trust me it was beautiful.  After all of the horses on Saturday, we headed back to the camper to get much needed showers.  Later that night we enjoyed a camp fire & good discussion with our fellow campers.  On Sunday, after a great breakfast buffet at a local restaurant, we headed to a French & Indian War re-enactment.  It was so neat (if that makes me a nerd…that's ok, but the costumes & history were pretty interesting).  Think Last of the Mohicans era.  They had a lot of folks set up as traders/trappers, selling goods, & they had a large regiment of soldiers set up on top of the hill in full costume discussing the history of the war with the visitors.  These folks are hardcore!  They did a cannon demonstration & do you want to guess which child was the 1st volunteer to fire a cannon??  You got it….our Jessica.  [For the record, she didn't actually fire a cannon, but they did a walk through with the kids on how to do it] She was not scared at all even when the thing exploded.  After the cannon demo, they did have a live battle re-enactment, but used live muskets & ammo, so we decided that the girls might be a little too small for this….we headed out & got things packed up to head back to the city.  It was a great weekend away, so thankful for such great family time.