Free Fishing Days!

Want to enjoy a fishing day with your family but, do not want to purchase fishing licenses for the adults? Maybe you can't afford it right now, or you simply just want to try it out before purchasing. 

Now is your chance to do so. Every year the Department of  Natural Resources holds a couple days where you can go fishing for free with out a license. 

Please note it is always free for Children 16 and under to fish with out a license in Maryland. 

**Please check individual state licence age requirements.   

Maryland Free Days

June 3, June 10, July 4

Other Nearby States Free Days

West Virginia: June 10, June 11

Pennsylvania: July 4

Virginia: June 2, June 4

Looking for a state I didn't list....Check here!

Our 2016 Summer Bucket List

Now that we are less than a month away from the boys getting out of school, I am starting to get excited for some fun in the sun this Summer.  Every year the boys and I get together and make a list of Summer activities we want to fit in. There are some favorites we always add and some new activities we have added this year. We can not wait. If you don't know our family, we live in Maryland so a lot of these ideas are based on where we live. Hopefully, you can find these activities available in your area as well.

Park Quest

Camping
Bowling

(There is a really awesome program where you can bowl once a week for only the small price of your shoe rental.)

Blueberry/Strawberry picking

Fishing

Swimming

Hiking
Jr. Ranger's Program

Go to a Baseball Game

$1 Movies

Summer carnival
Police Academy

Utz Factory

Sky Zone

Leesburg Water Park

Gymnastics

Catoctin Zoo

Tubing

Climb a Tree
Walk a Slackline

Watch Fireworks

Have a picnic lunch

Build a butterfly garden

Drink a slushie

Run a race

Make Smores

Pop popcorn on a fire

Catch fireflies
Eat watermelon
Lurray Caverns
Skyline Drive
Lake visits
Eat Crabs
Make Ice cream
Ride bikes
Creek fun
Camping party
Visit the library
Ice skating
Play tennis
Visit Harpers Ferry
Visit the Butterfly Gardens
High Wheel Race
Wooden Slide
Visit the Airport
Summer Concert
Outdoor movie

Park Quest #2 of 2014: Cunningham Falls State Park

Cunningham Falls State Park isn't a new park to us. It's very close to where we live and we've probably visited there over 20 times. However, we enjoyed ourselves during the quest. We saw things there we've never paid attention to before.

The quest was a scavenger hunt. We had 10 items on our list we had to find and take a picture of. Once completed we took the pictures to the Nature Center and got our passport stamped.

1. A small caged Hemlock Tree
2.  A 78 foot Waterfall
3. A sign that states “Help us heal this fragile area”
4. Something that talks about bugs.
5. A sign about fish
6. A photo of the lake
7. Something that states “No Gas Powered Boats”
8. A wooden walking bridge over a stream
9. "No Fishing" sign
10.  Park employee

Giggles and Grass Stains Family Summer Bucket List 2014

Our family is really excited about Summer. Every Summer we sit down and put together a list of things we want to do during Summer. If your from Maryland and live near Frederick we have a lot of fun day trips on our Pinterest page. Here is our list for this year!

Giggles and Grass Stains Summer Bucket List 2014
* Park Quest

* Camp in a Cabin

* Go to a Baseball Game
* Visit the Zoo
* Visit the Lake
* Tire Park
* Hold a Shrimp boil party

* Visit the Water Park
* Bowling
* Summer Reading
* Summer Concert Series
* Lunch at the Airport
* Pump it up

* Visit the pool

* Fishing

* Hiking
* Collect shark teeth
* Walk on the boardwalk
* Go to a museum
* Camping in Tent
* Biking
* Have a picnic outside
* Movies
*Outdoor Movie
* Make your own Sunday
* Carnival

* Make our own Pretzels
* Make minnow traps and use them to fish
* Canoeing
* Chalk driveway drawing
* Library
* Catch lighting bug
* Roast Marshmallows
* Flashlight Tag
* Learn new cooking techniques

* Camping party
* Tie Dye shirts
*  Take a special interest class

We will hang this list up on our fridge so we can add more and cross off ones we've completed! 

2014 Park Quest #1: South Mountain State Park

We used the opportunity of our 3 day weekend to start Park Quest. The boys didn't have any baseball games due to the Holiday weekend so we had some free time. 

We decided to start our questing adventure at South Mountain State Park/ Washington Monument Park. We've visited this park in the past but, we learned some pretty cool new info this time around.  (I don't want to give away all the details in case our fellow Park Quester's are reading.) We took a short walk up from the museum to the monument. The boys enjoyed walking up the monument and looking out over the overlook. They then learned how soldiers would communicate to each other from far distances. You know... because they didn't have phones back then.  Big C then declared the cellphone the best invention ever. Lol.

After our quest. We drove over to South Mountain Creamery. We love their ice cream! We also love the fact they let you feed their baby cows daily.  We however, did not go their at the time of their feedings so missed out on that. We joined a new program to us called The Ice Cream Trail. It's a lot like Park Quest. They have 8 different creameries in the area you can visit to and get your paper stamped. Once you have visited all the creameries and gotten your stamps. You send in your paperwork and get entered in a drawing to win gift cards to your favorite creamery. Pretty cool idea and, what better way to finish a quest with non other than ice cream!! :)

Park Quest 2014

Here in the Giggles and Grass Stains household we start to get super excited about our Summer when it's Park Quest signup time. Early in May we mark our calendars to be ready for Park Quest registration. This is the time Mommy starts pulling out her hair and sweating, pressing the refresh button over and over. If you're unfamiliar with Park Quest check out some of our previous posts located at the top of the page under Park Quest. The Park Quest program only allows 1,000 families in. So it's a mad house on registration day trying to get your family signed up in time. Every year, I stress and think what if I don't get in. My family would be so devastated. Park Quest has been an on going thing for us every Summer we make it a huge deal the whole Summer long.

Well....We got in again!! Shew!

 

We can't wait! We get to start Memorial Day weekend! We've booked camping sites at Deep Creek Lake again and, Jane's Island. We hope to complete all 24 quest, something we aim to do every year but, can't seem to do. This year is going to be the year!!!

The boys put a list of activities they would like to do this Summer while Park Questing if we can fit it in:

Make Walking Taco

Visit the pool at Pocomoke State Park

Visit Ocean City

Make Park Quest shirts

Fishing

Try and find and take pictures of birds on our list

Crabbing

We hope to add more to our list as we come up with more fun idea.

Do you participate in Park Quest or a similar program?

If so, what's your team name? 

What's your favorite Maryland State Park to visit? 

What's your favorite activity to do while visiting State Parks?

 

 

Portrait Project {April}

Weekly Portrait Project is something we have started to hopefully keep up for the boys until they graduate. We will post a favorite picture of each of the boys once a week!

 

 

Our Portrait Project stopped sometime in October last year. We had a very cold Winter and the boys and I hardly got up to feeling like taking pictures. Now that the temps are warming up I hope to start up the project again to weekly. I got a new camera I am just itching to get pictures with.

For this "Month" portrait project our pictures were taken at this beautiful field of daffodils. These were taken on my camera phone since I didn't have my camera with me. These boys are growing so very fast. Please slow down!!!

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Carson!!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, stylish peanut, Carson!!! He turned 5 this past week.

This was the outfit he picked out to wear to school. Cool sparkly blue glasses, a Happy Birthday sash and, a Birthday pen. Lol. He sure does know how to make us smile.

Weekly Portrait Project {Week 9}

Weekly Portrait Project is something we have started to hopefully keep up for the boys until they graduate. We will post a favorite picture of each of the boys once a week!


We'll it seems as though weekly has become monthly around here. We have been so busy with school, sports and, family time I haven't been taking as many pictures of the boys as I have been able to in the past. Hopefully, I can make some more time!

My youngest got glasses and he is loving them. He says they make him look smart. He has also been picking his own clothes out for school. He absolutely loves ties, dress clothes, and boots!!

My oldest has been having so much fun with his baseball friends. He had a couple snag ups lately where he was struggling with his confidence but he's getting it back up and doing better.

I sure do love these two boys!!

 

Weekly Portrait Project {Week 8} Where has September gone?!?

Weekly Portrait Project is something we have started to hopefully keep up for the boys until they graduate. We will post a favorite picture of each of the boys once a week!

  

We have been so super busy with school and baseball, I haven't even had time to sit down at the computer to update our blog. Hope I can do some new posts soon.

Fall Ball Time!!

As most of you all know we love sports and outside activities. This season Conner will be playing fall baseball. We decided that all the running around from game to game for the boys both playing last Spring was a little much for us. We decided only Conner would do baseball for the fall. Carson was a little upset but, when we explained to him that it would give him more time to play with friends on the playground at games he was a little more excited.

Conner had his 1st scrimmage of the season and, he did great. He is still struggling with using the right size bat for him. He keeps choosing tee-ball size bats because he's more comfortable with them. Yet, it hinders his hitting because the bat is so short and small for him. We're hoping more batting practice at home and the cages will help this.

He played pitcher and catcher this weekend, both are his favorite positions. Even though they do not pitch he still plays next to the mound. He seems to do really well at that position. It gets a lot of play there and he doesn't get bored. As far as catching goes, he still needs to gain the confidence of making the decision of when to get the ball. He is still learning the rules of the position.

He is with the same team as last season and a lot of the same players. He really gets along with everyone on the team and they have built great friendships.

We really look forward to seeing him learn and grow more this season so he can be ready for Spring. He has 2 more seasons of Machine Pitch before he heads off to kid pitch!!

Here's a couple fun pictures from the weekend scrimmage. 

 

Park Quest #9: Ft. Frederick State Park

Ft. Frederick State Park is a favorite of ours. In the past we've seen some really cool events going on there.

This visit was no different. After a quick check in at the visitor's center we received our packet and we were on our way for a short hike around the park. While we were there, there was a living demonstration taking place. It was pretty cool to hear drums and music playing, hearing soldiers marching and, shooting muskets and cannons in the background. The boys enjoyed finding the black powder packets in the field that the soldiers left behind.

 Once we were done our walk around the park and learned about the history of some of the soldiers in the past, we visited the fort.

 

 
We visited the bunks were the soldiers slept and, saw a soldier fire off a musket. The boys really enjoyed that! 

Park Quest #8: Swallow Falls State Park

Day 2 of our 2 day 1 night stay in Western Maryland started with a stop at Swallow Falls State Park.  SFSP has always been one of my favorite SP's we have visited in the past. It is so beautiful and a wonderful background for pictures.

We were a little sad that it was pouring down raining when we arrived but since we didn't have much time to hang around we decided to go anyway. One positive to the rain...we were one of the very few families that were there. 

We checked in at SFSP store and got our packets and were on our way.  The ques was a short hike to all the falls and learning about the Hemlock trees (some that were over 300 yrs old) and, Super storm Sandy and the effect it had on the park. Wow, we were shocked at how much our favorite place had changed due to the storm. Tons of downed trees and blocked areas. 

We were also so shocked to see once we hiked to the 53 feet Muddy Creek Falls how angry it was. Last year when we visited we were able to play on top of the falls and walk back to a bridge behind the falls. This year as we were walking up it was so loud and huge. We were getting splashed on our way up. At the top there was no way any of us would be able to walk across the top. The water was moving so fast it would of swept any one of us down the falls. I am sure this had a lot to do with the amount of rain they were getting.

Even though we got extremely wet it was still a fun and beautiful quest.

Park Quest #7: Deep Creek State Park

Our last stop on Day 1 on our Western Maryland trip was at Deep Creek State Park. We decided this is where we wanted to stay over night since it was sort of in the middle of all the parks we were visiting.

Once we had arrived we visited the Nature Center like out Park Quest booklet instructed us to do. Once we received our packet we were on our way on a short walk that started in the basement of the Nature Center.  The boys learned about Smokey the Bear and Wildfires. On our short walk around Deep Creek we learned different way to prevent wildfires, how Deep Creek prevents wildfires, Took a turn putting out a pretend fire and, visited a brush fire truck. 

This was one of the boys favorites of the trip. After we finished our quest we check in at the visitor's center to grab our info where we'd be staying.

The boys were shocked and excited to see where we were staying!!!

A Yurt!

After we got unpacked and beds made up we headed back down to the Nature Center for a little fishing. After we cleaned up from fishing we headed out for dinner at Uno's. The boys were exhausted and very hungry. After dinner we headed back to our Yurt. Because of the rain we were unable to play outside so we enjoyed unwinding with a video.

 

Park Quest #6: New Germany

The next stop on our 2 day 1 night trip to Western Maryland was New Germany State Park. We got there after a quick lunch in the car so we were pumped and ready to go.

We stopped in at the Nature Center where we were instructed to pick up our supplies. The Quest was a walk around the parks forest area and learn what invasive species were and how they hinder the wild life in the area. 

This quest wasn't a long one. At our last stop we took a break and played in the creek for a while.

After our walk around the park and determining which plant was which we headed back to get our Park Quest book stamped. The kids were treated to some tasty ice cream what a nice treat to the warm weather we had.