We have recently joined the leagues of campers! In a real honest to goodness public campground! With other people around, and most importantly, we didn't get kicked out but I'm sure it must have been close on more than one occasion during the weekend!
The girls were so excited to go and helped me pack after we decided to go at the last minute. Honey kept coming up to me saying "what else can I do now
Mumma? How can I help????" After several hours of mad packing & one emergency run to the grocery store, we were finally ready to leave. Poor Murphy was left with standing room only in the back and if anyone from the SPCA had been following us on the highway, I'm sure they'd have strung us up!
The tent was a huge hit, Lovey had several modelling sessions in it, all very important while camping in your best velvet you know!
I only brought along the point & shoot (p&s) so the kids went crazy with pictures and I got to be in lots of them. It's fun being on the other side of the camera every once in awhile :)))
While we were packing up to go, Honey was constantly talking finding friends there. "I hope I make some new friends or find some I already met before!" Luckily there was another family with 2 girls right across from us and they all found each other very quickly.
Ok, I wouldn't normally post such a blurry pic as the one below but I just HAD to share this one. This is Murray's side of the family coming out in my firstborn. This thing would NEVER hit my suitcase on any trip, unless it was during my financial planning course. Not only did she think about, find and pack her calculator, she actually got it out and used it in the tent!!!!!!!
Now that the kids can spell, we have had to change our tactics for secret discussions. We've implemented these cool gestures and hand signals for important communications. Or that must be what we're doing because anything else just means we look dorky and that can't be right!
The first night was a late one. It took awhile to get the car loaded and by the time we got there, checked in,
upacked & set up the tent, and had some supper it was well past the girls' bedtime. Of course they weren't too concerned! This is the first time we put up the tent in both daylight and dry weather at the same time. Amazing how much smoother the process is when you can actually see what you're doing!
By the time the kids fell asleep it was after 10:30 and we crashed shortly afterwards, knowing we'd have a busy day on Saturday. Little did we know that our big day would begin at FIVE
FREAKIN' am.
Honey's eyes popped open first "is it morning time??!?!?!?"
Mine barely open "no, not yet, go back to sleep!"
Honey: but it's light out and I hear the birds singing!
Me: well it's very very early and not time to get up yet.
Luckily she drifted back off for a whole 30 minutes before we had to repeat the above conversation. Around 6 the other two started chiming in and Murray decided to go for a run (what a little
traitor trainer he is!). I managed to keep them all in the tent and not too rowdy til a bit after 7 at which time they could no longer be contained. We got up and had breakfast out at the picnic table which they
looooooooooooooved. Once we cleaned up, we headed over to the playground area and they had a great time on the equipment there but got hot and wanted to hit the beach. This meant we had to walk the entire 8 minutes back to the tent and get swimsuits & sunscreen on. Sweetie almost died from the exertion of it all. A
juicebox shut fixed her up though & we went back. Lovey had a birthday party to go to so she & I missed most of the afternoon but everyone else enjoyed the day.
That evening the excitement was almost too much for them to bear.
Grammie & Grandad came to visit and we ROASTED MARSHMALLOWS!!!!!! They gathered sticks and twigs all day, building up the fire pit. Sweetie dragged the roasting sticks out of the car and preloaded
everyone's marshmallows for them. They helped get ready by dancing around us and constantly asking "is it time yet??? can we start???? why is it taking so long????"
Finally the fire was lit and the burning got underway! I'm not sure how many marshmallows were actually fit for consumption but Grandad managed to cook up a good
hotdog for his snack. I made
s'mores on the
bbq which were nice and gooey with chocolate :)))
I didn't think they'd ever sleep after all that post-supper sugar snacking but that 5am start was finally working to our advantage and they were all tucked in by 9:30. Murray & I got to play a game of scrabble (I lost, dang!) before crashing out ourselves.
The next morning we had breakfast and Lovey faked eating some lemon for a nice photo op. Murray kept the kids busy and away from the site while I attempted to pack up. I had just about
everying back in its container/bag/box except the tent. If you don't fold that thing just so, it will not go back in the bag. With not one inch of spare space in that car, I
had to get it in there or leave it or a kid behind. After many many many refolds, I got it back together and we were able to check out of the campground only 15 minutes late. Who knew it would take me over 3 hours to break down the camp???
Ahhh so many lessons learned for the next trip...... in 2011!
The girls were very anxious for her to arrive. I'd gotten them to do some cleanup so there would be actual space to sit in the living room. During that bout of harsh child labour, Sweetie exclaimed "I wish we had a housekeeper!!!!!!!!" When I asked her why, she responded "So I'd never have to pick up stuff!" Yeah, you and me both baby.
New dress the doll books, cool! Lots of goodies to play with and we watched the new movie on a recent car trip. As soon as it was over, Lovey wanted to start it and watch it again so it was a hit!
The best part of this visit was that we were actually able to do something for Shirley for a change. Now in the grand scheme of things, we'll never never never be able to repay the kindnesses shown to us from any of our baby days volunteers but on the odd occasion that we're able to give them a hand with something, it sure feels good! Shirley had upgraded her home internet service and needed some drivers (or some fandangled thing) updated. She'd spent many hours on the phone with tech support all to no avail. She left her laptop with us and Murray got stuff downloaded, took it back over to her house, got the tech people on the phone and got everything in working order. I tried to do some of it while she was there but we ran out of time and expertise :S and thought we'd better wait for Murray to get home.
Thank you Shirley, for everything you've done and given and shared and thank you especially for letting us help you in this small way.
