OK, I was stressed.
We had a cabin reserved at a beautiful campground (based on what we could gather from seeing their website) - 2 bedrooms, electricity, running water, even a fridge under the counter. Certainly, it was far from "roughing it", but the amount of "stuff" I thought I needed to pack rendered me slightly nutty (and I need no help in that department, thank you). Linens, towels, food, Ian's toys, clothes, bug spray, smores stuff, knitting stuff, scooters, a ginormous First Aid Kit (can never be "too" prepared right?), a cooler full of necessities, water bottles, sunscreen, "interact with nature" things, digital clock, beef jerky, toilet paper, baggies....how can one possibly fit all this into a Dodge Caravan with 5 people?
I KNOW! Ask my "campy" friends on my trusty message board of christian ladies with lots more experience and grit than I had in this area.
So guess what they said? I was packing too much.
Armed with new knowledge and gumption, I whittled my girls' clothes down to ONE bag instead of two, we threw out (OK, hubby barely wrestled out) the middle seat and put the back seat in it's place (aren't hubbies wonderful for that sort of thing?), and substituted sleeping bags for complete bed sets (who knew?). Food flew out of their boxes and got shoved into crevices of packware, the kids were told they could bring nothing but a magnifying glass and some bubbles (not really, but I was tempted for a second), and hubby was able to pack that van completely, WITHOUT needing to tie anything down to the top, back or underside. We were PACKED and we were COOL!
Thankfully, our destination was only a mere 2 hours away from home, and a good part of it was a wonderful country drive. Less than a mile from the campgound, we drove along a road that I SWEAR (OK, I won't swear) was the same exact location where A Walk To Remember was filmed when Keanu and the Vineyard Lady (I always forget character names) were booted off the bus to Sacramento and had to walk....I wanted hubby to drop me off right there and just let me soak in the beauty for a few hours. He said no. You're feeling bad for him, aren't you?
When we pulled up to our cabin after checking in, our wonderful, pine scented cabin spot welcomed us.
WOW! It was perfect!
Here's to the immediate right of the front door. Hannah said, "MOMMY! I LOVE THIS! It's JUST like Little House!" Yes. JUST like it. Who was I to kill her joy?
And here is the bedroom our kiddos "camped" in. Looks exactly the same as the one hubby and I camped in, only on the west side of the cabin while ours was on the east.
And did I mention? Jeff's RVing parents were there too! In their 5th wheeler right next door. We were looking forward to a great time!
On the breakfast table our first morning - Entemann's Donuts and Instant Oatmeal. Yum.
We decided to check out the place, so we went over to the main hub, the same area we had dinner at the previous night. They had an activity room with a billiard table, arcade games, a gigantic open room with a fireplace and about 526 dead animal heads hanging along the wall (OK, 18). There was an open air stadium with a nice stage and small meteorite behind it (OK, a huge rock), a playground area, a swimming pool and a nice field to play capture the flag, red rover or anything else you could think up as long as you were wearing your flourescent green plastiwrap so the campground workers knew you were legit (that story in a bit).
The stage area.
My children wasted no time getting to the business of entertaining all of us. And as usual, they recruited Ian for the additional "cute factor". He plays the part well.
Waiting for mom and dad to do some impressive foot moves? For grandma and grandpa to break out with the chicken dance? You bet. We'll get right to that.
That's grandma in the background. I think she was doing laps.
She's very aerobic.
We made an interesting discovery during our time at the playground. As Ian frolicked and ran around on the grass, he took a toddler tumble, and when he stood back up, he had a nasty grass stain on his pant knee. Oh well. However, several minutes later upon a closer look, it was quite clear it wasn't a grass stain.
It was then we realized the entire area was full of goose poop! That particular part of the campground was a pit stop on the way down south, and apparently they had been lingering around for quite some time.
With that realization, we decided to scoot over to the beach area instead, hoping things were a bit less "foul" there.
Oh, that's right. The plastic bands. Sigh. We were all "required" to wear them during the duration of our time there. Apparently it was to easily identify the "campers" with the "non campers". Which is all well and good during midsummer when you have 5,000 kids there for summer camp programs, but come on. I had photos to shoot. Besides, I was not happy about us having to don the hospital like eye sores for the next 5 days. I guess there are worse things. LOL
We put the girl's bands on their ankles, thinking they would be less conspicuous for pics (and less in their way). Ian didn't have to wear one (apparently only people over age 5 and not wearing bright colors are a possible danger to....I'm not sure....the geese?). The adults all ended up just carrying ours in our pockets. Such rebels we are.
So back at the beach....
I couldn't move the chained up boat so please excuse the sun....
We had a wonderful time! :)
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