6.12.2013 Family Camping Trip Day 4

Our final day to our trip arrived.  We got up, ate breakfast, and packed up camp (the stakes came out WAY easier than they went in...)  We had been told there was a place where you could pet manatees, so we thought we would go do that.  We headed that way, but when we talked to a lady about doing it, we found out you had to go on a boat and jump off the boat, into the water and you could just touch the manatees with one hand...if you could find them.  I figured Leah would either be petrified, or want to take a ride on a manatee, so we decided to pass.  We chose, instead, to go to a small local beach. 

 

 Eli was happy to play in the mud.

 

 Leah got right in.  I gotta say, I always thought these little 'puddle jumper' life preservers looked so stupid...and I still think they kinda do, but they are AWESOME.  Leah gets right in the water and plays without fear.  She's been wearing it a lot at our local pool while I work with Eli, trying to get him to swim.  It's been very nice.  And really, Leah always looks cute, even with a dorky looking life vest ;)

 

 Eli did NOT want to get in.  He went climbing over on some rocks with Edgar, but the rocks were covered in crabs.  They were actually all over in the water, too, but we didn't realize this until later...when a giant one was headed our way.  Then we started seeing them everywhere.  It was very cool...and a little unnerving.  Who wants to step on a crab?!

 

 Fun swim time with daddy.

 

 Eli finally decided to get in.  He loved it once he got in.  Not sure what his hesitation was about.  Maybe he knew about the crabs all along...

 

My little fish :)

This little beach was super nice.  It wasn't crowded at all, and free to park-perfect!  Plus it was a beautiful day.  We stayed for a couple of hours and then headed home.

Our little camping trip was definitely a success.  Can't wait to go again!  Pretty sure next time we set up our tent we're gonna be in a gorgeous back yard somewhere in Michigan... :)

6.11.2013 Family Camping Trip Day 3

After a better night (we found Leah's pacifier) we got up and had a yummy breakfast (bacon and eggs for Edgar and I, oatmeal with raisins for the kids) we got ready to go for a little hike. 

 

 Eli got a hold of the camera again.

 

 Hearing him giggle as he took these pictures was worth acting silly :)

 

 He made sure to get a picture of his foot, of course...

 

 Eli managed to take the only picture of our campsite...Not sure why I didn't think to get a better picture...This was our site, though.  As you can see, no shade.  At all.  Because of the daily rain, we had to keep most of our supplies in the back of the van.  Kind of annoying to have to dig through the van all the time, but very thankful we have a vehicle big enough to do that.  Every morning after breakfast we'd sit in the shade of the van in our camp chairs, eat some trail mix (which Leah called Cheerios) and hang out.  The heat hit pretty quickly, though, so we didn't stay long. 

 

 Leah's ready for her hike!

 

 Eli's ready for anything...as long as he has his camera.

 

 Don't let this happy face fool you.  Leah complained and cried for most of the hike.  It's funny, though, because when you ask her what her favorite part of camping was, she says sleeping in the tent with her pacifier (oh brother...) and going on a hike.  Funny girl.

 

 

 

 Edgar brought his binoculars along...because I asked him too.  A big 'ol thing to lug around so I could take this picture.  The kids liked looking through them, but it lasted all of 30 seconds.  Edgar's a good sport, though, and never complained.  Out loud anyway ;)

 

 Eli had a good time on the hike, but after an hour, it was pretty hot, and I think he was done too.  He'd been sleeping on the floor on a thin mat (Leah and I had the air mattress...sometimes it's good to be a girl) and I don't think he was sleeping very well.  He was pretty tired at the end of this little 3/4 mile hike.

In hind site, hiking is probably not the best idea to do when you camp in Florida in June.  We love going on hikes, but I think we should have just planned on spending the day in the water.  Lesson learned.

SO, we got our suits on and headed to the swim area at the campground.  The water was the spring water, so it was also 72 degrees, but we were all so hot, we didn't care.  We stayed at the water for the rest of the day, until the storms moved in.  The kids had a blast.  No pictures, though...I left my camera at the tent, and didn't want to go all the way back for it.  One of those regrets I'll have to live with :)  There were a bunch of other kids swimming with us, and Leah especially enjoyed meeting a bunch of new friends.

Then the storm came, so we went back to the picnic shelter we used on Sunday to make dinner under an umbrella again.  In the middle of the downpour Leah said she had to go to the bathroom, and I told her she had to wait.  So she stood up on the bench of the picnic table and peed everywhere.  Lovely.  So she spent the storm very cold because she no longer had shorts on. 

 

The storm finally finished shortly after we were done with dinner, and we all went and took showers, and put the kids to bed.  They were exhausted, and we didn't hear a sound from them after putting them to bed.  Edgar and I enjoyed a couple of wonderful hours sitting by the best campfire he's ever built talking and looking at the gorgeous stars.  I think that was one of my favorite parts of the trip :) 

It felt like we were finally figuring out this 'camping thing' and it was our last night. 

A really really good day :)

6.10.2013 Family Camping Trip Day 2

After a not so restful night (we couldn't find Leah's pacifier...enough said) we got up to tackle day 2 of our little adventure.

While Edgar and I got breakfast ready the kids played in buckets of water.  Amazing how little amusement they really need...

 

Edgar checking the weather forecast.  Yup...rain expected.  Goody.

We headed out to another area of the state park.  It had a beautiful swimming area...but at its shallowest spot was over our head.  AND, it was spring water.  So 72 degrees.  A little chilly.  It was hot out, though, so not unbearable.  The kids wore life jackets, and, once they finally got brave enough to get in, enjoyed it.  Eli more than Leah.  It WAS cold, though.  The fact that it was over our heads, and the kids wanted to hold onto us most of the time made it a bit more challenging for Edgar and I.  We had swim noodles, which helped, but not nearly enough.  We swam for a while, though, then got out to have some lunch.  I neglected to take any pictures :(  Keeping my head above water was apparently more important...

 

At our little picnic spot.  It was a beautiful day!

 

Leah always enjoys posing for a picture.

 

Our happy family.

 

This was the swim area from a distance.  Very pretty.  The water was so clear too.

 

After lunch we went for a hike through the garden area.  Lots of waterfalls and beautiful scenery.

 

Eli got a hold of the camera and took a ton of pictures (like over 300...yay for digital cameras.)  After going through them I noticed several of feet.  He was so entertained by taking pictures.

 

Some of Eli's shots.

 

Another foot...

 

Not a bad photographer, eh?

 

As we left that area of the park, it started to rain again.  So we headed to a nearby town and had dinner at the mall.  When we got back to our site it has stopped raining, so we had a bonfire.

 

I told Leah to act silly...this is what I got.

 

Roasting some marshmallows.  Eli kept his eyes closed the entire time...I don't think he liked the smoke or the heat.  Probably not safe to always keep your eyes closed around a fire...

 

Yum!

 

Relishing each bite!

 

Leah enjoyed hers too!

 

After smores the kids enjoyed writing on random things with chalk.  Good times.  They didn't go to sleep until almost 10...clearly we didn't wear them out enough.  Either that, or the tent was still too much of a novelty to them!

Day 2 was definitely better than day 1 :)

6.9.2013 Family Camping Trip Day 1

Our family vacation finally arrived.  We've been looking forward to our camping trip for a while now, and were so excited when the day finally came.  We got up and headed out with a LOT of gear and food.  We had a check list 5 pages long.  I'm not kidding.  In the midst of the craziness of camping, I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I wanted to.  I should have taken a picture of the back of the van.  It was packed full.  We are definitely not minimalists when it comes to camping.  In fact, after this week, we realized there were a few more things we 'needed' :)  Apparently that's why we need a van...

We arrived at our site at 1:00 in the afternoon.  It was hot.  Really, really hot.  I'm not sure why I thought it wouldn't be.  But it was insanely hot.  Our site had no shade.  In hind site, we will be checking to make sure our sites in the future have shade...I really think this particular campground was more set up for campers.  So in the blistering heat we started to set up our tent.  We got it up pretty quickly, but when we went to stake it down, the ground was like cement.  Edgar had brought a hammer, but whenever he would pound the stake it would just bend.  It was extremely frustrating.  So now we are hot, the kids are going insane, cuz they just want to play in the tent, we have to keep moving the dumb thing to find a 'stakeable' spot, it's hot (have I mentioned that?) and there is a storm approaching.  After TWO HOURS, we finally got it set up and staked down.  Oh, who am I kidding, Edgar got it staked down.  The kids had been amused by playing with buckets of water, and I was trying to help, but I don't think I really was. 

Once the site was set, we drove around a bit (to cool off...) to see what was around the area.  When we came back to start dinner, it was raining.  So we found a picnic shelter at the campsite, bought some charcoal, and grilled our chicken.  I WISH I had taken a picture of Edgar standing in the pouring rain over a grill holding an umbrella.  It would have been funny, if we weren't so hungry.  After over an hour of waiting for the chicken to finish cooking we finally ate.  The rain had stopped, and we were hoping for a nice campfire.  Then we saw another storm coming.  The REAL storm...At this point we were kinda over it...so we went to the tent and got ready for bed.

 Then it started to rain.  And rain and rain and rain.  This was the view from the tent.  We got 2 inches.  That's a lot of rain when you are staying in a tent.  At one point put my hand down on the floor of the tent, and it felt like the top of a water bed.  There was a river flowing under us I am sure...Our little Coleman tent held up pretty well.  It was leaking a little bit at the seams, but nothing too bad.  It was raining REALLY hard, so we were just glad it held up. 

 I think Edgar was pretty pooped out by this point.  We both were thinking of just packing up and going home-a very frustrating day.  Stuff memories are made of, though :) 

 Not surprisingly, the kids never had any idea anything was even wrong.  They LOVE the tent, and were thrilled to have some family time in the tent.  They played for a while before going to bed.

It was a rough start to the trip, but we made it.  And now we can say we've camped in a storm before.  There was plenty of thunder and lightning along with the torrential downpour.  So we are just that much more experienced...We also know that apparently we need to get titanium stakes if we ever go back to this campsite...

3.13.13 Celebrate with...bowling!

 So today is a day to celebrate...someone turned 40.  I'll let you guess who.  So after a hard day of work, we went bowling with the kids.  We had never gone before...but we definitely will go again!  We had bumpers up and this little ramp thing.  We tried without the ramp once.  Just once.  It took 5 minutes to make it to the pins, so we used the ramp the rest of the time.

 

 Leah did quite well!  Though all she really cared about was carrying the ball over and watching it go down the ramp.  She didn't quite get the whole goal of the process.  By the end of the game she was grabbing her ball and running to push it down the ramp all by herself.

 

Eli did really well too.  He wanted to carry the ball himself too :)  He loved it.  His Abuelo loves to go too, so I see a 'boys night' in their future.

 

 

 

I couldn't get a picture with Leah's score on it too...she had 92 I think.  I wanted to point out my score.  That's right, it was 160.  My best score ever.  We'll just ignore that 3 of my spares came from my ball bouncing off the bumper bars and knocking down remaining pins.  I'm holding on to that score for forever.