More Camping!

We are back from yet another camping trip! The girls are getting to be old pros at this - we even got them to sleep in the same bed! (Miracle of miracles.) Now I'm just counting the years till they can sleep out in a tent and I don't have to listen to them cackle all night. I considered trying to discipline them, but remembered how Jess and I used to play long into the night, even if we got in trouble. I figured I'd save myself the battle and let them play. Until about 3 in the morning, when we decided to separate them till they fell asleep, then transplant them into a shared bed. (And no, I'm not exaggerating.) This trip was our annual trip with Aunt Ann and Uncle Marcel, which I love because Aunt Ann always makes us a big breakfast and always has coffee brewing.

This time we traveled to a state park north of Lansing, and it is definitely a "keeper." Saturday we headed to the zoo, and when we got there they let all of us in free! Our zoo membership doesn't include guests, but they just gave it to us anyway. Can't beat that. The zoo was very cool, with several animals I had never seen nor heard of. Not that I'm some budding naturalist or anything, but these were some weird critters! They also had both pony and camel rides, which Elianna loved. Even Selah went on her first pony ride, but she was not too thrilled with the camel so we saved our money. Uncle Marcel treated Elianna to a camel ride, and even went on with her. I positioned myself to take a video, got a couple seconds into the video and... click, my camera died. I am doomed to only get three second videos of camel rides.

After naps, we headed to the beach for the evening, and although we grown-up girls were huddled in sweatshirts, the girls gleefully played in the water! They have no concept of cold...until the walk back when they both decided they were too cold to walk and had to be carried. After such an action-packed day, I was shocked when the girls wanted to go to the playground and played there until almost dark! I don't know who was more tired, kids or grown-ups, but they slept well that night. Thankfully.

The next morning we took a hike, checked out a fishing pier (where Daddy had discovered the night before, while fishing with Uncle Marcel, that there were no fish...) then packed up to come home.

Now, it's back to scrubbing out the trailer, doing all the laundry, and un-packing all the junk a weekend trip entails. Which is more junk than many people in some countries own in their entire possession. But, it's worth it. My best memories growing up are camping, and I want my girls to truly know how to have fun as a family. We're also blessed with wonderful family like Aunt Ann and Uncle Marcel. We've traveled the state over (and even to Arizona) with them, and they're always so much fun - we look forward to our next trip!!!

P.S. I know what you're thinking - blah, blah, blah, who cares about the rambling, just post pictures! Well, with my camera dead and the spare batteries confiscated by my daughter to power the Leap Pad I picked up at a yard sale the day we left... I have to wait until Aunt Ann e-mails me her pictures!

New Addition

We are so excited about the new addition to our family!!!!!

This was a gift from Uncle Victor and his boys, and it included everything but the water!!!! Ladder, filter, cover, chemicals, you name it... plus even a couple duplicates. They were even nice enough to get it all out of the garage rafters for us before they went on their trip to Niagara Falls. Thanks, Uncle and boys!!!!! Now Elianna has yet another reason to idolize you, not that she needed it. I can't begin to tell you how excited we are!! Elianna especially loves water. Now if it would just warm up. It's been hot and muggy... until we set up the pool. Now it has barely hit 70!!!

Setting it up was hilarious - we looked like such rednecks. (First of all, another big fat thanks to Mikey at the hardware store for letting us use the sod cutter for free. That was a huge help!!!) Chad works so many hours that it was late in the evening before we could work on it. So, right when we are ready to add the water, it gets dark. Undaunted, Chad drove his truck back there and worked by the light of the headlights!!! This is not the first project we've done at night. Jon and Eric worked in the dark painting Mom's Mother's Day gift. (I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but Jon is wearing a head light to see where he's painting.) The joys of a hardworking family.

Power Outage! And other disasters...

AAACK! We came home from camping to find our power out. What a pain!!! On top of all the "post trip" stuff I had to do (including washing three huge loads of soaking wet, stinky clothes, but that's another story) I had to deal with trucking our food around to people who had working refrigerators!! Hey, we can't afford to just let our food go to waste, so in spite of the heat, clogged drains, and two crabby kids I had to haul over 70 pounds of food in coolers to my parents house. Of course, once I got there, I remembered that they have a generator that can power a fridge, a freezer and a couple lights. Yes, this is AFTER I haul all our food there. Argh. Oh well, at least we didn't lose our groceries!!

As for why our clothes were soaking wet, we were at the beach the last day of our camping trip with Sarah and Eric. Suddenly, the sky just gets black and it starts to thunder. Naturally, everyone starts grabbing their stuff and high-tailing it away from the lake. Then, the tornado siren goes off. FOR PETE'S SAKE! The last time we went camping here, a tornado hit. What's with that!??! We are scrambling to pick up our stuff, which is considerable. If anyone has ever taken two kids three and under to the beach, you realize the insane amount of junk they require. I can see the lightning over the water, and all I can think of is that scene in "Sweet Home Alabama" where the lightning strikes the sand. We finally all have armloads of stuff and start running for the car when the rain hits. Not just rain, sheets of water came rolling across and you were drenched in seconds. The wind was blowing so hard we could barely stand, not to mention hold all of our stuff AND the two girls. The rain was pelting my back, which was sunburned, and I thought, "Man, that rain really hurts!" I suddenly realized, it wasn't rain - it was hail. OUCH. Eric got pelted while trying to get our stuff into the car/trunk. Sarah and I huddled over Elianna while Chad tried to cover Selah and get the car unlocked at the same time. The whole time I am hoping/praying we don't either get struck by lightning or sucked up by a tornado. (And also, making a mental note to avoid this campground for future reference.) We finally all cram into the car, soaking it in the process, and wait until it lets up enough for us to run for the camper, which was, fortunately, in the same parking lot, since we were on our way home. We get inside, and I get the bright idea to throw our sopping wet clothes in with the dirty clothes, since I figured we could just wash it all when we get home... not realizing, of course, that that our power was out at home. So, you can imagine how nice THAT smelled.

Well, it all worked out. I took all our food AND stinky clothes to my mom's, and by the time I got all the clothes washed the power came back on at our house. We've had two more storms since, but nothing as severe and haven't lost power. Oh, and it blew most of the fabric off my garden, so now there are weeds galore back there.

Now, I have a messy house to clean, a garden to weed/repair, two parties to host, and a big, fat work assignment. So why am I blogging in these precious minutes my kids are napping? Good question. Guess I'd better get to work.