The first hiccup was that Steve and Chantel do not own a car right now. They planned to rent one for the weekend, but after realizing that our car would just be sitting here all weekend, we offered for them to borrow it to save them the cost of a rental. They were ready to agree, when we realized that neither of them drive standard. However, we worked it out that we could all leave at the same time and Jared would drive the car with Steve, while Chantel travelled with the kids and I in the van. First hiccup ironed out.
Second hiccup didn't pan out so well. We had booked one site for all of us to sleep in, but when we got to the campground, they told us that we were considered two family units and weren't allowed to all sleep in one stie. At least not in two separate tents. If we had had one tent, we could have done it - hmmm....money making scam here?!?! We thought so, but after a bit of a fuss and still no budging, we were forced to pick a second site. The problem with that was that it was the long weekend, so there weren't many left. We drove around and checked out the available ones and finally settled on an overflow site. A little more open than we would have liked, but it had a nice large tree for the kids to climb.
Once we paid for our new site, we finally got set up and then joined Steve and Chantel back at their site for supper. By this time it was getting quite late and rather dark. Which led to the third hiccup. We went to light our lantern so we could see to cook supper...and there was no mantle left in it. Oy vey! It was a very cold, very dark supper that night. By 10:00 pm we were ready for bed and we all crashed. At least, Jared and the kids crashed. I was FREEZING since it was about 3 degrees outside - and we were in a TENT! - yes, we are crazy! I was finally almost asleep when one of the people camping next door to us started snoring. Then Cohen woke up cold and hungry. I fed him but he wouldn't settle back down in his bed, so I had to snuggle him in with Jared and I. He proceeded to wake up another three times that night. The neighbor continued to snore the ENTIRE night! I finally got Cohen to sleep on his own bed at 7 am and slept until 9 when the other two kids woke up. I was exhausted!
Saturday went well, though, depsite our terrible night the night before. The weather was warm, but not super hot. We took the kids to the beach for a bit in the afternoon. Played on the play structure and in general, just lazed around. We picked up more mantles for our lantern so that evening we were able to enjoy smores around the campfire and we could actually see what we were doing! We bundled up a little more that night than we did the first night and I slept better, but Cohen was still awake 4 times in the night. I woke up Sunday morning ready to pack up and go home that afternoon....but I knew the older two - well, three really! - would be very disappointed if we did. So I stuck it out. Thankfully, Sunday night was a tad warmer - and by that I mean 6 degrees instead of 4 - and we also bundled Cohen in about 5 layers of clothes, so he was only up once that night. I was also warmer and so aside from being up that once, slept like a baby!
I would love to say it was a great weekend - but I just can't! The company was great. We had lots of awesome conversations with Steve and Chantel. The food was spectacular. But the weather was really, really cold which put a major damper on my weekend. I like it hot!!! I did have fun, though and am definitely looking forward to next year. I'm just praying it's a bit warmer next time!!!
Enjoying some nice cold milk.
Chopping wood for the fire.
The very large tree that Xavier had a BLAST climbing! He fell out twice, but thankfully not onto the picnic table, and with no major injuries.
Shaela was such a great helper all weekend! Here she is helping Chantel get supper ready on Sunday night.
Mmmmm....steak and potatoes over the fire!
Enjoying the fire Sunday night. Can you tell they're Folkerts'??? They both refused to put pants on despite the fact that it was about 7 degrees outside!
A campfire isn't a campfire without smores!
Our nice huge {WARM} fire on Sunday night.
Loved your blog......Sounds like old times.
ReplyDeleteSigned, 'A very very old camper'!