That Wasn't So Bad

Our little camping trip went remarkably well. Sure, I forgot the camera at home, we got a late start and almost didn't get to the campground in time to get the key for our little cabin. Thankfully I had my phone and Ben managed to grab the girl at the camp store before she left for the night, so all's well that ends well.

Here's our little cabin in the woods. (Except not so much in the woods, so more like our little cabin by an unmowed field)





We arrived pretty late the first night, so we didn't do much more than unpack and go to sleep.



The next day was jam packed with action.

We did a little playing on the playground.




Visited the lake (the girls first time ever seeing any body of water larger than a pond)



Went to the beach.


Played in the sand.


Swam like little fish.


Played in the sand some more.

Had some friends over for dinner.


We, of course, had a gigantic thunderstorm our second night there. Apparently, if you want it to rain, just tell us to go camping. Thanks to our little cabin, we stayed perfectly dry. I do have to admit that I was more than a little nervous about Adelae sleeping in the top bunk inches away from the canvas roof as the wind howled, rain pelted and lightening flashed. So, I woke her up, tucked her in bed with her Daddy and attempted to fall back asleep.

The next day we decided to head home early. Our original plan was to head to the zoo, but with Brinna's fear of everything that moves, we thought it might not be such a good idea. We headed back to the beach to collect some shells and take some more pictures before we headed home.

One last summer fling

The end of summer is upon us. Before too long Adelae will be starting her second year of preschool, the weather will get colder and I imagine the snow will start to fly. We've truly made the most of our summer. We've had one party after another, or so it seems. It's left very little time for our little family to just be together, something we really enjoy. So, when Ben's boss told him he needed to start using his vacation time and I had 2 days off in a row, we decided we were going to get away. Adelae has been begging to go camping, so camping we shall go!

You might remember our last camping trip that didn't turn out so great. If not, definitely go read about it, it truly was The Trip That Had It All (and then some). But, now we're a year older and a year wiser so we thought we'd try it again.

I checked the weather radar and there's not a chance of rain, Brinna's old enough to walk by herself, the sand toys are already in the car, and we've packed lots and lots of stuff to do. I'm sure that something will go wrong, things always seem to, but I know that we'll survive and have fun anyway.

The Trip That Had It All

We recently decided to embark on a camping adventure. In my infinite wisdom, I picked a camp ground close to home, ya know..so if things went wrong we could leave. **Ahem**
Well, the trip was..um...eventful..yeah..that's the word...eventful. We woke on Thursday morning armed with lists and hopeful attitudes. Unfortunately, Adelae also woke with a horrible stomach bug. I won't go into details, but let's just say we changed panties a lot before we left the house and packed a few extra diapers. That should have been my first clue that maybe we should stay home. But, nope! Ben insisted that we go ahead with our plans. So, we did!

Thankfully the kids slept most the hour drive.




I should mention that an hour isn't nearly long enough for a sick preschooler to nap.



Brinna was really excited to be at the campground.




Thankfully, Adelae's stomach bug was fairly short lived (if you can consider 10 hours, 5 of which were at a camp ground short lived). She was able to play at the playground and make Twizzler mustaches by the campfire.




The rest of Thursday was pretty uneventful. The air mattress didn't deflate, the tent didn't come crashing down on us and no bears ate us. (Not that there are bears there, but ya know...kind of a concern when sleeping in the woods.) We did see a raccoon, but he was pretty friendly. At least that what I was telling myself when he was about 2 feet from me. I would have taken a picture, but I was too scared to move. I hate raccoons.

Friday was an absolutely gorgeous, if hot, day. We hit the beach, thinking the kids would LOVE to cool off. Other than Adelae screaming like we were trying to drown her, it was fun.


We even rented a paddle boat! The scenery on the lake was just gorgeous and so peaceful. I could have floated all day.


Given the start to our trip, I should have known that something bad was about to happen. Should have just KNOWN. Friday night the sky got REALLY dark and we started to hear thunder. I checked the weather radar on my phone and sure enough there was a HUGE thunderstorm approaching. After much talking (Me: We need to go home. Ben: no we'll be fine. Me: no, seriously..let's go home. Ben: No, seriously we'll be fine.) we decided to ride out the storm in the car. It wasn't a big deal. We got a lot of wind, a lot of rain and couple of lightening strikes. Ben and I had a couple of beers, we cranked some fantastic 80's rock and made the most of the storm.

Little did I know, there was another huge storm coming. I woke up at about 1:00 in the morning to lightening so close it made the hairs on my arms stand up and thunder so loud I thought it was the end of the world. The wind was blowing so hard that I was convinced our tent was going to take flight. Everyone slept through it but me. I kept thinking "Whose bright idea was it to put our tent underneath of two trees. Oh yeah..mine..." Luckily, we escaped the storm with no major damage. The tree that was 15 ft from our camp sight..not so much




All in all, we still had a lot of fun. We learned a few things like 1)don't go camping with a sick preschooler 2)don't forget the sand toys 3)take Brinna's walker 2)leave if the radar says there are severe thunderstorms. We'll definitely go camping again...next year.

Our little mini vaca

We were fortunate enough to be able to go to Kalahari about a week ago (ok it was a little longer than a week). I promised to get the pictures up and, well, life just got in the way. I'm working on a rather heavy post for (hopefully) tomorrow, but ya just never know!

We really did have a blast at Kalahari. In case you're not familiar, Kalahari is a massive indoor waterpark. We went to the one in Sandusky, OH and it was a BLAST! When we first got there and Adelae was crying and Brinna was crying I looked and Ben and said "Well, this was a waste of money." Luckily, they both warmed up to it after a bit. It took us literally forcing Adelae to go down the slides in the kids area, but it worked. She was a pro after about 5 minutes.





Brinna was a wee bit overwhelmed by all the noise and the people. She pretty much stuck with me on the sidelines while Adelae played. That was ok with both of us. I did get her to sit in the little swing and in the water with me for a bit.

Surprisingly enough, she took really long naps both days we were there. At home I can't get her to sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time!

They also have a fantastic dry play area for babies, which was much more Brinna's speed.


Ben got to ride lots of crazy water slides that I would never ever attempt, cause I'm a big scaredy cat. He and Adelae also LOVED the wave pool.



I am so glad that we took the time to take a little mini vacation. We're contemplating going back this summer :)