Since I'm gone #4( Camping day 4 & 5)

I'm still gone, so here is another post from the past..

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Camping Day 4
Day Four Wednesday
This was the day I just couldn't handle anymore camping..DH and I had went to bed about 12:30am, Since it was such a nice day Tuesday we had taken the blue rain tarp off of the tent and had put it away. MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!At 4am it started to rain. DH and I went outside in the rain and got the tarp back on the tent got it all tied down and went back to bed.. at 9am i woke up it was still raining nice an heavy just like it was at 4am Everyone was still sleeping so i just went back to bed the kids woke up at 10am and So we all got up. IT WAS STILL RAINING. we got up brushed our teeth changed our cloths and was just waiting in the tent for the Rain to let up but it never did.. by 10:30am DH had had enough rain and said We are going home till the rain stops..I agreed there wasn't anything we could do in the rain with the baby anyways.. if it was just the older ones a day in the tent might have been trying but still might have been do able but not with an active 13 month old who is walking and would hate to be in the tent all day long. So i packed up dirty cloths and stuff i wasn't using anymore and we climbed into the van and drove home.Once at home it just kept raining and raining and raining.. around 4pm the sun was out and all looked well so we went back to camp.. we got there and there was a big mud/water puddle right in the middle of our campsite but the tent was dry and the fire ring was dry so DH made a fire while I put Little Man down for a nap. We cooked steaks over the fire, OH THEY WERE GOOD..Problem was right as we were finishing up eating about 6:30 or 7pm we saw the wind pick up and big big big black clouds rolling in, i mean the likes of which i have never seen before.My Princess who is deadly afraid of storms(like my friend Ami is) grabbed Sweet Pan and Mr Man and had them run into the laundry room with her.. Little Man was awake at this point eating his dinner so i left him finish eating while DH and I tied everything down and got everything put into the screen tent, main tent and van.Next thing you know the Ranger is driving up and down the campground telling everyone to tie there stuff down and take shelter because sever storms are going to hit any min with hail, and winds up to 60 miles per hour and that we were also under a tornado warning. At this point I took the camping chairs and Little Man(who was in the stroller) over to the bathroom/laundry room(cement brick building) and was joined there by a ton of other ladies(mostly older 60' and 70' year olds ladies) A few of the kids Princess and Mr Man had met was in there with us but there parents came and told them they were leaving and heading for shelter at the super WalMart 5 minuets from the camp grounds After getting the kids settled I stepped outside to watch the storm blow in, OH MY GOODNESS it was so cool and scary.. i really really did think a tornado was going to drop right out of sky at any min, which freaked me out but in more of a rush sort of way not a panic way.. and i can hear my friend Ami now telling me i must be out of my mind LOL. I stood outside watching the lightning and the clouds, and the wind that was just blowing everything everywhere.. the kids were right inside the door, Princess was reading them books trying to keep herself from flipping out.. That was until a big crash of thunder and all the power in the campground went out.. at that point i went in with the kids and turned on the flashlights and the lantern, but with in 15 min the power was back on but the big part of the storm was there we all stayed in. The rain was coming so fast you just couldn't see anything though it and it was blowing sideways..Around 9pm the storm had past and it was just raining heavily.. but DH who had been back at our campsite holding down the fort(crazy man only took shelter in the van because he wanted to be there if anything started to blow away) came over and told us he thought it was safe for us to come back, so we rushed it all back to the tent, i got the kids ready for bed, put in a movie into the portable dvd player for the 3 older ones to watch and I nursed Little Man to sleep..DH was still outside and in the van watching stuff since it was still raining and raining and raining.. and another storm had blown in this made #5 for the day, it wasn't nearly as bad as the 1st one.. but by 11pm DH was in the tent telling me to pack what we needed we were leaving and sleeping at home.. the water in our campsite was knee deep in spots and was getting really close to the tent and there was no signs of the rain letting up anytime soon.. and besides that we were still under a tornado warning until 12:30am.I grabbed pillows and blankets, bathroom stuff and the kids and we drove home though another storm.. Got everyone into our house in the pouring rain.. just got in the door, when the tornado sirens started to go off here in our town...I just couldn't win. I took all the kids down the basement stayed down there for 30 minuets came back up was getting the kids to sleep, when they went off again and the cable was interrupted by the police saying there were two sighting of two different funnel clouds headed our way. Little Man was asleep in my arms so I had DH reach into the closet and get me his infant car seat and i placed him in it(this way i could move him and he would stay asleep) and the kids and I went back down the basement for another 30 min. Thankfully there were no touch downs..and we all were able to sleep well even if we didn't get to bed until 3am

This was my last camping post from 2006
Sunday, June 25, 2006

Camping Day 5
The End of Camping(day five.. Thursday)
Thursday morning we took the kids(except for Little Man) to my grandmas, DH and I went back to the flooded campground and took down our stuff packed it up and came home..Thankfully our tent had stayed dried and we didn't lose anything, even though some of it was under water and was muddy.But that was our camping trip.. cut short and ruined by rain and storms.What is that you ask. Do i still like camping?? Will i ever go again??OH Heck yes.. I love camping and if i had time this summer I would try to go again this summer.. I feel like I missed my camping trip this summer and if I find time I would pack it up and go again.

Since I'm gone #3(camping day 3)

Still reliving old post. The new ones should be coming sometime on the weekend.
This on I wrote on June 25, 2006

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Camping day 3
Day Three.... Tuesday
Tuesday was our only nice sunny and fun day of this camping trip..Once again we slept in... OH I am telling you this sleeping till 9am thing is WONDERFUL!!!I need to make the kids sleep out in fresh air more often, they all sleep so well when we are camping. One of the things DH and I like most about camping is how we can just throw the clock away and relax and take everything at a much slower pace, So we just took our old sweet time doing everything Tuesday morning. I think i got around to making breakfast at about 10am. I was making waffles(i took my waffle maker and we had electric at the camp site really roughing it you know LOL) we ate breakfast and the kids went to the playground(which was right across the street from our site) and DH took Little Man for a walk while i did the dishes and cleaned up..When DH got back he had made up his mind that today should be Island day.. so we packed up the van and caught the 12pm ferry over to the Island we spent the day there doing island stuff and then went to the beach there, ended up at the beach for over 2 hours.. my kids love the beach.After the beach we showered up and was going to go have dinner at my favorite restaurant on the Island only to find when we got there they had closed down and was under new ownership and didn't have my favorite wings anymore, so we just left and caught the 6pm ferry back over to the mainland and hit a steak house over there(LOL we didn't do hardly any camp cooking like we are use to doing)We got back to the camp site after eating and make a campfire, DH and the two older kids took a night time hike, while Sweet Pea and I got all the making for smores ready, when they got back we did smores and the kids went to bed around 11:30pm that night. While DH and i sat by the fire for another hour.and that was the end of our only sunny and fun day of camping.

Since I'm gone #2(camping day 2)

Still re posting old post, since I"m still gone.. This one is about our camping trip back in 2006 I wrote this post on June 22, 2006
We didn't do a big long camping trip summer of 2007 and after re reading these camping post from 2006 I now remember why.. boy I hope we are having a much better camping trip this year :)

Camping Day 2
Day Two Monday
Monday morning we woke up sort of late 9am. The kids played for about 30 min in the tent and then got dressed. We ate breakfast and while my niece and Princess helped me clean up from breakfast and helped get the tent cleaned up, DH took the younger 3 on a walk. When the older girls and I were done the 3 of us took walk down one of the nature trails that lead to the lake. That was fun, but sort of a long walk for me, out of shape as I am LOL.After the walk we got dressed and the 7 of us went and spent about 2 hours at the beach. Which i had my pics of this camping trip to add to the blog but it will be a few days before i have those ready.After the beach i got all 5 kids showed and dressed. Princess and E(my niece) had a ball game Monday night and it was an hour and 15 min drive to the game.. So as I was showering up and getting dressed DH was cooking lunch. We had just finished cooking the hot dogs and hamburgers as this huge gust of wind came out of nowhere and blew everything over.. i grabbed the food, DH who was closer to Little Man grabbed the baby and we got all the kids and the food in the van and let the kids eat there lunch in the van, as DH and I tied down all the tarps and tents and got the campsite all set ready for a storm, which hit just as we finished picking up.. Though the wind was so strong, our stakes went flying out of the blue tarp and across the street into another campsite. DH held down the fort with our main tent while I held down our big screen tent.. Luckily for us this was a Strong but fast storm and blew over us in less then 30 mins. Though by the time it was all said and done it was time to get the girls to there ball game and take E home.While we were gone another big storm hit the campgrounds and left our campsite 1/2 underwater.. thankfully the tent was dry.. BUT both of these storms followed us to the ball game, the short storm got there just as we did and ended up having the game delayed 30 mins. The 2nd storm hit us an hour later and this was ONE HUGE STORM and they called the game ONLY the storm was so bad we had to rush it to my parents house to seek shelter until it passed..After it was over we took my niece to her house, she wanted to camp with us the rest of the week but my SIL said no, don't think i blame her, 1st Tuesday was my nieces birthday and 2nd we were under tornado warnings. Just as we started to leave there the tornado sirens were sounding so we rushed it over to my MIL's house and stayed there until it passed..A little after 9pm we were on our way back to the campground. Another late night and no dinner so we hit a McDonald's and took it to the camp site.. by this time DH was less then thrilled he loves to do camp cooking but with these storms it just wasn't happening. We got back to the camp ground at 10:30pm started a campfire and ate our McDonald's food.. went to bed about midnight that night.I have a story to tell about our trip back to the campground that night but I'll save that for a different post also.

Since I'm gone #1(back from camping)

LOL LOL LOL..
After reading this post I have myself questioning if camping is the way I want to spend our vacation this summer LOL.. OH well too late now i guess because I'm already gone. While I'm away I'm going to be reposting some post I posted two years ago back before I had any readers.
Here is a post I wrote on June 22, 2006
Thursday, June 22, 2006

Back From Camping
and I"m bummed.We just got back from what should have been a 6 day camping trip that turned into only 3 nights and alot of traveling. We knew going into this trip that we would have to leave the campground Sunday afternoon, and then Monday night and then Thursday night, but when we were staying Sunday - Friday that didn't seem to bad.Let me tell ya how this trip went.1st lets go back to Saturday.. my oldest dd asked if we could take our niece with us so we gave in and said yest which meant we had to make an extra trip to pick her up Sunday night which wasn't planned.. Now on to Sunday.Day On Sunday.. we sent the kids off to church with my grandparent and mistake #1 DH and I skipped church thinking it would be easier to set up camp without the kids.. WELL we should have went to church.. There was NOTHING easy about setting up camp.. what normally takes us 10 mins took us about an hour.. the wind was so strong and wouldn't let up.. so every time we just about had our main tent up it would blow away.. I'm telling you.. i really think we should have went to church then set up camp I think it would have been easier.. anyways.. after going crazy and only getting 1/2 of what we wanted to get done at the campsite we had to leave to go pick up Princess for her tournament team ball game. We drove home picked her up and as we were driving to her ball game we saw really dark clouds in the direction of our camp. We hadn't put the rain fly on the tent so we drove out of our way to get that on. Sadly we were too late and the tent was soaked.. so I took towels and dried it up and we got the rain fly on the tent and then headed off to the ball game.let me take a moment to explain how much driving this was.. 45 min from our house to the campsite, 45 mins back home, 45 mins back to the camp site, then about 1 hour and 15 min from the campsite to the ball game.The game was good, but we were sort of in a rush cuz after the game we needed to get to my nephews graduation party and then pick up my niece.. ONLY a stormed blew in and ended up having a rain delay in the middle of the game. A 45 min rain delay.. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! after the game we rushed back to the town my parents live in(a 2 hour drive from the ball park) Got there picked up my middle children and got to the graduation party just as everyone was packing up and leaving. Thankfully my nephew played tournament traveling baseball since he has been little and totally understood. We got my niece and about 9pm was heading back to the campsite(a 1 hour and 15 min drive) Since we had missed the party and didn't have dinner we stopped by a pizza hurt close to the campground and ordered pizza. We also had to make a stop at the super walmart cuz we didn't get a chance in the morning(with how long getting the tents up took) to go to the store and buy supplies and food and such)When it was all said and done about 11pm we were sitting around a campfire eating pizza Then the kids went to bed around 12:30am.About 1am we head thunder and DH and I had to get up and out of the tent and put the big blue rain tarp we had just bought that night onto the tent.. Then we went to bed at that time there wasn't any rain. but at 3:30am a BIG storm hit and the rain just poured down for a whole hour, little did i know that was going to be the small storm of the week. Thankfully the kids were so tired and all 5 of them slept right though it.. i was out of it also and went back to sleep though it. DH OTOH stayed up though it worried about water getting into the tent, which didn't happen, the tarp did wonders. I have a funny story from day 1 at the campsite.. but I'll save that for another post.. think I'll end this one now before it turns into a book.