Words on camping and travelling with the kids.

We are slowly getting back into the swing of things at home.  Bear keeps telling me he is glad to be home and that he likes living here.  This is despite the fact that all the way driving home both kids insisted they didn't want to go home.  They wanted to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Not that I blame them.  Vacation rules, late nights, loads of family around, lots of spoiling from grandparents, and so on.  It was a kid's dream come true.  Sadly the real world must come crashing in at some point.

We had to say goodbye to some friends who are moving this week.  We just met them as he worked at the same college Tom does.  He's moving on to another college.  He has a definite plan of certain numbers of years at certain colleges and universities.  He's a librarian.  It makes me glad that Tom isn't like that.  We are pretty darn sure we have found our forever spot.  Tom loves his job and I finally got my acreage.  I don't foresee us going anywhere anytime soon.

So let's see... I keep getting asked if we really camped out with the kids.  Maybe we are totally bonkers but yes, we really camped with the kids.  I got asked this again last night at the goodbye bbq for our friends.  They all have little kids too but I don't think they have camped at all with the kids.  I can see where people wouldn't want to but it was actually a lot of fun.  We sent the kids on the hunt for firewood at one camp site.  They loved traipsing around the woods.  We checked out all sorts of flowers and even found huckleberry bushes that will be ripe a bit later this summer.  We just put the kids to work in all reality.  Haul wood, haul water, feed the dog, sweep the tent, and eat s'mores.   They loved it.

Sure it is a pain to do the set-up and tear-down but you sure can't beat the price.  No eating out, no hotel bill, and the kids are just plain tired when they are all done.  Granted they don't sleep well because everything is so exciting but they eat well and get lots of good dirt everywhere.  Kids do get absolutely filthy when camping.  Their favorite thing was to plop down in the dirt and start playing.  Thank goodness for wet wipes.

I'm sitting here thinking that I would really like to do a camping trip with the kids where we could set up the tent and camp and leave it set up for a couple of days.  That would be lots more fun that doing set-up and tear-down every single night and morning.  Maybe we'll try to work that in later this summer or next summer.  Even if we camp in our back yard for this summer.

I'm off to try to get more trip laundry done, stuff put away, and my house cleaned up a bit since we have company coming tomorrow.

Vacation

Like a dough-head I didn't take my camera on vacation.  Duh!  Tom had his so once we get a bit more unpacked I might see if he'll let me steal a couple of photos.

So let's see, we drove a total of about 2400 miles there and back.  That's a lot of miles now that I look at the numbers.  That is roughly six days of driving in the car.  We crammed both kids and the dog into the back seat, all of our stuff in the back and took off.  Camping went surprisingly well.  I still really want to make a camp kitchen box that packs and unpacks easier than the big plastic container we had with us.  It worked but it was quite the puzzle to pack and unpack.  Unpacking wasn't too bad but in the morning the packing stunk.  Especially if I hadn't had coffee yet.

Besides the puzzle of a kitchen box though things went really well.  The kids were crazy excited about not only sleeping next to each other but to be sleeping in a tent and in the same area as Mom and Dad.  This meant most nights the kids weren't down before 10 p.m. when they are normally out by about 8-9.  It worked out as it prepped them for a couple of weeks of party time for their aunt's wedding.  They didn't usually get to bed until well after 11 p.m. most nights.  Oh well.  I suppose that is what vacation is for.

Let's see... We ended up buying an airbed for Tom and I.  Yep, we wimped out.  Thank goodness we did since most of our campgrounds didn't have the most comfortable spots to set up tents.  I think next go around we'll try to get some sort of pad or mattress for the kids too.  Maybe they'll sleep sooner if we do that.  So really we ended up with two big plastic tubs, the cooler, and the tent besides our clothing bags.  It was interesting packing us for camping, travelling, and a wedding and all the extras that go with a wedding.  It meant we had a ridiculous amount of clothing.  Otherwise though we ended up not really having much.

I do wish we would have gotten a couple of camp chairs for comfort sake but for space I'm glad we didn't have them.  Also, I should have thrown in an extra tarp.  With some of the rain we ran into we could have used it to cover our stuff in the truck. 

All in all we ended up camping 3 nights outdoors, 2 nights in our Montana house, and we spent 1 night in a motel.  That was on our way home, it was pouring rain, and we didn't want to pack and unpack a bunch of times so our first night was in a hotel around Post Falls.  We only paid for camping one night too.  Our other camp spot was a free one along the river in Columbus, MT.  A very nice spot that was well run by the city.  There were bathrooms, water, and even wood for the campfires if you wanted.  Not a bad way to go while travelling.

Overall thoughts for vacation:  We had a lot of fun.  We got to see lots of people we haven't seen in ages.  We met some really nice people.  And last but not least we are really happy to be home.  Our weeds have tried to overtake the backyard/garden especially but the mower is taking care of that today.  I have loads of peas to harvest, carrots to thin, and bunnies to chase off (I found their evidence around my tomatoes this morning). 

Now that we are home we are in the market for a puppy, two kittens to go mouse hunting, and 3 chickens.  Although we discovered we apparently had a pretty good wind storm that knocked the coop over so we'll have to find a good way to anchor that before we get chickens.

I'd better get going on some lunch for my sweet husband who has been mowing all morning.  I'll continue updating on our vacation as I get time.

2 days!

And then we are off on our summer adventure.  I think I'm mostly packed.  We have a few odds and ends to put together tomorrow.  Mostly the food for out camping expedition.  I need to pick up our first CSA veggies tomorrow and do a last load of laundry so we all have clean clothes to travel in.  I think the kids and I are all packed for clothes other than my running clothes from tomorrow that I'll wash.  Tom on the other hand isn't packed at all.  That's okay, he doesn't take long and he's a big kid that can take care of that himself.  I've got the rest done.

I'm amazed at the amount of stuff we have and yet what we don't have.  I read other camping lists and can't believe how much I cross off.  Don't need chairs or tables.  Use the ground, a stump, or the vehicle.  The bins we have other stuff in will work just fine for a table.  A couple of flashlights and you're good.  No reason to have flashlights and lanterns.  I plan on sleeping at night, not running around or even reading. 

Now, I do understand that a lot of the stuff on those lists are creature comforts.  It would be great to have them along if we were r.v. camping or something.  It just doesn't make sense though for a few nights of car camping.  It is okay to "rough it" for a few days.  Good for us even.  Makes us appreciate those creature comforts even more when we get back to them.

I sometimes wonder about our adventure as every time I say we are camping with the kids people look at us like we're crazy.  I don't expect the kids to sleep much.  They'll be too excited to be sleeping in a tent, in sleeping bags, and together in the same room.  Otherwise I'm not too worried about them.  They don't need a whole bunch of stuff.  They love to play with sticks and dirt and rocks and there is plenty of that camping.  Their hips don't hurt like crazy from sleeping on hard ground like mine do.  Shoot, they sleep on their floors all the time.  In fact that is Mia's preferred spot right now.  To the point that I wonder why we have a bed for her.

I'm a little envious of them camping.  Mom and Dad will set up camp, and beds, and cook, and everything else.  They just have to worry about playing and having a good time.  I don't even worry too much about the kids travelling for a lot of hours in the car.  They've always been good travellers.  They mostly sleep or color while in the car.  Sure, we have to stop and pee a lot but that just goes with having 5 bladders to coordinate. 

I don't know if we do anything all that differently from other people or if we do it exactly the same.  We keep snacks in the car along with some little cars, some crayons and an activity book and a couple of small toys and books.  That usually keeps them entertained just fine.  Now that they are getting a bit older we can start to play road games with at least Bear too.  Spotting letters of the alphabet is a good one.  That would keep him in practice on his letters too.

I am so ready to be on the road and doing the summer vacation thing.  Tom and I really haven't done this since just before we got married.  We still have that tent in fact. Best $100 we ever spent.  At the time the tent was ridiculously large for just us and Buddy.  Now it makes more sense since we have the kids.

I should go put finishing touches on my camp kitchen. 

A little of this and that.

It seems like a million things going on.  We are off on our adventure soon, Tom went back to school for a week, and the kids and I need to get the house in shape and the garden in shape.  Almost as soon as we return from our venture my mom will be visiting.  We also have a going away deal to go to for some friends.  And to top it all off our CSA starts this week.  I can't wait for that! 

We have started to get some stuff out of our garden but it will be nice to have stuff from an established garden.  The farm that we do the CSA with has a huge greenhouse so they've had stuff going for quite some time now.  They actually do a year-round CSA as well.  I don't think I want to do that one.  I don't like squash nearly well enough. :)  Neither does the rest of the family.

Running is going well.  The other day I hit a run where I had to run for the entire 20 minutes instead of a run walk.  That was a bit rough, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Today will be two 10 minute runs.  Thank goodness.  My Saturday run had it broken into a bunch of shorter runs and on the walks I found myself getting bored and running about half-way through my walk times.

Well, if I have any hope of getting laundry done or any packing done this week I'd better get myself in gear.