OuR 1sT fAMiLy CAmPinG AdVenTuRE!!!

Since last summer we have been looking to buy a small used camper to be able to take little weekend vacations here & there. It was really hard to find one that was in our price range, not a piece of crap & a size that we would be able to park at our house. Well after alot of looking, we finally found one a few weeks ago. I immediately began planning our first trip! I had a few people tell me about this camp ground in Cooperstown that has a small animal farm, a mini golf course, hay rides, a fishing pond & pony rides, all fun things to entertain the boys. & it is only 40 minutes from home.

We went this weekend. Being so close to home the plan was to go out on friday, I'd have everything packed & ready to go & kids bathed so after Fred was done working we could head out & get settle in for the night. Then saturday morning we'd get up & have breakfast together & then Fred could drive back to town & work for a few hours & come back up when he was done working @ 1:00. So we would then have all saturday afternoon & sunday to enjoy camping! Well it never fails things dont always work the way they are planned!

~friday~ I get out of work, go get ice, go home & pack up the last few things. Go drop the dogs off @ my parents house. Then go pick up the boys, bring them home & stick them in the tub quick & Collin decides to poop in the tub!!! AGAIN! So quick get them out, get the poop out, drain & sterilize the tub, stick them back into the tub & finish washing them. Well getting them dressed Fred gets home from work, hook up the camper, load up the trucks (we took both since he had to come back to work the next day) & we head out. I had to stop for gas & realized I forgot the camping chairs so I sent Fred home to get them while I got gas, ok NOW WE ARE READY!!

We get to the campground, get checked in & start to set up. We notice that the campround is not exactly as nice as people had told me! It took a little longer to get settled than we thought it would. We found out that the lights inside didnt work, good thing I bought a couple little lanterns! We couldnt tell if the fridge was working or see if there was any kind of on/off switch. & so now it's almost 9:00 & we are all starved!! I then ask Fred "where is the grill????" he replies w/ "yeah. . . . . I was waiting to tell you. . . " I immediately knew, HE FORGOT IT!!!! Well good thing the camper has a little stove & I packed frying pans! So by the time we ate we were all tired & grumpy & decided to just go to bed. It was a rough night! It was cold & rainy, kids were up multiple times & there was some sort of bird that was making all kinds of squawking noises every 20 minutes!!!





~ saturday~ After a night of not much sleep the lovely rooster decided @ about 6:30 he needed to tell me it was time to get up!! & for those of you that dont really know me, I am NOT an early bird!! So well the boys were all sleeping, I decided to walk over to the showers before everyone in the campground had the same idea! It was really nice getting to take a super hot shower for as long as I wanted w/ out being rushed or some one coming into the bathroom to go pee, ask me a question, or just come in to come in! When I got back we had breakfast & then Fred headed home to work for a few hours .




So while Fred was working the boys & I went to check out the animals @ the farm. They had quite a few different kinds of animals, cows, chickens, the rooster!, peacocks, pheasants, horses, a reindeer {it looked like it had mainge or something!} goats, sheep & ducks. When we finished there we went back to the camper to have some lunch. I open up the cooler to find that the chicken that I had marinated that was in a plastic container & wrapped in a plastic bag leaked all over everything! OMG!!! what a mess! I ended up trying to empty everything out & wash as much of it as I could down w/ disinfecting wipes. & unfortunately had to throw a bunch of stuff away. And that is about the time when it began to rain. We finished up lunch, and Fred came back from working. Over the next few hours it progressively rained harder & harder. The poor kids were getting stir crazy from only having a small area to play, so we decided to take a ride & try to find something to do. We ended up at a diner to eat dinner, and then found a Walmart to get them a new movie & toys. The best part of the day was all 4 of us sitting down together w/ some popcorn & watching a movie together before bed.

{Just being boys & having some fun! Ethan is trying to give daddy a wet willy!!}

~sunday~ The rain finally stopped!!! After breakfast I began to start packing up while Fred & Ethan went to the pond to go fishing. For weeks Ethan has been so excited about going fishing! He had never been before. I bought him a Lightning McQueen light up fishing poll! With in the first 25 minutes I heard them walking back calling my name. He caught his first fish!! YAY! He was so very excited! They went back to the pond to release it and in about 20 minutes he caught his 2cd fish! And then a few minutes later, the 3rd!!! I think he would have spent the entire day at the pond if he could have! But it was time to head home! And just in time to, as soon as we pulled into our drive way it began to rain again!

It was quite the weekend! Definitely a learning experience, figuring out what we should have & shouldnt have brought w/ us & finding out what worked & what didnt. Even though it was a rough weekend, it isnt detouring us from doing it again! We have already booked a site someplace else for in a few weeks.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Thanx Emily!!

Thanx Emily for the AWESOME bath towels!!




They refused to cooperate to take a pic together!!



Emily made Collin a really great hooded bath towel for his birthday. Ethan was really jealous & kept wanting to use it! He liked it so much that I had to ask her to make him his own!

Thanks Em for being such a great friend & so super talented!!

ALL ABOARD!!!!!!!!!

We took the boys to North Creek NY to see Thomas the Train on Sunday. We met Emily, Seamus, Grace, and their grandparents {AKA "Nanny & Poppy"}. I'm sure most of you already read Emily's blog since she beat me to blogging about our fun day! But I will share too for those who didnt.

So our day didnt exactly start off too great! We all got up early, got dressed, packed the car up, and we were off! Ethan insisted on eating french toast stix for breakfast, so we made a pit stop @ Burger King to grab breakfast for the road. I program the GPS, it gives us our route & we hop on the thruway & we then realize it is telling us it will take over 3 hours to get there, I begin to PaNiC!! Last week when I mapquested the directions it told me it would take us 2 hours & 7 min. to get there, but it was a different route! Of course I didnt print it out since we have a GPS! I had no clue what to do. . . I franticly call Emily! She gets on mapquest & sure enough only 2 hours & 7 min. but it's a different route! Ok, so we decide to get off the thruway at the next exit, the GPS then keeps telling us to turn around! And I keep trying to have it give us the same route mapquest was giving us, but it wasnt until we were 25 min into the route. And it is still telling us it's going to take over 3 hours to get there, Emily & the kids were going to be there by 11:00 so that meant they'd be there for over an hour waiting for us! OMG! Freaking out! {{{ OK, MOM DONT READ THIS PART! }}} Fred is now doing 70+ MPH the whole way thru winding country highways. We are now making really good time & the GPS is taking minutes off of our arrival time, looks like we might make it by 11:30! THEN. . . . . Ethan says his belly hurts, OH NO!!!! So typical parent questions. . ."do you have to go pee pee???" he says "no" . . "do you have to go poopy???" he says "no". . "do you have to puke?????" w/ fingers & toes crossed. . he says "no"! Ahhh thank goodness! I said "your belly probably feels funny cause you just ate & drank orange juice & now the car is jiggling your belly around plus your watching a movie, you'll be fine, it'll be ok" So he goes back to watching his movie. 5 min. later Ethan says "mommy. . . .I think I gotta puke!" OH MAN!!! I look @ Fred we both agree we cant stop or we'll never make it! Holy Crap! What are we gonna do??? I look down to see what can i use to catch it? {There will be NO "mommy bowl" use in the car!!!} OH a Coffee cup! I Quick roll down the window, dump it out, & get it under his chin as he starts to gag! He then says " I dont have to puke anymore" Thank God I keep there for another minute cause he did! OMG!! Good save! Now he says w/ a smile " mommy, my belly dont hurt anymore!" and he goes back to his video. Ok big sigh! I think we are ok now! Well we made it! & we made in great time w/ out any other "incidents"!! {Oh, by the way, Collin slept the whole trip! Thank goodness!}

So the Day out w/ Thomas was alot of fun! The kids loved the train ride and all of the fun activities they had. The weather ended up being real nice compared to the weather man's predictions. No rain & the sun was shining but the wind was nasty!

Time for a photo w/ Thomas!

Here is a video of the kids, Fred & Poppy coming back from their train ride. { No the video isnt playing in reverse! lol! They dont actually turn the train around, they just back it up.}

Ethan got a Thomas tattoo.

The kids patiently waiting to go in the bounce house.

After we were all done @ Thomas we went into Lake George to grab some lunch. We went down to the beach after eating and let the kids stick their feet in the water. The boys had a blast throwing rocks in the water. We ended the day with a delicious treat @ Ben & Jerry's! Yummy!

Despite the rocky start the day turned out great! Thanks for the fun day Em, Seamus, Gracie, Nanny & Poppy!!