Camp Trip

Chris and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary by going camping. It was hard finding a place that was open at the end of April since most places do not open until May, so when one campsite said they were open, we took it! We stayed at Merry Mac Campgrounds in Cabin C. The camp ground was nice and had a lot of extras that you could do for free (pool, board/card games, playground, etc) and other things you could purchase to do (mini golf, basketball on a trampoline etc). It was too cold for swimming but we still found ways to have fun.

The only draw back was that there were not any good hiking trails that started directly from the campground. We took the Merrimac ferry hoping to walk on ice age trail, but while there was a large sign saying it was there, we could not find the start of the trail and the trail markers were right next to the highway on the shoulder of the road. We decided not to walk that too far, and went to the Dells to do a short scenic walk there instead.

We parked in a side parking lot and did a walk on to the ferry in the day. The next day when we were leaving the campground we drove onto the ferry to take it back across.

Intermission:

Here are the robin eggs that were in the next above the door.

 Unfortunately the nest is now empty. Something ate the eggs and left the shells all over the grass yesterday. RIP

 Here is the game board "Quoridor" that I started to make around January and finally finished in April. 

Back to Camping

This is the inside of Cabin C. Grown ups got that biggest bed. Kairi was on the top bunk, Kate on the bottom and Wesley on the futon.

 Here is Chris and the cabin and his Vita. 

 Here is a s'more and a good place to put in some camping tips.

1. Just because you have four ways to cook does not mean you know how to cook. We had a fire pit, coals and grill, a propane stove and a microwave (provided in the cabin).

The first night we could not get a good enough camp fire to roast the marshmallows. So we used the coals. We went out and got some better fire starter stuff and that worked for the next night when we got the logs finally going. 

 On our last night we played a paper board game. Kairi was the winner! She is in the blue and brown coat closest to you.

 It is required that cabin rentals pay for two nights. While we did so, we left early so really only slept there one night because we needed to get Wesley to school the next day. We drove onto the ferry to get back home, which was the longer way around, but if you're there you need to do it. That leads to camping tip number two. 

2. It will take you forever to clean up camp!

I started taking down right after dinner the second night and we were not done until 9pm. That makes about three hours of camp take down because there were lots of interruptions and people who needed to use the outhouse and get more snacks and Wesley who needed a hug because he was sad and was going to "miss cabin c."  If we had waited till morning to take camp down Wesley would have been late to school even though the campsite is only 42 minutes away from home.

Here is Wesley on the ferry during the day. 

 Here is the second day successful campfire where we cooked potatoes we had wrapped at home. 

3. Double wrap all foil dinners.

Chris and I had our dinners double wrapped because we actually had BBQ sauce on ours. The kids did not and theirs got burnt. That means they ate left over pancakes and microwaved hot dogs. 

 Here is Kairi in the sand box at the playground right across from our cabin. 

 

Here is the Dells River Walk we ended up taking. 

 

 Kate and Wesley.

 Back of Kate's head and Wesley and Chris.

 Here is Kairi walking up the wall in the Dells. This was near the river walk.

 Wesley and Kate.

 Kate, Wesley, Chris, and Kairi

 Cars getting on the ferry.

 Us on the ferry.

 

At the playground. Kairi and Amanda, Wesley and Kate.

 

 I could not get the propane stove to work in the morning for breakfast because the matches kept blowing out. So we had pancakes and eggs for lunch instead when Chris got it to work.

 

 Yup, pancakes are cooking!

 Here the kids are doing coloring pages. 

 Here they are doing other quiet activities.

 Wesley is playing in a house on the beach by the pool/lake. It was too cold to actually use the water. 

 

But we did play giant connect four.

 Fire!

 You can see how close we were to the playground.

 And look a fridge and microwave were included. We did use the fridge to hold the items in our small cooler. 

4. The purchase of a two gallon water cooler was very handy as well as our purchased marshmallow skewers. Next time though I want to purchase actual camping pots and pans so that they will stack and not take up as much space. And for a bonus camping tip remember to bring something to wash your dishes with! 

 Bunk Bed party.

Playing in coats and gloves at the playground. It was around 50 Fahrenheit the first day and got up to 63 I think the second day. 

 Kairi in a baby swing.

 Kate building a small hill.

Kate and Kairi

 Kairi jumping.

 Wesley, Kairi, Kate and Chris in front of the cabin.

Easter bonus

 Here are the rest of the Easter pictures that I finally got off the camera. We hunted eggs at Epic in the desert this year with Uncle Allen and Aunt Michelle.

Here you can see Amanda in the purple sweater, Chris in the blue shirt, Wesley, Kairi and Michelle.

 Can you spot the egg he just missed?

 We even died Easter eggs too. Here is Kate and Chris.

 Wesley found an egg on a serpent eye.

Wesley, Kairi, Chris, Amanda, Kate

Kairi

 Kairi in front, Chris, Wesley, Allen and Michelle.

Easter and Spring Break

Our Fabulous Faces

 Whenever my girls want to paint, they end up painting more than just the paper. It always makes me think of the book "I ain't gonna paint no more." I showed it to them and it's a good thing they were not to keen on painting their faces, backs, arms, legs...etc. Messy hands are messy enough.

 Yes, Kairi is wearing my old P.E. (not gym it is really called P.E) shirt. Go Kennedy Titans!

 A random picture of Amanda, Wesley, and Chris

 We had to do something over spring break so we visited the zoo. Most of our zoo pictures included close ups of Kate's face. I had about fifty of these which I did not keep. This time around their favorite animal was the prairie dogs. (Not pictured here.)

 For St.Patrick's day I made this mint chocolate cake by coloring globs of white cake mix and plopping them into the pan in lumps. I thought it was tasty. We invited Allen and Michelle over for dinner and I think we had some potato and ham soup along with this and mint shakes. 

 Now you want some don't you? Sorry it is long gone.

 We decorated outside for Easter this year. I'll give you one guess where we decorated. 

 It just so happened that I was teaching the preschool Easter party on April fools day. So come on, I had to do something! I bet you are thinking these are grilled cheese sandwiches right? Actually it is toasted pound cake and frosting. Surprise! I also made carrot cake muffins in case any kid decided this was too weird. Sure enough one of them would not take a single bite. 

 On actual April fools day I created something like this so when the door opened a balloon fell through onto the person behind it. I tried it on Wesley first. It was actually almost anti-climatic because after the balloon fell he got all teary and said, "Mom why did you do this to me?" He thought he could not get past the streamers until I told him he could karate chop them. After that we had to put the whole set up a few times multiple times that day. This above picture is when we performed the trick on Chris. Unfortunately, he just slid right under everything.

 Also as our big event for spring break, I took the kids to pump it up. We actually ended up going twice in the same day. The first time it was closed (they had not updated their website about the change in open play hours). The second time the kids got to play.

 They all had a fun time.

 Here is a picture of a lap top bag I created for my new laptop. You've probably already seen it, but the new laptop is my excuse for not updating the blog for a while. It took forever to move over the pictures. 

 Wesley wanted to cook in the kitchen. His ideas usually involve getting some kind of breaded item (bread, graham bears etc) and putting them in water until they turn to mush and then adding in lots of random things....so I usually turn his cooking phases into something more editable. We made peanut butter chocolate eggs for Easter and with the extra melted chocolate we made dipped minions.

 Wesley is always excited about crazy hair day at school. He always wants his hair spiky with gel. This year crazy hair day fell during their roller skating unit at school, so his hair was flat after putting on the bicycle helmet. 

 Chris and the kids made Easter nests for Easter. 

 We stopped at the toy store at the mall to see Easter Olaf. The kids did not believe for a minute he was the real Olaf. 

 This year (and last year) I have been feeding finches. I really like the yellow and red ones. They are so pretty. I mean handsome. These are the boys so really I should get my terms right. According to my kids boys can't be pretty or cute. They might change their mind in another ten years.

 But this is what happens when birds decide they love you! I noticed the nest a day before and knocked it down. At that point it was just a few threads of old grass lumped on the top of the light and all over the ground. The next day I came out and it was fully put back up again. So I've left it. 

We have been out on the trampoline now that the weather has started to turn warmer. This year though there are two holes in the netting where mice decided to eat them during the winter while it was packed in the shed. You probably can't see the holes here. They are right behind Chris. 

The End