Because Mike is very into hunting for agates we switched our original plan from Baker Park to a camp site about 2 hours north of the city. When we got there on Friday night it was a dump and not what we had hoped for. So, with 1 hour of daylight left and hungry tummies, Shannon, Mike and Jeff got to work on their phones. After several phone calls we ended up going to Moose Lake State Park about 2 hours north of the cities and about 15 minutes south of our original site. We set up with the remaining minutes of daylight and were pleased. We headed to town for dinner at a local diner. It was great! Small town diners are so wonderful. Since Shannon and I known each other since college (16 years-WOW) and our husbands are friends and we are all pretty relaxed, we ended up sharing all our food and had a very nice time eating off of each others' plates. It was pretty funny. When we got back to camp we were all tired. We had a camp fire for a short amount of time and went to bed early.
It was very very cold at night. Jeff slept in the van part of Friday night. Prior to our trip he was bragging up his sleeping bag he got for his trips to Africa. I was thinking to myself that he wouldn't require a warm sleeping bag for Africa, but I didn't say anything. Sure enough, he froze in his bag that only went to 45 degrees.
The boys did super, however. They were little bugs all cozy in their sleeping bags with blankets piled on them. They were so tired each night that they went right to bed. We stayed up until 9:30 the first night and the second night they went to bed about 8, I think.
Saturday morning was very cold and Chase's hands just froze. He's always colder than Owen, or just complains more. The fire warmed us a little. Jeff made eggs, bacon and juice the first morning. There was a lot of warm coffee too. After our breakfast we decided to move our camp to the Daughtery's site. It was more fun to be at the same site.
The kids had a great time exploring the woods right behind our site. After breakfast Shannon and I took the kids on a hike through the woods on a beautiful path. We went up a big hill and right down again and the kids ran and ran. The trees lining the path were so tall and bare at the bottom with needles at the top. We walked to the lake and then back to our site.
We then went agate hunting in town at a gravel pit. Given we had no idea what an agate looked like it was an interesting hunt that didn't produce a whole lot of agates for the Bergers.
Daddy, Chase and Owen hunting rocks.
Chase and Owen at the agate site
We had a late lunch. There was a big clearing in the woods and Shannon and I (note Shannon and I and not the men) built the kids a fort out of sticks. Owen was our resident squirrel who lived in the fort and we called him Squeaky. He squeaked around and made a little pile of sticks for himself and then layed in the middle of the fort. (Chase was napping at this point). The weather was fine on Saturday, we just wore coats and sometimes mittens. Isaac came and helped by adding a room on to the fort.
After this Shannon, Mike and I took the kids down to the lake. Isaac fished, and the younger kids walked around and found a baby turtle. They had fun looking at it. Shannon saved the day and set it free. At this point in the day it was just beautiful out. We didn't need coats or anything. The leaves were just beautiful around the lake, it was very picturesque. Jeff showed up and we drove to a different part of the lake. By this time it was about 4:30. We had just gotten out of the van and I was holding Owen. He layed his head on my shoulder and suddenly he was asleep! He was so pooped he couldn't do it anymore.
Isaac and his fish.
After this we went to town, again. We went to a soccer field and Jeff shot off some rockets, which we haven't done for a long time. Jeff had a couple new rockets and the kids cheered when he finally got them going! He had some technical difficulties at first. Good thing I had those extra D batteries along. :)
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| The Daughertys and Bergers |
Owen got a hot spark on this head that burnt through the hood of his fleece. He kept talking about it and no one understood he was saying "hole". Finally I saw it and luckily it didn't burn his hair or head!
The boys had a great time with Abby, who they sometimes called Addy. They would yell her name and chase her. They called Isaac "I-Boy" and got into hanging out with him more by the night on Sat. There were a lot of exposed tree roots at our sight and the boys kept falling over them and landing with their cold hands on the dirt. They cried and cried and I felt bad for them.
We roasted hot dogs around the fire and had popcorn. The boys roasted their first marshmallow and had their first smores. They thought they were pretty cool.
Mommy and Chase
Yummmmy, Popcore and Smores, what could be better?
We all had colds so there was a lot of coughing and nose blowing.
The bathrooms were pretty ok. There was a nice outhouse with a cement floor and it was big so you didn't feel you were running into the walls all the time. They had a bath house too with flushing toilets that we went to several times.
Sunday morning we were up pretty early. Jeff made pancakes and eggs again. we packed up pretty early because I think we were just ready to go. Owen found a big slug in the grass that occupied their time for a bit.
Coming home after camping is very dirty and messy. Man, we cleaned up all day. I don't even know how many loads of laundry I did. Most of it wasn't clothes though, because I didn't change at all the whole weekend! The boys did wear different clothes I guess. Chase and Owen took a very long and needed bath.
