Camping at Gull Lake

Yikes, am I ever behind this week! First, I wanted to post about our camping trip last weekend. A couple people have asked me about it... It was a good trip, with no major mishaps! We only went for one night, as we had another commitment last Friday night. (Usually we head out Friday after Joshua is home from work, and camp for 2 nights.) So, we finished packing up on Saturday morning, picked up breakfast at Tim Horton's and enjoyed the nice drive together. We got to Gull Lake around noon. We quickly set up our tent and inflated the air mattresses. The tent was a little stinky after being packed away for so many months! It was good that it had a few hours to air out before we had to sleep in it!

We changed into swimsuits and headed to the beach. Lunch was chicken fingers, cheeseburgers and onion rings from the concession stand. It was a nice, sunny day, but there was a pretty good breeze coming off the water. It was quite cool! Joshua and I had no interest in the water, but the kids were crazy enough to get in a few times! I waded in once, and although the water wasn't that cold, any wet part of the body exposed to the breeze was freezing! There's a huge playground right on the edge of the water, so the kids had fun playing there. Sara recently figured out how to do the monkey bars and that's all she wants to do. Unfortunately for her, she went about 30 times on Saturday and got huge blisters on the palms of both hands! One of them burst open too. Poor kid! That made the rest of the afternoon a little difficult. Even playing in the sand was painful... Sky spent lots of time in the sand, making roads and hills. He's my little creator, always building something! I didn't take any pictures. The only one I took all weekend is the one you see above. (Relaxing by the fire while supper was cooking over the coals.) Bad mommy!

Our night was also good. No rain and no wind - it suddenly got very calm around supper time. We enjoyed supper, Daddy's Yummy Campfire Meal. Afterwards, we took a walk down to the boat dock to watch people loading their boats back onto their trailers. That's always entertaining! You can tell the novices from the experienced ones right away! Then, it was s'mores over the campfire time, clean up and bedtime! We all slept quite well and neither kid had an accident in their sleeping bag. That's always a fear of mine!

Sunday morning we had muffins for breakfast and packed up our stuff. The wind and some clouds blew in again while we were eating, and briefly splattered a few raindrops on us. The clouds blew away, but the wind stayed. We attempted to spend more time at the beach, but it was extremely windy and cold. The kids played on the playground a bit, we played a family game of tag on the sand, and then decided to find somewhere warm to eat lunch! We had breakfast for lunch at our favourite restaurant in Red Deer. After lunch, we drove around exploring the countryside a bit before heading home. Unpacking the car was so easy because everything was dry and could be put away immediately! Last year, we had so much rain on our camping trips that we were always drying things out before we could put away. It was a treat to not have to do that!

So, our first camping trip was a success! We're looking forward to the next weekend trip out July 17-19!

Aloha Friday #17 - Summer Camping!

It's Aloha Friday! As a reminder, Aloha Friday is a blogging tradition that originally started with Kailani over on An Island Life. I ask you a simple question, and you answer! It's a great way to interact with family and friends and to meet new bloggy friends along the way! To participate, just head over to Kailani's blog and follow the instructions. But...you do not have to link up to answer the question!

Today's question is:
Do you go camping as a family? If you so, do you have a tent, tent trailer, or RV/5th wheel trailer?

Today, I'm packing up for our first weekend camping trip of the summer! Last year was our first year to camp - ever - so it was a pretty steep learning curve! We have a nice, big, 3 room tent that has worked really well for our family so far. Throughout the summer last year, I worked on making a master packing list, that I keep on the computer. When it's time to go camping, I just print out a fresh list and cross things off as I pack. We pretty much have everything contained to 4 Rubbermaid tubs, plus the coolers for cold food. The tent, sleeping bags, and mattresses go in the car top carrier we have for skis in the winter. I have all the grocery shopping done, so I don't have to run out for that today. Last year, we had to buy EVERYTHING because it was our first year. Last night, when we pulled everything out of the storage room, it was so nice to already have everything we need! Sara and Sky are so excited! We are going to our favourite spot, about an hour and a half away. There's a lake with a really great beach and huge playground right on the edge of the water! The water is shallow for a long way out, so it's great for small children...and quite warm! We're hoping the nice weather we've had lately holds up for the whole weekend. Now I'm off to bake some muffins and pack up our clothing! I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!

P.S. You have to check out our favourite camping meal - Daddy's Yummy Campfire Meal. I posted this on the recipe blog I participate in, Recipeasy, last summer. You'll love it - I guarantee it!

100th Post!

Wow! This is my 100th post! I'll celebrate by making it one of my shortest posts ever... Tomorrow morning we're heading to Jasper, AB for the big family vacation camping trip! It's been a busy day, doing laundry, packing bags and tubs, washing fruit, etc. I think it's about ready... I just have to grate some cheese... (Should've bought the pre-grated stuff, but couldn't bring myself to pay the price!) Joshua had all of last week off of work as well. We had such a fun week, but I'll have to post all about it when we get home. The highlights were shopping at the mall, visiting the Science Centre, and a day at the Calgary Stampede. Oh, and learning to play Guitar Hero - Joshua found one at the mall on Wednesday! The kids are worn out, so maybe that will help them sleep really good while we're camping... I think we'll have fun, as long as it doesn't rain too much and the bears stay away... :-) Jasper is just beautiful and there are so many lakes and waterfalls and canyons to explore there! I'm really looking forward to it!

I'll leave you with a few pictures from this weeks activities.

Here is astronaut Sky...

This is Sara being elevated on a bed of nails at the Science Centre! We all tried it- very freaky!

And now we have cowboy Sky, chewing on a piece of grass...

And the very adorable cowgirl, Sara! Doesn't she look great in a cowboy hat?!

I'll be back to report on the camping trip next week! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Boys and Their Toys

I wanted to post this little video of Sky from our day at the lake while we were camping. At the same time that Sky was happily playing on his little inflatable jet ski, Joshua was dreaming and scheming about the day he would own a real jet ski of his own!

I said, "You just want one because you don't know how to relax." (This is true.)

He said, "I am relaxed." (Execpt that he was enviously eyeing all the people with boats and jet skis.)

I said, "Yes, because you don't have a choice. There are no other options right now! If we had a jet ski, we'd be constantly on the go!"

I think I got a man grunt in response.

In the meantime, I enjoyed watching my son enjoy being a little boy. And tried to relax as much as possible...while I still can.

Camping Pictures!

This weekend was our debut family camping trip! I spent the majority of last week making lists, shopping, packing, more shopping, and otherwise stressing about this family adventure we were about to embark on! Our neighbours, the J family, just bought a new trailer, so we invited them to come camping with us. They have two kids, Taryn, who is 7, and Jory, age 10. It was also their debut trip with the new trailer! We spent the week stressing together! :-) When Joshua came home from work on Friday, we loaded up the car and were on our way! We stopped at Wendy's for burgers and fries, and drove northwest to Gull Lake, about an hour and a half drive. We arrived around 9 p.m., set up everything (which went VERY smoothly, by the way!), then went for a short walk to check everything out. The kids were way too wired to go to sleep right away! Eventually it was time for bed. We were waiting for the J family to show up, but they were taking too long. Of course, as soon as we got the kids settled down in their sleeping bags, the J family pulled up with their trailer! They were having a terrible time getting their trailer backed into their campsite, so Joshua went over to help direct them in. Everyone finally got settled in and went to sleep.

The next morning, we had lazy man's omelette's (scrambled eggs with ham, cheese, green onions, red peppers, and mushrooms), bacon, toasted bagels and grapes for breakfast! It was quite the spread!

After breakfast and clean up, we changed into swimming suits and headed to the lake. It was an absolutely beautiful, warm, sunny day! The lake was quite warm. It was also very shallow for a long way out and never got any deeper than our knees! We didn't have to worry about the kids falling off the edge of anything!

There was also a nice, sandy beach that the kids really enjoyed. I forgot to take a picture of the massive playground that was right on the sand, about 3 feet from the edge of the lake!

Later in the afternoon, we went back to the campsite to rest and have snacks, and play some games.

Then, it was time to build fire for supper preparation. The dads decided to each build and their own fire and the competition was on! You should have heard the trash talking the kids were doing on behalf of their dads! Here is Phil's fire with Sara and Taryn helping him add paper!

And on the other side, we have Joshua and Sky, working on their own fire! In the end, Phil had higher flames, but Joshua made better, long-lasting coals!

Of course, no camping trip would be complete without s'mores! It was the perfect ending to a near perfect day!

All in all, the trip was a success. Joshua and I rated it at about 70% successful, which I'd say is pretty good for our first time ever! There were things we forgot to bring, there were a couple of cold showers, a few mosquito bites, but mostly we just had fun. The first night Joshua and I learned a valuable lesson: If you have an inflatable mattress, you must insulate it with something thicker than a cotton sheet. We had wonderfully warm sleeping bags, zipped together, on top of us, but whatever body part was against the mattress was freezing! Who would have thought?! The second night, the J family loaned us some extra blankets to put on the mattress and we were so much warmer! The kids were warm the whole time because they were actually inside their bags and insulated on all sides. (That sentence was for the grandparents sake!!) And sometime in the early morning hours, on the second night, it started pouring rain. Joshua ran out and grabbed all the towels that were drying and anything else that needed rescuing, and threw it in the car. We spent the rest of the night listening to the rain and sleeping off and on. The tent stayed cozy and dry and the kids slept great through the whole thing! When we got up, we took refuge in the J family's trailer for the morning! They fed us scrambled eggs and pancakes. Then, we packed up and came home. Anyway, we're already super excited about the next camping trip in July and are planning more after that too! I'll leave you with two more pictures of the kids that I snapped when they were waking up. Two very different responses to Mommy with the camera...

We're Practicing...

Those of you who know me well, can just start laughing now, so you can get it out of your system! Yes, we are going to try camping this summer....and this is our new tent! We ordered it from Sierra Trading Post, our favourite place to buy quality outdoor gear and clothing. They have great name brand stuff for discount prices. We ordered it, had it sent to my brother in Michigan, and I picked it up while I was there and brought it home. (It saved on the shipping to Canada.) Joshua decided it would be a good idea to practice setting up the tent in the comfort and privacy of our own backyard. It was actually very easy to put up and Joshua and I didn't argue or fight about anything! The kids were a help too! :-) I am very skeptical about this adventure called camping, but after seeing the tent all put together, I must say I was getting kind of excited. (Did I say that out loud?!) The tent is huge - there's one main room, with two smaller rooms, one on each side. Even Joshua can stand up straight in the middle room! So, everyone gets their own bedroom! And each room has a separate entrance too. Sara and Sky were wild with excitement! They each picked their rooms and we even got the new sleeping bags out for a trial run. Joshua pointed out that it good that the kids got to play in the tent and work out their initial excitement before the big event. They were so wired, that if we had really been camping, they wouldn't have slept a wink! We had the tent up on both Saturday and Sunday, but due to chance of showers, we took the tent down both nights. I'm sure we'll try sleeping in it when it's a little drier and warmer. The camping trip is scheduled for the second week of July and we're going to the little mountain town of Jasper, AB. We have plenty of time to keep practicing....



I'm still not sure if I will survive this whole camping thing.... I'm just way too prissy for my own good. Any encouragement, tips or campfire recipes would be very welcome! No horror stories - please!