Camping!

This last week Richard was gone ALL week! He left on Monday, July 4th, and came back yesterday, Sat the 9th. He went to the Helaman's Encampment at Camp Impessa. It was a HUGE camp with 2000 boys there. Richard said there was just over 3000 people at the camp, including all the leaders and volunteers. Richard went as a leader.

Anyways, I knew he was going to be gone for a week so I decided that the kids and I would go camping too! I talked to my friend, Tiffany and we decided to go on Tuesday and come back Thursday. We decided to go to Park Lake Provincial Park. It's not too far away and if things didn't work out, not a big deal to pack up and come home.

On Monday I cleaned the house, got laundry done and had to take Cadence in to the doctor's to get her cast off. I also had the doctor look at me, I felt horrible. My ears were killing me and my throat. But it was viral. So no help there. I also had to run Richard's van to Raymond to get fixed during the week, so mom had to bring me back home. She was watching Ali and Mary and dad was away on the camp too, so we all had supper together at my house. After I put the kids to bed, then I went to work and packed all the kids clothes and put them in the trailer. I packed up almost everything we needed while they slept. It made it much easier.

Then Tuesday morning I finished packing everything and did a few errands before I hooked up the suburban. Then we came back and I hooked up the trailer. Took me a little while because of a loose bolt that I had to unhook the trailer and fix on the hitch and then hook it back up. By the time we were ready to head out I was drenched with sweat because it was so HOT out! But we were on the road!

I met up with Tiffany on the west side of Lethbridge and we followed each other out to park lake. There we ended up calling the 1-800 number and reserving a spot. Because we got a way better spot by doing that, which we didn't realize till we got there. We were side by side. We set up our trailers and had lunch and got us all ready to go to the beach. The kids were so excited! We spent all afternoon on the beach. It was so hot out and DJ was not liking all the sun. He grabbed his towel and cuddled up on my lap with the towel over top of him and went to sleep! He slept for about 1hr. Once he woke up, he finally started playing a little bit. Then we headed back to the campground to start supper. By the time the kids went to bed it was almost 10pm. The girls crashed really fast. But DJ bounced around for a while then finally went to sleep!

I was afraid that they would wake up early but we all slept in till 8:30am. What a nice treat! As I was cleaning up breakfast, the kids ran over to the little park that was close to us. Then I walked over to watch them. They had fun playing. Abbi loved taking Macy with her everywhere. I can tell Macy is getting old, because she doesn't last very long when she goes on a walk. I had to protect poor Macy from some very excited little kids! It was starting to get hot so we decided to get our swim suits on and go to the beach.

Cadence, Brianna and Jayda playing at the playground.

DJ had fun climbing on everything. Oh, funny story about the hat. I brought it but he refused to wear it, he never has worn it. I sat him down and explained if he wore it the sun would stay out of his eyes and he wouldn't get as hot. He looked at me and said, "OOOHHHH.", then he grabbed it and stuck it on his head. He wouldn't go anywhere without it! So funny!

My girls and Jayda with some friends at the playground. They were all showing us their funny faces!

The kids had so much fun playing in the water and sand. They also found their little, "forest" that they explored in. It was a bunch of trees. DJ had fun playing too. It took him a little bit to warm up to the water. I have to say that the water was kind of gross too. There was so much seaweed in there and the water was green. Oh well, didn't stop the kids from having fun. We found a spot near the trees so we'd have shade in the afternoon. We left all our stuff there and went back to the trailer for lunch. Then we came back.

Tiffany made some yummy cookies and Abbi and Cadence loved them! This is how Cadence posed for me!

DJ playing in the sand, and staying close to me.

The girls worked hard on making their "bathtub"! It kept them busy for a long time!

Playing in the sand and enjoying snacks.

DJ loved that we were close to trees and shade.

DJ played hard and was getting braver and braver about going deeper in the water. It was cute watching him have so much fun. I had to be right there with him, which was fine by me, helped me cool off a little too! I had snacks for the kids through out the day and lots to drink. By about 3:30pm DJ was ready for a snack and drink. I sat down and he sat on my lap and I could tell he was going to go to sleep. I told him to stay awake and he looked at me and said, "uh uh". Then he was gone. That was fast. I layed him down in the shade and he slept for 1 1/2hrs.  Even when he did wake up it took him a while to really be awake. We headed back to the trailer and he was still kind of out of it. I put him in the wagon with all our stuff.

Abbi, Cadence, Brianna and Jayda all floating in their tubes.

Cute girls laying out in the sun getting warm. We had quite a few comments from strangers on how cute these 4 girls were. I have to agree!

DJ and I right before he zonked on me!

DJ sound asleep. What a cutie pie!

Brianna, Cadence, Abbi and Jayda. These 4 girls had so much fun playing together. I have to say that they got along very well. So fun to watch!

ICE CREAM.....yummy!

Cadence was quite proud that she figured out how to float on the tube like this! She told me to take a picture of her!

Where's DJ??? I thought this picture was hilarious! He still wasn't quite awake and his ducky tube kept falling out so I stuck it around his head and snuggled right in! CA UTE!

This night, we made tinfoil dinners. I brought the meat and Tiffany came over to my trailer where we put it all together. We had A/C and it felt so good to cool down! The kids had fun coloring while we were getting supper ready. It was so good. All my kids ate very good. It took a lot of talking to get Brianna to take the 1st bite but once she did she gobbled it down!

Everyone busy coloring.

Our yummy tinfoil dinners cooking.

Here's Macy, just proof that she actually was with us!

Cadence eating her yummy supper!

After supper all the kids rode their bikes around. Cadence learned how to ride her two wheeler. She did it all by herself too. I didn't even help her. She was so excited. DJ learned to peddle his trike better. He was a maniac on his trike. He thought it was so funny that he could go so fast. He then started to crash into everyone and everything on purpose and then he'd laugh so hard. Crazy boy!

Go Cadence Go! She did it! YEAH!

DJ riding his trike. What a crazy, funny boy!

Brianna goes everywhere on her bike now!

Abbi just flies on her bike and loves it!

DJ and Kolby playing together.

We then made another fire and everyone came to roast their marshmellows. We made smores, which were so yummy. Tiffany brought the best cookies ever to use. They already had chocolate on them. It was so good, very messy, but delicious. All my kids thought so too!

Cooking marshmellows, which my girls call white hotdogs for some reason. They'll ask me for another white hotdog and I look at them and say "excuse me' and they smile and say marshmellow please!

Brianna eating her smore. I don't know how she stays so clean, I get messier then her when I eat!

DJ biting into his smore!

Abbi thought it was so good, she was a mess by the end!

Tiffany and I eating our smores!

That night I got my girls down by 9:30pm and it took them all of 2 minutes to fall asleep. They all slept so good in the trailer. I got DJ ready for bed and had him sit on my bed and watch a movie. He thought he was so big! Just before 10:30pm he told me he wanted to go to bed. So I tucked him into his bed and fell asleep 10 minutes later. So it was a good night!

This is how DJ watched Curious George! So cute!

The next morning I packed things up and hooked up the trailer. Then we all changed into our swimsuits and headed to the beach one more time. My sister, Megan, met us there. We just stayed till lunch time. But the kids had fun playing there one last time! Thursday ended up being so hot out. We headed back to the trailer and I fed my crew lunch and got them dressed and then we headed home! It was a very fun camping trip. I'm excited to go again and so are the kids. Hopefully Richard can come with us next time!

The kids playing so good together at the beach.

Abbi running in the water.

Kolby and DJ playing with the truck and tractor. It amazes me at how well DJ is with sharing. If I talk to him calmly and explain it's nice to share he'll nod his head and go ahead and share. But if someone just tries to take something of his that's a different story!

DJ had a blast going out in the water and trying to make BIG splashes!

Tiffany and I just as we were packing up to leave. Don't look at my hair, I was so ready for a shower by this point!

Wow, what a crazy long post! I really wanted to share a lot of pictures, I took over 100 pictures so this is just a few! It was a FUN 3 days! Now I know that I can take the kids camping by myself, it is possible! I'm so glad it was a good experience!