July 23rd marks 6 years since Anna’s Family Day. I received her on July 22nd, but the adoption wasn’t done until July 23rd so that’s the day we celebrate. To celebrate her Family Day, we decided to try out our tent. We went to a KOA only about 25 miles from home. The girls LOVED the campground. It was small in comparison to most of the campgrounds we’ve been to. It had a nice little playground and a pool in a field house. They advertised that it was heated, but it wasn’t. That didn’t stop the kids from wanting to swim. There were also a lot of other kids around for them to play with. The place was small enough that most parents were fine with the kids going there for hours at a time. We were very close to the playground area. We had so much fun that we decided to stay another day. We were originally going to stay Wednesday night through Friday morning, but stayed until Saturday morning. I had heard on several news stations that all the local campgrounds were booked solid every weekend through Labor Day. I think the county parks were, but I made reservations online at this place on Tuesday and went camping the next day.
Very nice people around us, too. The first day, there was a family of 4 in a very old travel trailer. I told the guy the next morning as I was trying to light the fire (I relied on fire for the first night’s supper and first morning’s breakfast) that I was able to put the tent up in less than ½ hour, but the fire took me an hour to get going. He helped me by chopping up the wood a little. As Jess was helping me use dryer lint to start the fire, they told me dryer lint mixed in Vaseline made an even better fire starter. I’ll have to try that! Then Friday night a family with 5 kids set up next to us. They had a pop-up camper a little smaller than ours, but same brand, and then the 2 older boys put up a tent (the campground allowed a camper and a tent or 2 tents on one spot). The dad and I were chatting and he told me his oldest was going to be getting his Eagle Scout in about a year, so when I had trouble getting my fire going with my wet wood (it rained really hard that morning), he sent his son to help me. He got it going right away.
Very nice people around us, too. The first day, there was a family of 4 in a very old travel trailer. I told the guy the next morning as I was trying to light the fire (I relied on fire for the first night’s supper and first morning’s breakfast) that I was able to put the tent up in less than ½ hour, but the fire took me an hour to get going. He helped me by chopping up the wood a little. As Jess was helping me use dryer lint to start the fire, they told me dryer lint mixed in Vaseline made an even better fire starter. I’ll have to try that! Then Friday night a family with 5 kids set up next to us. They had a pop-up camper a little smaller than ours, but same brand, and then the 2 older boys put up a tent (the campground allowed a camper and a tent or 2 tents on one spot). The dad and I were chatting and he told me his oldest was going to be getting his Eagle Scout in about a year, so when I had trouble getting my fire going with my wet wood (it rained really hard that morning), he sent his son to help me. He got it going right away.
My girls definitely want to go back to that campground. Whether it was the actual campground or just that there was one place the kids all congregated, I’m not sure, but we will definitely put it on our list of places to go again. We managed to weather the rainstorm Friday morning. After seeing the almost flash flood area by the restrooms and the standing water in many areas of the campground, I felt pretty good about just a few drips in our tent. The dew on Saturday morning left the tent wetter than the rainstorm.
Saturday we went to one of our SMC (Single Mother’s By Choice) meetings/playdates. My girls played outside a little, but then spent the afternoon inside watching Scooby Doo movies. I guess they can only go so long without those “screens”. I stayed way longer than I had planned, but it was at a friend’s house and it was nice to see her and another “old-timer”. Now it’s back to work. Next week Jessica starts Dance Camp already, and Anna her twice a week dance classes. Where did the summer go? We have one more camping trip planned the weekend of August 8th, with our SMC group.
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