Camping

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They day after the wedding, we headed up to Presqu'ile Provincial Park for Hoogstad family camping. The word I would use to describe this week was: "interesting." It was neither fabulous nor terrible. The first two days were brutally hot, and then early on Tuesday morning, we got a huge thunderstorm and the days were fairly moderate after that.

We opted to try out a group campsite this year, which is basically a big field and you can park you trailer or pitch your tent anywhere you want on it. We used Mom and Dad's tiny trailer again this year, so that we had a propane fridge and stove (especially handy for feeding bottles to kids in the middle of the night). Now, when I say tiny, I mean tiny. There is just enough room for a playpen and for one adult to sleep in there. Kevin is standing in front of it in this picture to give you a bit of an idea:

You can also see our tent set up beside the trailer. I slept in there with the girls and Kevin slept in the trailer with Micah. The tent only had a couple of minor leaks during the huge thunderstorm and downpour. The girls stayed dry and I had a frisbee sized leak on the one side of my sleeping bag (but I could easily avoid it), and another leak that dripped beside my head for a while. Nothing too serious, though. Marc and Renée didn't fare so well - they packed up their girls and headed to Mom and Dad's house (about 15 min. from the park) at 2:30 in the morning since they were totally soaked.

None of the kids slept well all week, and neither did we, as a result. The mosquitoes and deer flies (I think that's what they are called) were also brutal this year because it has been so wet. Our last major complaint was that the breeze always sailed over top of our campsite, so it was quite stagnant. We went for a walk and scoped out some individual sites that are all close together, which we are going to try out next year instead. They are close to the water, so it should be nice a cool:)

The major plus of the week was spending time with the Hoogstad family. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see Doug and Teresa and their kids (except for talking to Teresa briefly when she dropped Michael off on Sunday night), but we did get to spend two days with Marc and Renée, whom we hadn't seen since Christmas, and five days with Michael and Season, whom we hadn't seen since Easter. And of course, Mom and Dad, but we had already seen them a lot over the two weeks prior:)

Even though the group site didn't end up being as great as we all hoped, the bonus was that we could all put our kids down for the night and have a campfire altogether with the adults each night. That was the highlight of our days for Kevin and I:)

We had planned on staying until Friday or Saturday, but Marc and Renée left on Tuesday morning since they had lots of work to catch up on at home, and Michael and Season were planning on spending the night at Mom and Dad's on Thursday and heading home at 4am Friday morning. By Thursday afternoon, we were all ready to be done camping (read: tired of the sleepless nights). So, all of us packed up, headed to Mom and Dad's for supper and we were home by 9:30pm.

Here are some of the pictures we captured of our week away.

Sara and Braden running in the waves.


Leah playing on the shore (Sara and Leah are Marc & Renée's daughters).


Alanna and Braden (Michael and Season's two oldest).


Micah and Rachel weren't too keen on playing in the water again this year. But, they loved the sand, which they were scared of last year.



Rachel loved running up and down the beach. This time, Mom went to go catch her.


Dad relaxing in front of the motor home.


Danielle doing her scrunchy-nosed smile.


I picked up this frog sweater for Micah this summer and this was his first chance to wear it (it was quite cool in the mornings after that thunderstorm). Isn't it hilarious?



Sidewalk chalk on the picnic tables = hours of fun.


As you can see, the site was huge (this is only a quarter of it). Rachel has lots of room to roam free without anyone yelling at her to get off the road or out of the poison ivy. I'm pretty sure she thought she was in heaven.


Micah being silly.


Rachel laughing at Micah being silly.


Zachariah, Michael and Season's youngest.


The kids got to come to a fire on Wednesday night. It was chilly, so Micah found his pockets.


Season and Michael (can you tell he's Kevin's brother?) brought sparklers!


I really needed a tripod for this, but I turned down the shutter speed to try and catch a sparkler in motion.


Micah is saying his signature "ooooooooohhhhh! Whoooooooaaa!!"


Rachel just stood there smiling at her sparkler the whole time it was going. It was hilarious!


Braden - nice cheesy smile:)


Micah was too scared to try holding it at first, but after he saw Rachel doing it, he thought it would be OK.


I didn't get a lot of pictures of Danielle. She spent most of the week in a playpen, stroller, or in someones arms. She wasn't keen on doing her belly crawl in the dirt (which was fine by me:) Here she is in the shade at the rocky beach.


Mom started a little rock tower, and Micah wanted to help.


Rachel waking up in the tent with Mommy. The last two nights, the girls had to wear two sets of PJs and two sleep sacks. It got down to 9 degrees one night! I'll take that any day over trying to sleep in 25-30 degree humidity. The girls did pretty well, although Danielle ended up sleeping with me a lot of the time because she was too cold. I would warm her up for a half hour or so and she would fall back asleep, and then I'd try to sneak her back in bed, but most times she woke up crying again. Oh well, I had lots of room in my double sleeping bag with no husband in there! :)


So, ya. Like I said, it was interesting. Next year will be better!