Camping Fun

I really love camping,and I am truly lucky in that my kids do too. Lissa was initially a reluctant camper but has come to love it and actually was angry when we had to return home. Our only other camping trip earlier this year was dampened (if you will pardon the pun) with frequent rain storms. The weather was picture perfect this time around though. We were able to get into our campsite a bit early as no one was on it the night before. This was a real treat as it gave us most of Thursday to have fun and not lose the day to transport and set up. I am all about maximizing our time for fun so we did a lot this weekend. I was walking back and forth with the kids so much (usually pulling 2 in a wagon) that the staff of the campground just would shake their heads at me in bemusement. I took them all to the beach twice. Our first visit the water was very warm and we stayed a really long time. The second time the water was cold but the surf was better for playing in and we didn't stay as long but had lots of fun. We always visit the candy store on the way back from the beach and my kids crack me up there. The store is known for its home made candies and fudges. My kids go in. . . and buy bubblegum and dum dum lollipops. Go figure!

We spent a morning at Portland Head Light playing and picnicking with my mother. I think at first she was reluctant to meet us there. She kept saying we could go to her house. Which we could and often do. But I wanted the kids to have a chance to play with her, not fret about making noise, or breaking something in her sweet little apartment. Chet has lots of memories of doing things with his Nana and as she often goes to the lighthouse on her own, I figured this should work. She seemed to see afterwards that it was good. It was just little things, like Lissa taking her hand to go over to the swings at the little park there, and KC showing her his beach treasures.

We hiked at Wolfs Neck which is sort of near Freeport. You can see osprey there and we did. The adults were excited about that, the kids were more excited about seeing a dog in a kayak. Really! We were looking out into Casco Bay and could clearly see this big lab type dog on the front of a kayak. My kids were so noisy and excited about it all that the kayaker noticed and waved at them, further adding to their glee. LOL

I took Lissa and KC to the campground pool. It was only 63 degrees that day but they were determined to visit the pool. The pool was blessedly heated but the walk back to camp was um, brisk!

We played basketball at the campground park and all kinds of different games with kids from the campsites. My kids are good about making friends easily and this campground is exceptionally family friendly.

We had lots of campfires, made popcorn, played with lightsticks in the darkness and snuggled for stories and songs in our camper at night. My kids had a contest to try and collect the most acorns and I have about a gallon of acorns in the back of our van. I am frantically coming up with crafts that will use such a copious quantity of nuts! LOL

In many ways, this has been a hard summer. Weather was pretty yucky for many many weeks. Our gardens consequently did not produce what we have come to expect and count on for winter provender. My flower gardens suffered from the bad weather and though we do have some pretty flowers, there are some that we usually have that just didn't produce this year.

Work had some stresses that typically don't happen in summer which meant that I couldn't take a lot of time off in the summer. (as in, I couldn't take a full week of vacation) Ken was diagnosed with terminal cancer and eventually passed. It was expected, it was a blessing for him, it was a normal turning of the wheel, but it took emotional toll on all of us. But this long weekend has so many memories that I will treasure. Even though the leaves are all ready starting to turn color and the nights are chilly, they will warm me for months to come.