No Bugs Were Swallowed During the Making of these Memories

And we're home!

DH had to work until 11 pm on Friday, so he didn't get to the site until midnight, which means:

[brag alert] I put up a 15' x 9' tent all by myself, with "help" from a 7-year-old and a nearly-4-year-old! Go me! Woo! And? I packed the car myself and made everything fit. And? I figured out how to get the citronella torches into the ground, which was pretty hard, I tell you. [/brag alert]

Then we went swimming. Now, the "beach" is a section of marsh which has been cordoned off, so no fish, no plants. The water is treated periodically, so no bad bacteria problems. However, since marshes aren't known for their sandy soil, they have imported a whole lot of sandy gravelly mix. This makes for very murky water and I had reservations about swimming in it, treated or not. Frankly, I like being able to see my feet. I would almost rather swim in Lake Ontario (which we do) because there is normal sand and you can see your feet.

I pre-made a couple pizzas and cooked them on the propane BBQ for dinner. My kids are picky. Don't judge me.

Oh, and guess what? I made a fire! But it only burned until the paper was burnt up, then it stopped. The people from the next site brought us a burning log and some kindling and then it worked. Oh well, I guess I can't be a camping superwoman the first time out. The kids from the site next door were an older girl (9) and a younger boy (5). They visited with DD and DS for a while and roasted marshmallows on the fire their father had provided. (Thanks again!) The kids call them their camping friends.

We went to bed around 10:30. I drifted in and out, clutching my cell phone in case DH had to get me to bring the permit to the front gate if the guard wouldn't let him in. I started to hear rain, so I went to take in the towels which were not drying on a line (it was very humid). That's when I heard DH pull up on the motorcycle. So all was well. We went to bed, listening to the soft pitter-patter of the rain on the tent.

Then the pitter-patter got louder.

And louder.

Then it was a full-fledged downpour.

Turns out the tent isn't as waterproof as we'd have liked. :-( However! We decided it was funny, coped as best we could and went to sleep. Boy, rain is loud in a tent. Thus, we didn't sleep well.

Luckily, we did not get the thunderstorms on Saturday after all. Yay!

Saturday was not bad. I had wanted to get a hike in before it got too hot, but it ended up being a short walk because we hadn't really had much sleep the night before and we were all crabby.

DH made the fire on Saturday night. He lit it once, maybe twice. It caught and stayed lit. It burned exactly the way it should. Just perfectly.

Stupid perfect fire.

I must say that camping with DH when we were first married is very different from camping with the kids. No sitting for hours just staring at the fire. There has to be an activity, a purpose. I like just sitting around at a campsite, but oh well. They had fun and took lots of pictures with their disposable cameras. DS took plenty of pictures of rocks and trees. DD told me this morning that she was happy not to have swallowed a bug. I posted about that before. Of all the things that could go wrong camping, that's not the first thing I personally would have thought of, but hey, she's 7 and she thinks a bit differently than I do.

It was fun, but I'm glad to be home. I feel much cleaner here.

Top 5 Quotes of the Weekend:

DS: "Mom? What's this?"
Me "A mixture of sand and gravel that they put on the bottom of the marsh so that people could swim."
DS: "Ooooh."
Repeat 50x.

DS: "Mom? Is this a mixture of sand and gravel that they put on the bottom of the marsh so that people could swim?"
Me: "Yes."
DS: "Ooooh, riiiight."
Repeat 50x

DS: "I'm the water expert." (Then he would push the little spigot thingie on the water container so that I could wash stuff.)

DD: "When are we coming camping again?"

DD: "Can we go catch a toad?"

DD: "Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! It's a bug! It's a bug! It's a bug! It's a bug!"