Rookie Camping

Okay, so I am starting to think that this could possibly be the longest post I have done yet. So you may want to block off a significant amount of time before diving into this one! :)

We have had the privilege of camping during the last week and trust me it was not without excitement. Nick's family really didn't camp as kids and it has been since I was in high school that I have camped. We camped using my parent's old pop-up camper that was purchased sometime in the early 80's. So it is not new. We had do some minor repairs before we left, but really no big deal.

We pulled out last week Sunday afternoon and got the camper all situated and level in our site before we started cranking it up. We were about 3-6 inches from it being "up" when it stuck. I told Nick just to push a little harder, he did and SNAP! We crawl under the camper (on gravel, of course) to check out what we had done and discovered that we had broke a pin in the cranking shaft. Little did we know that was the least of our troubles. We called my sister and brother-in-law to come help and my in-laws showed up hoping to see the camper all set up. Between the 6 of us all we could do was get it set up enough so that it wouldn't get wet inside, but not enough to sleep safely. So we packed up some clothes and went to sleep at my in-laws for the night.

The next morning my dad came and declared that we would get this taken care of. After 4 hours it was determined a ball-bearing the size of a bee-bee had been broken or crushed and was causing the mechanism to seize up. It was just unfortunate that it happen the moment we wanted to camp. Dad rigged up a come-a-long and a safety chain and we were were set to camp!

Our campsite on Monday morning.

My dad and Nick under the camper trying to figure out what was the problem.

Becca and Micah spent the entire "repair" time playing on the campground park. The both thought that the park was the best part of vacation!

Camping improved greatly from this point on. Another difficulty was when Micah threw one of the ladder ball, balls into a tree near our campsite. Since the game didn't belong to us, Nick pulled out all the stops to get it out of the tree. The kid's soccer ball was the first attempt and then a long stick was used. When they failed he took down the clothes line and attached the chain that he had been using to lock up the bikes.

Nick threw the chain in the tree many times. It got a little scary a few times when the chain would get stuck, require a little extra force to be removed and then come flying at his head!
As you can see he was successful. We actually ended up with another set as well as a previous camper had apparently had the same issue as us! :)


Here are the kids playing on their bed in the camper one morning. I probably didn't want to have to clean them up before breakfast and thus made them stay in the camper until after breakfast. The first part of the week was warm and beautiful!

Nap time was a little interesting, but after Becca didn't get a nap the 1st two days we discovered that she really, really, really does still need those naps. Here is Nick in one of our attempts to get her to lay down. Picture like this with Rebecca are few and far between!

We didn't get to the beach as much as we had hoped. Nick and his sister Tricia took the kids on Monday afternoon when I had to go to work for a few hours. It was warm and sunny on Monday. We didn't get back until Thursday and by then it was cloudy and cool. The kids still got in the water, but I barely got out of my shorts and t-shirt. The kids and Nick had a ton of fun playing the the sand.

After playing like this in the sand, Becca had sand in some of the worst places imaginable. She didn't seem to mind!

Here is Micah, Race (a beach buddy) and Nick showing off their river. (Nick thinks that they look like a AT&T "More Bars in More Places" commercial!)

Here is what happens when you decide to let your kids splash in a little water back at the campsite and then you want to make it useful! Bath time in a Rubbermaid tote! The kids look happy in these pictures, but the water was a little chilly and they didn't care for that!

Friday morning was cold when we woke up! (Actually we woke up in the night and knew that it was cold already!) Here is a picture of our campsite. You can tell that it is cold because Micah is just sitting by the camp fire.

We enjoyed trying our hand at cooking over the fire. Here is our bacon and french toast on Friday morning. Micah was supervising the effort.

A trip up the Cordova tower on a windy Friday morning. The kids loved being up so high and Micah was so proud that he made it the whole way up and down all by himself! Nick carried Rebecca, but she took every step on the way down. (It was a long trip down.)

Friday night we had a bunch our family to the campground for pizza pies. It was unbelievable cold for being the middle of July. As you can see from the pictures we all had sweatshirt and jeans on and sat as close the camp fire as we could! Several games of ladder ball where played and a good time was had by all!

Trying to untangle the ladder balls.

Enjoying the warmth of the fire!

The week was a good time and we are hoping that the part to fix the camper comes before Labor Day when we want to take the camper out again! Now we just have to survive the mounds of laundry that seem to be taking over the laundry room! LOL!