Morice Camping 2008

Camping Day Nine

2008-07-07T20:38:00.001-07:00

July 6, 2008

Went to church today with Grandma and Grandpa and Alana. It’s a nice church – we’re attended there last time we visited. Tony Sr. took us out to lunch to a “hole in the wall” Mexican place that was fanctastic in Sturgeon Bay. We stuffed ourselves and still have leftovers for dinner later that night.
After lunch Cody went home with Grandma and Grandpa while Tony and Selah and I went shopping for a lighthouse clock for our bathroom. We looked all over the penisula for hours until we called it quits and headed back to Egg Harbor. We decided to park before we got to the house and grab a coffee and maybe peek in one last store…and there it was. Just blocks from their house was the only store in Door County that had a lighthouse clock. We could have walked there in 10 minutes! Oh, well….such is life.
Another fire tonight. Seventh one this trip. We couldn’t let the last night go without one. Then it was card games and off to bed. Time to head home tomorrow!

Camping Day Eight

2008-07-07T20:30:00.003-07:00

July 5, 2008

Boring and mildly sad day today. Josh and family had to get a plane out of O’Hare at 8am this morning. We all stayed up all night until they had to leave here at 2am to make their flight. Poor Grandpa and Alana had to drive all the way to O’hare and turn around and come right back. It was an eight hour round trip.
We slept in as long as Selah would let us and then proceeded to “lay around” the house. We all feel like a truck hit us after the busy day we had yesterday and the lack of sleep last night.
We’ll do laundry, take naps together and then maybe try the beach again.

Camping Day Seven

2008-07-07T20:30:00.001-07:00

July 4, 2008

(Some of you may be wondering why I’m still calling this a “camping trip” when we’re at Grandma’s house. Well, there are so many of us here, it’s easier for us to keep sleeping in the camper in the drive way. It’s so comfortable, we don’t mind at all!)
Today was a very busy day. First was….THE PARADE!

The kids had so much fun grabbing up the candy once they got the hang of it.

I believe the kids over 20 may have had the most fun of all! After the parade, both girls’ eyes were dragging so we all decided to crash for naptime.

We we woke, Grandpa said it was time to plant Nick’s tree.

Grandma and Grandpa bought a Honey Crisp apple tree that they wanted to plant in Door County to have a memory of Nick there, too. (Believe me, the whole place is filled with memories of him. This has been a hard place to visit and refrain from completely breaking down at regular intervals.) They chose a fruit tree because of all the fruit that Nick had shown in his life and they also made sure that it was 53 inches high which is how tall he is.

It was a beautiful and very hard moment all at the same time.

Grandma had bought a boat for the lake and Selah and Cody decided to watch the event from a coushy side seat.

Around 4:30pm, we set off to the beach. Of course fun was had by all there!

Once again, it was the over 20 crowd that seemed to benefit the most from the kid toys!

(A fun picture of Josh getting attacked by birds!)

Camping Day Six

2008-07-07T20:29:00.001-07:00

July 3, 2008

Grandma’s House!
It was so great that everyone was here when we arrived: Grandma, Grandpa, Alana, Joshua, Tiffany and Felicity! We haven’t Seen Tiffany or Felicity forever and it’s been since the first week of March for Josh. Since we missed celebrating both girls’ birthdays together, we took some time in the morning to exchange gifts.

Everyone’s favorite activity at Grandma and Grandpa cottage is lawnmower rides! Grandpa was well prepared. Everyone had several turns yesterday...

but they were still waiting anxiously this morning for him to finish his coffee for another “go ‘round”.

Then uncle Josh set up empty milk bottles in the woods and conducted a class in Shooting 101.

We all took turns and since he filled the bottles with water, we got an instand reward when hit one – swoosh! – it would spring a leak and gently water the flowers for Grandma. Everyone was happy!
Then Alana and the three men went out for the day and the rest of us went to The Farm!
(Here's Felicity being attacked because they thought she had a bottle for them!)
They’ve always had baby goats for the kids to feed bottles to, but this year they had lambs. They are so cute!

All the kids had a blast…..

At night, Egg Harbor had it’s fireworks display, but God’s display really stole the show!

(And Tony's pretty cute, too!

Camping Day Five

2008-07-07T20:28:00.000-07:00

July 2, 2008

Thunderstorms!!
Wow! It is a totally different experience to view thunder and lightening from a camper than from the security of a brick house! It was beautiful, though.
Tony had so much fun making fun of me and my computer on the campground, but everyone was very glad that I had my computer and several DVDs today! No one appologized or thanked me outloud, but I knew they meant it deep down…..
So, again, not many photos. The morning was taken up watching DVDs, but we did have time for one golf game in between the raindrops.

Then we broke down camp a day early a decided to take the rainy day to drive to Grandma’s house.

Camping Day Four

2008-07-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

July 1, 2008

Not much “fun” today. We had to break camp and set out to our other site. The plan is to spend a few days at one site, move to the next and then after a few more days, head out to Grandma’s cottage in Door County, WI. I’m sure you would have all enjoyed photos of Tony and I breaking down camp, but I was too busy doing it to photograph it! You’ll just have to imagine that for yourselves!
Actually, the break down went very smoothly and we were off and arrived at the next site, put our camper up and headed off for lunch. They did have a pool we visited for the rest of the day, but it was definitly not as exciting as the first place – so again, no photos. There was a really cool waterpark-style slide on site (about 40 feet), but we would have had to pay $10.50 a piece to ride it for the day.
But…..
Tony allowed Cody to help him start the fire! He was quite the “fireman”!

He did great and really enjoyed being “in charge”. Then Tony started taking silly photos of himself, so of course, we all had to join in!

Tony also thought it was quite funny how I had a computer around the campfire. He didn’t think that was “authentic” camping. I told him I was just keeping a record of our camping activities and he’d appreciate it later, but he still had to take a photo. ..

I don’t think anyone would mind me writing stories if I used a pen and paper, but since it was a computer …. Oh, well….one day I’ll be appreciated :(

Camping Day Three

2008-07-07T20:26:00.000-07:00

June 30, 2008

Today mom got to cook.

We started out with scrambled eggs and sausage and we finally have proof that mom is actually on this trip!
Then we thought we’d check out the pool since it finally made it up to 80 degrees (it’s been nice, but too cool for swimming so far). Boy we’re we excited about what we found! There were two pools – a deep one for jumping and diving and a baby pool with zero depth,

a slide

and two water fountains.

That became our activity for the entire rest of the day. We did go back to camp for Selah to nap, but when she woke up, we were back out again!

After dinner we aquired a craving for ice cream and went on a search for a local ice cream shop. We went over to the nearest town and find such a sad scene. The town rested right on the Fox River and had suffered some bad effects from the flooding. Houses had sand bags right at their doorstep,

the parking lot was covered with grim from the receeded water that covered it just days ago

and several streets were still closed. Even the streets we were driving on had water right up to the pavement.

We did find the cutest ice cream shop and we were anxious to patronize them.

We hoped our four ice cream cones would help lift some of the financial strain I’m sure the whole town is expriencing.
Then we headed home to pass out. We were so exhausted I didn’t hear Mr. Frog at all! I guess that’s the trick! We taught Cody Rummy and played cards for 4 hands until Cody said, “mom, can we please stop. I really want to go to bed.” Yes, he was that tired!

Camping Day Two

2008-06-29T20:05:00.000-07:00

Camping Day Two
June 29, 2008

It’s the end of day two and the scourge of my existence has begun croaking again. He apparently sleeps peacefully all day long until I’m ready to put Selah to sleep. So, I type while she tries to doze and he begins to croak.

My mother told me a story that when she was young, her brothers would hammer long nails through a 2 x 4 until they had them all poking out the other side. I assume it must have looked like some torturous version of a toothbrush. Then they would go “frog hunting”. They would quietly wade through the edge of the pond or creek until a large bullfrog was found. Then they would “whack” him with the crude instrument of death and my grandmother would reward them with fried frog legs. Tony says he’s going right out to buy wood and nails.

Anyways, I digress…..

Today both Tony and Cody got up early and went out fishing. They collect all their gear, got dressed (I think in the reverse order) and headed down the long trail to Lake Puckaway. They set up and began casting until Cody said, “we’re not gonna catch any fish today. They’re not biting. I can tell.” Tony wondered how he could possibly have ascertained that in the short amount of time they were sitting there. He figured maybe Cody thought time was passing slowly. So, he asked and Cody said, “We’ve been here for 30 minutes with no bites so I know they’re not biting today.”

Apparently it wasn’t the time he had estimated incorrectly – he was right, it was about 30 minutes. But he had a very skewed understand of how long it takes to fish. So, instead they caught a caterpillar and a tadpole and called it a day. Originally, we said we’d only eat what Cody caught – I guess I’m going hungry today.

Then we did house cleaning, washed laundry, took showers and went on a long trip to find a place for lunch (it was 11:30 by the time all was said and done). But while we were cleaning up we had time to look around the camp ground and found a nice park,

basketball court and a heated swimming pool.

Those things are definitely on the list of things to do for tomorrow! They also had recumbent bikes to rent and we got one for Cody to ride around on a bit.

He had a blast!

Then we all came home for naps since Mr. Frog allowed no sleep last night. When we woke, we just hung out, Tony fished some more (Cody assisted occasionally), and Selah snacked. Then we took Cody out for a surprise….the local movie theater was showing Kung Fu Panda. We bought tickets, popcorn for four, three drinks and milk duds for under $25 dollars! That was fun!

So, now we’re back to camp…Tony and Cody are cooking hot dogs over the fire, Selah’s trying to keep her eyes open, I’m typing and Mr. Frog is saying “hello”.

More tomorrow!

Camping Day One

2008-06-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

Camping 2008 Day One
June 28, 2008

Day one of the Morice 2008 camping trip!

Friday we picked up the rented camper and Saturday we set out -

I must say we looked cool setting out with our beautiful, fully equipped pop up camper. What could possibly go wrong? No tent stakes to lose, even if it down pours we stay dry and a list two pages long in 12 point font ensures that we couldn’t possibly forget a thing. I have a good feeling about this trip!

Well, the skies were scary on the way. The rain was intense and the camper made driving in the rain so much more fun. But we trudged on with the blind assurance that when we reached the camp site the skies would clear just for us! And they did! Well, until it was time to set up the camper…..

Then the rain began again and the mosquitos found what they were looking for….fresh meat. A neighboring camper even said how much fun they had watching each new resident arrive and spend the next 15 -20 minutes being consumed by mosqitos. The bugs are the worst he’s seen in all his years of camping. Lucky us.

We, of course, packed bug spray but couldn’t locate it for 15 mintues. The bugs had no other victims for 30 miles around apparently. We were attacked instantly and each one of us had bites that made our skin swell to such a degree that it developed a shiny “tauntness” to it. here's a picture of a ggod bite Selah got on her eye...

We were so blessed to be able to nurish the local wildlife! The kids were very happy to seek refuge in the camper once it was up!

We saw some great wildlife, too! A field full of nursing cows – the “little baby moo cows” (as Selah calls them) were really cute. There are some sort of cranes or egrets all around that have young with them as well and deer everywhere.

Also, there was the most beautiful Oriole darting around the lake. I tried to take a picture, but it was too dark. I’ll put the photo up here, but all you can see is the blur of orange.

You’ll have to trust me that the bird was amazing!

Then the skies completely cleared in time to make a fire, cook smores and watch the stars come out.

It’s always so amazing how many more stars they have out in the country! And Tony saw a shooting star! (or so he says. Suspiciously, no one else saw it. Hmm……)

While we were enjoying the stars, a large and noisy bullfrog joined the night chorus. It was so cool to listen to the range of sounds he could make. Until we wanted to sleep….the thing never shut up all night long!!!!! Me, the animal lover, found myself telling Tony that if he had to get up to go to the bathroom at night, bring rocks and hit the frog to quiet him! I’m ashamed to admit it, but he never stopped ALL NIGHT LONG! You’d think he’d have to sleep some time!

Sleeping on matresses instead of cold hard ground is definitly the way to camp. I will never camp any other way! However, sleeping with Selah is HORRIBLE! She wiggles like crazy, but worst of all she grinds her teeth with such intensity I don’t have any idea how she can possibly have teeth left! We have got to contact a dentist about that when we get home!