Another Camping Trip

Than is a real outdoorsman. He's spent plenty of nights backpacking through the mountains nearby. But, to be perfectly honest, the whole camping thing is new territory for me. I've been camping plenty of times in my life, but mostly when I was a kid. Or when I acted kid-ish. This camping thing as a real adult is some serious work. It seems like the whole week before I am planning our meals and all the things we'll have to bring. And then there's laundry to do. But who knows why I wash clothes just to take them camping where they get REALLY dirty. Then we camp for a few days, which is great fun, and then we come home and I spend a week doing laundry and putting everything back that we HAD to take with us.

This was our 4th camping trip of the summer. Although the preparing process is still time-consuming, I feel like I'm getting a handle on all of this. I think this was our smoothest trip where we didn't forget anything and we felt truly relaxed. It was wonderful!!! 

We traveled to Palisade Lake State Park. It's a place that we have been before plenty of times for a day trip. This was the longest time we have spent there and we had plenty to do.

When we got to our campsite, Aaron spent some time balancing. He believes it's always good to wear your bike helmet when balancing. Sara honed her jump-roping skills. Than got the trailer all hooked up. I sat back and captured these amazing events.

Later we headed to the water to do some explorin'. There must have been something extremely interesting in that water. The kids loved running on the dock and I said silent prayers that they wouldn't fall in.

Near the water is a playground. We go camping to be close to the nature that surrounds us and what the kids really want to do is go to the park. Go figure. But I think when I was a kid, I would have wanted the same thing. Aaron was fond of the twisty slide, especially because he could practice his pull-ups. It's very important for a 4-year-old to develop those biceps. Sara wanted to show us her mad monkey-bar skills, and Than showed her that her old man has some skills of his own. Sara and I felt pretty groovy flashing dad the peace sign and then it was back to the lake to skip rocks. Sara got her rock to skip 2 times--for the first time ever. It was a very big deal. Really. I mean it.

The next day we woke up, ate some yummy breakfast (pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream) and then headed off to visit grandma and grandpa who were staying at a little house they have nearby. The kids were excited to ride the four-wheelers. At least Aaron was excited, Sara's face says otherwise. But when they came back they were both all smiles and thought they had done the funnest thing ever.

Of course, we played on the water. The freezing cold water. Aaron liked it for a few minutes and then he occupied himself with playing in the sand. We brought this boogie board thing that we got last year in California and Sara spent most of her time laying on it and pushing herself around with her hands. She was really adventurous, drifting far away from the beach.

After we were sufficiently frozen, we decided to go for a paddle boat ride. We thought we were up to the challenge, seeing how Than is strengthening is legs by mountain biking a few times each week. Turns out, we are pretty wimpy. The kids kept complaining that we weren't going fast enough. But I don't think those things are meant for speed anyway.

That night we got to doing things and lost track of time. Before we know it is was LATE. Bedtime late. The kids were adamant that we make s'mores. Since there was no time to make a fire, we improvised. Giant marshmallows cooked on the trailer stove are actually pretty good, just as Aaron.

On our last day, Sara and I spent some time making button bracelets. Then we went for a nice walk/bike ride.

We have a history of taking not-so-great family pictures when we go places. So often times we opt not to take a picture of all of us. This time I made sure we go a picture and I think it turned out to be our best (not professional) picture so far. Yay us! That's why it's got double exposure on the blog.

Then it was time to clean and pack everything up. We left excited for our next camping adventure. Hopefully that happens sooner than later. 

The girl likes her music

This is the story of how Sara's first CD lead to her first concert.

It all started about a month ago when I took Sara out to buy her first-day-of-school outfit. We went to Target (the best store EVER) and found absolutely nothing for her to wear. But we did find Selena Gomez's newest CD and Sara wanted it soooo bad. We bought the CD, headed over to Red Mango, got some yummies, and sat in the car eating our treats and listening to the CD.  It was a great night. Ever since then, we can often find Sara in her room listening to her very first CD. Or talking about Selena Gomez. Or asking to watch Wizards of Waverly Place.

I knew that Selena Gomez was coming in concert and thought that it might be a fun thing for Sara so I looked online for tickets. Stub Hub = $70 to $180 for tickets. Yikes!!!! There was no way that we were gonna do that.

Then last week, Than and I went to the Heart/Def Leppard concert. As we were there I kept thinking about how much Sara would absolutely love to go see Selena Gomez.  It just wouldn't leave my mind. So Than and I talked and he went to the box office the next day and got us the last 4 tickets in the arena. On the back row. But hey, they were only $25 each. Soooo much better. My friend Allison and her daughter Hannah came with us. Sara and Hannah have been friends since they were infants (if that is possible). That was all planned last Thursday. I had almost a whole week to wait. I could barely take it!!

Yesterday, Wednesday, when Sara got home from school, I told her that she had to get all of her stuff done because when dad got home we were going to go on a Mommy-Sara date. So she did her homework, s l o w l y. She kept asking me if we could go roller skating for our date. My answer: maybe. She asked if we could go get her a new book. My answer: sure. I stealthly got the video camera set up and when Than finally got home we sat Sara down and I told her we wanted to give her something. She was weirded out by this point. I handed her the tickets and asked her what they were. She said, "Tickets to a basketball game?????" I said, "READ IT!!!" She looked closer at the ticket and then just got up and gave me a giant hug and said, "Thank you, mom." No hysterics, no screaming. Turns out she was saving those things for the concert.

Us before we told Sara what we were really gonna do on our date.

Sara and Hannah outside before the concert.

Me and Sara on the steps.

Sara's reaction when we sat in our seats and she saw all the people and the stage.

Funny girl.

The camera flash was a bit much for her.

Yay!!! That little speck of people to the left are Selena Gomez and her dancers.

Selena Gomez

Sara really got in to it. She doesn't like really loud things so I brought some earmuffs. They definitely came in handy.

Hannah and Sara dancing like crazy.

Now I'll take a moment to explain our seats. Like I mentioned before, we were on the last row. When we got to our portal we saw that the last row was row 22 but our tickets said row 23. Hmmmm? So I asked the lovely lady at the entrance to the portal where we were to sit. She pulled up 4 folding chairs right there and set them behind the railing. So we got padded seats and no one directly in front of us to block our view. Notice how the people right in front of the railing were so much lower than us. They were the perfect seats. Sure, we were far from the stage, but hey, that's why I brought binoculars.

More dancing.

Look at the cool stuff we got! Sara got a t-shirt (that will fit her until she's 12) and a necklace, Hannah got a bag and a necklace.

We had a fabulous time! Sara wants to do it again, but next time she wants to be on the front row. We'll see about that.