I love to tent camp, but the older I get the more I like a camping trailer or a cabin! I can remember so many times taking our children tent camping thru the years...tents falling down, tents for the boys and tents for the girls, a mom and dad tent....
Lots of fun actually. I really think families with young children should go tent camping. More than once actually. Yes with young children, its work, and most of the time-I the cook, the cleaner, the planner....did not rest. BUT I would NOT trade it for anything!
Well our children are now all grown adults (oldest is 30 and youngest is 21) so now were camping with our grand children. I want to spend time with the grand children, I want to be a grandma who has them over for days, not hours ---to really be involved with their lives. Since most of them are now school age, during the winter months I do not get to see them as much, but summer time?! I want them over to visit for week at a time!
So this last summer, I took them camping! Well, I cheated- I rented a camping cabin at a local camp ground. (My sister has a yearly camping site there, so I know a lot about the place). It has a pool, and also access to the lake. I also rented a golf cart, one of the big ones. (I decided I NEED--well 'want'--- one of those!) It was gas powered, and seated all of the grand babies.
That sure made it easier to take the children around the park. So here is that story!
Grandmother Takes Grandchildren Camping...and Survives!
I took a couple of days off, a week actually, and for the first part of my 'vacation' I decided to take the grand children camping. I wanted to 'really' camp to let them experience tent camping...but thought-no, that is for the young ---like their parents---to share with them!
So I rented a cabin....with a frig, a sink, a stove, and a bathroom and most important----air conditioning! Yeah I know, a wimp...but this was to be a hot weekend and I am older, soooo...
It was a small cabin, just big enough for 2 bedrooms (with the bedrooms big enough for the beds and a closet) a bathroom, that was long enough for a tub, and a toilet that was almost inside the sink cabinet because it was so close!
The kitchen ---that was placed inside the hallway, literally.
A small living room, with a couch and a fold down table with 4 stools to sit up to the table.
But it was enough.
Friday was a tough day, and a busy day for me.
Then finally in the afternoon, I took the stuff down to the cabin, and then I went to pick up the children. All 5 of them. To the camp site we went.
So I rented a cabin....with a frig, a sink, a stove, and a bathroom and most important----air conditioning! Yeah I know, a wimp...but this was to be a hot weekend and I am older, soooo...
It was a small cabin, just big enough for 2 bedrooms (with the bedrooms big enough for the beds and a closet) a bathroom, that was long enough for a tub, and a toilet that was almost inside the sink cabinet because it was so close!
The kitchen ---that was placed inside the hallway, literally.
A small living room, with a couch and a fold down table with 4 stools to sit up to the table.
But it was enough.
Friday was a tough day, and a busy day for me.
Then finally in the afternoon, I took the stuff down to the cabin, and then I went to pick up the children. All 5 of them. To the camp site we went.
After getting their stuff in the cabin and the camp chairs set up,we had a meal of fried chicken (KFC-grandma cheated) and salads. And bananas for dessert!
Then we decided to go swimming.....they were very excited!
so off to the pool we went.
After swimming for a couple of hours or more, we went back to the cabin and began to settle in for the evening.
The children had fun in the cabin joking around..I thought of going over to their great aunt Lana's camper and roast marshmallows---so all of the fire and mess was at her place ;)
but we ended up just deciding to go to bed and get a good nights rest, we will have a long day tomorrow.
Lana did come by, and said hello, the kids were excited to see her because she was on her golf cart...they wanted that.
So soon they were asking to actually go to bed. They were all very tired and the sun was not even down yet! We all got ready for bed, and by a little after 9pm we were in bed to sleep.
The next morning we were up about 7am, a breakfast of cereal, and orange juice and bananas, and even some pop tarts-- this is vacation!
In the morning, little Jeremiah was so interested in the suns rays coming down from the sky....
So here he is showing me the suns rays!
lots of fun in the morning....waiting for grampa...
waiting for grampa, they were watching him drive down the road...
and finally, grampa arrives! He has the firewood, the fishing poles and a few other camping essentials!
they started an assembly line to carry the fire wood over
everyone wanted to be in the back of the truck but that would only leave a couple of them to carry the fire wood...so the youngest one decided to sit down and supervise with grandma, while the older children...
carried the firewood!
then it was time to go fishing. grandma also was able to pick up the golf cart so we could take that to where we went fishing. Grampa drove his truck to the fishing hole so all the fishing stuff could be in the truck (along with all of the chairs)
Fishing with Grampa! Grampa shows them how to bait a hook...
How did you do that grampa?
grampa helping to prevent a line from becoming tangled!
ok he has it right now!
the oldest grand child is waiting patiently
this little guy, is usually very impatient with stuff, but not fishing! He can sit still here for a long time! Amazing!
grampa s pent a LOT of time untangling poles and baiting the hooks ---grandma could not see clear to kill the worms...just could not do it...
tiny fish caught, but this pond is a fish and catch and release the fish pond...so the fish went back into the pond.
they did have fun catching them
brother helping brother
the patient one!
had to retire this pole after it became so tangled...and it was the 'new' pole!
Somebody let the worms out into grampa's hat....who left the lid off of the worms?
After all of the fishing time, it was then lake time!
swimming time!
Nothing like a perfect pair of goggles! Grandma got each child a beach bag, (water proof) and some pails, shovels, and goggles. They were ready!
Found the baby turtle swimming in the water...so grampa showed the children the turtle close up
After hours of fishing in the morning, and hours of swimming at noon and a little after noon, the family was hungry-so back to the camping cabin for lunch of sloppy joes from ground turkey, and hips and lots of water...also some lemonade!
Crazy time in the cabin!
Then more swimming time but at the pool. But one of the set of parents showed up to enjoy some time with all of us. After swimming at the pool it was time for a evening meal. We had a fire and cooked some potatoes roasted in the fire, chicken, salad and lemonade. Samores for dessert!
father and son resting, sort of looking alike !
eating some chicken
trying to bring more cooked chicken over to the table
mmmm everyone is very hungry!
our fire
samores
marshmellows!
making samores!
did you enjoy that samore???
Grandma was getting ready for bed but noticed the cabin was hotter inside than it was outside, the park maintenance people were called and it was discovered that the air conditioner units in all of the camping cabins were not working because it was so hot...so the decision was made that I could move EVERYTHING to another unit, that might or might not stay working, or .....I said MOVE? You have to be kidding! 5 young tired children, tons of stuff, for one night move? and no promise that the unit would work? No, not gonna happen. What is my second choice?
To return another day, ---I will take that choice. So before gram-pa left, everything was packed up and we went home to our house, (only a half an hour away) and plan to return another time later in the summer.
Stay tuned for part 2!!!
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