Camping 2012

"Do you remember camping, Liam?"

"Yes"

"What do you remember?"

"I remember eating cereal, and going to bed every day, and drinking coffee, I mean, you guys were drinking coffee and Elias and me were drinking hot chocolate. I remember making the tent, and eating macaroni. Hey! I remember going to the candy store and the ice cream store every day. Then we went to the playground and did stuff there....I don't know anything else."

So there you have it. If this were Liam's blog, you'd get a slightly exaggerated  account of all the junk food we ate.

    I can't say that I was really up for camping this year. We had planned on being ready to go camping at the drop of a hat this summer whenever it happened to work out that Jesse had some time off. So I should have been prepared for it, but I wasn't. It was seeming more and more like it wasn't going to happen, and being pregnant (sick & tired) I was ok with that. Since it seemed so much like we weren't going to be camping this year, we decided to make a day trip out to clear lake before our park pass ran out and the end of July. 

    I should have known better. God is always so good to us, and he knew how much Jesse wanted to go camping. The day trip was planned for Sunday. Saturday night Jess went outside to make some business calls, and returned with the news that his next job was behind schedule and wouldn't be ready for at least a week. We're going camping! Yay!......I mean,Yikes!.... Sunday became a day of house cleaning, packing, setting up, taking down, and repacking the tent(Jess is a little obsessive about that), and a shopping trip to Brandon for the camping essentials.

    Monday, Jess still had a half day of work to finish up his current job. That along with a few other things made for a late departure, but we were only going to Riding Mountain National Park this year so it wasn't too long of a drive. Or so we thought. 

    I had checked the website and decided that we'd check out some of the back country campgrounds, assuming that they'd be more remote, private, and cheaper than the one at Clear Lake. I had originally been hoping to stay at deep lake, but when we got to the park entrance and got a better map we realized that it was a REALLY long drive on back roads. We opted for my third choice, Lake Audy, since we had learned that my second choice was a walk-in only campground. Lake Audy, on the map appeared to be along a paved road, or at least one of the main roads. It was not. The road was paved for about 200 feet after the turn off. Then gravel, which wouldn't have been so bad had it not been such a narrow, winding road. We considered turning around, but we were quickly running out of options since Lake Audy was number three on my list of only four campgrounds. 

    We decided we would just make the drive, and stay there whether we liked it or not since we were quickly running out of time to get set up before dark. The narrow, winding road, along with my fear of driving, and pregnancy nausea made it a very long, slow drive. I can't remember exactly how long it was, but I think it was somewhere in the ball park of 1 1/2 to 2 hours from the turn off from the highway. After the long, boring drive we were finally there. 

    Hungry and tired, we were eager to check in and set up. Then we drove in......it looked quite literally like someone's lawn. Small, flat, grassy, but no trees, no privacy. We just couldn't do it. We agreed that we'd rather go home again than stay there. So Moon Lake it was. I really had not wanted to stay there, it was right off the highway, the pictures online hadn't looked very nice, and I thought I remembered stopping there before and not liking it. Jesse had heard good things about it, but I didn't believe them. However, it was the only choice left. 

Wishing well.

    Looking at the map again, we decided that it would be a much easier and possibly faster drive to go south from Lake Audy, out of the park and back east to Onanole, then back into the park around and north of the lake all the way to Moon Lake. So we dug around in the cooler and found the boys some "dinner", and headed out. It was a better drive, and preferable to going back the way we came. When we got to Onanole though, we did have a serious conversation about going home and coming back the next day since we were quickly running out of daylight and we were still about 45 min. from Moon Lake where we didn't even know if there'd be an open campsite. However we decided that it would be too devastating for the kids to go home, so we kept on. 

    When we got there, we happily discovered that it was better than expected. It was not the same place I thought I'd seen. While it wasn't awesome by my standards, it was quite private, which is my first priority when camping. By this time I was in quite a wretched mood, but I could work with this. All I had to do was fix my attitude, and this could still turn out to be a great camping trip. Besides, we had no choice, it was now after dark, and long after the boys bed time. This was where we were staying like it or not, so I might as well like it. 

    Jess dug out the coleman lantern and camping gear. Meanwhile I put the cranky boys to work picking up sticks and stones from what was to be the tent area, they seemed to be happier so long as they had a job to do. Somehow Jess and I managed to set up the tent rather quickly, with only a lantern and flashlight, while the boys were now alternating between gathering kindling and sitting in lawn chairs watching us while eating apples......very gravely apples I discovered after sharing a bite. 

Love that smile.

    Finally we were there, all set up and ready for bed. Liam was quite disappointed that we didn't get to go to the playground or do anything else that day, but he was exhausted so the promise of fun stuff tomorrow was enough. It wasn't until now, bedtime that I realized that we hadn't taken note of where the bathroom was when choosing our campsite. There were two loops of campsites and only one bathroom....it was in the other one. As you can probably guess, this was a big deal with one prego lady and one kid newly toilet trained. Since our options were driving, or a very long walk to the bathroom I was glad for the privacy of our campsite as we ended up using the bush during the night. The next day, we discovered that there was a shorter walking path to the bathroom which was great for daytime, but it was still to long and dark to walk it alone at night.

    That first night, there was no sleep for me, or any night for that matter. I dislike air mattresses, so we've so far stuck to using extra bedding as out mattress when camping. Now, with 4 people it is not possible to bring enough bedding to make a comfortable bed for everyone. I now give in. I will now agree to any other option as I have never slept so little and so uncomfortably.

    That first night, I laid awake nearly all night. So when I saw the slightest hint of morning I was up and out of the tent and starting a fire as soon as possible. It was then that I was to be surprised with the highlight of my camping trip. I did not get a picture. I wish I had, but I didn't so I will just have to describe it as best I can. 

    Our campsite was one with a long narrow "lane" that we would back into up to a point where there were big rocks to stop us from driving any further. After the rocks, the rest of the campsite was a small circular clearing slightly downhill from where the car was parked. With a little area to one side that was just big enough to fit our large tent in so that only the tent's entrance poked into the main area from between two trees.

    The picnic table sat in the middle of the clearing with a fire pit off to the side. With the tent up, and the car parked, the only direction you could see through the trees was a small opening among the oak trees just behind the fire pit where you could see the lake off in the distance. This is where I found my surprise. 

Hiking fail, we didn't see the sign at the beginning warning up that the trail was impassable due to flooding.

   

    With the fire crackling, and a cup of hot chocolate in my hands I was just starting to feel warm again, and I was finally beginning to clear away the bad attitude from the night before. That's when the sun started to rise, over a hill on the other side of the lake, just exactly centred in the small clearing of trees. A little while later, with such a perfectly clear sky, there was an amazing reflection of sunrise on the lake. This was of course all combined with the sounds of morning in the wilderness. 

There were a lot of bears. We found out that Moon Lake is known to be one of the best places to find bears. I didn't like that much. 

    I am not normally one to gawk over the beauties of nature, but this was something to beheld. No profession artist could have created a more perfectly balanced, aesthetically pleasing scenery. And all easily visible from my seat by the fire. 

Gotta go mom....

    Had I had to move to the picnic table to see the view, I would have been cold, and unable to enjoy it. After a while of enjoying this alone it was all topped off with the company of my cold, sleepy Liam snuggling on my knee to warm up, all the while asking curious questions about all the birds flitting about in the trees above us.

    After breakfast I left Jesse with the clean up, and took a nap in the boy's bed which was, of course much more comfortable than ours. It was the start of a good day.

Nap grumpy.

     Over the next couple of days we spent a lot of time at the playground and the beach. We ate out a few times, did some shopping, went mini golfing, rented a four person bike, bought some candy and ice cream (and many coffees), played arcade games, and of course we spent a lot of time around the camp fire cooking, cleaning, and relaxing.

    I think it was Wednesday that Elias tried to break his finger. He was "helping" Jesse unload some fire wood from the trunk of the car when he tripped over his own feet and fell. He was holding the log in such a way that when he fell, he squished his fingers between the log and a large rock on the ground.

   There was a loud crack, and then a scream, a real scream. From my point of view it looked like he'd smashed his face into the log, but upon inspection it was his finger that was hurt, not his face. At first it didn't seem to be broken, and getting hurt is nothing new for Elias so we didn't think too much of it.

    Later that night  it was swollen to the point of not being able to bend it, and there was a hard lump on the side of his knuckle. The thing that was unusual though was that he was complaining about it. He's a tough kid that gets hurt often, and rarely complains about it. He brags about his injuries, but doesn't complain. 

A lot of this happened at the campsite.

The next morning it was raining, and we were talking about driving somewhere for breakfast. Jesse was still concerned about Elias' finger so we decided to go to Dauphin, go for breakfast, and then the hospital. 

Story time.

    It was a long wait at the hospital for someone to take one look at it and tell us that it wasn't broken. Which was pretty much what we'd expected. A little tape around his fingers and off we went. Daddy was satisfied that we'd done the right thing, and Elias now had something really cool to brag about.

The Hunter's Cabin.

After the hospital Jesse found a museum. He doesn't even consider asking if we should stop when he sees a museum. He just says "Oooo, ooo, a museum!" and drives as wrecklessly as he must to make the turn. By the time I have a chance to say "Do we have to?" he's already got the kids out of the car and all wound up about it. So rather than stating the "Do we have to?" instead I insisted on a snack to steady my blood sugar and the "grouchies". A little cheese and nuts, and we were off to the museum.

    Though I hate museums, I am so grateful for Jesse's enthusiasm. It means that I can just sit back and watch as Jesse instills the love of history in our boys. I have little interest in history so it would be quite a challenge for me to try to make it interesting for them, but as a homeschool mom I would feel obligated to try. This way though, I get to just move from one bench to another and be as patient as possible, content that it is a good thing that is going on.

"Dad missed a good picture, and now he's making me pose."

    Though the days were good and the boys were all having a blast, the nights were still bad. Each morning it seemed that it was a little harder for me to ditch the bad attitude I'd aquired overnight while not sleeping. I was feeling guilty about not being more fun, so it was a nice surprise to be joined by Alex & Gab and family for a couple of days. They camped a little ways away from us so we still had our privacy, but with more people to spend time with I felt like my lethargy was less of a damper on the days. It was good.

Our third came early.... and he was big.

    Saturday afternoon we spent some time at the beach, where I encountered another mom who was camping with her family and not getting enough sleep. 

They would have stayed there all day.

    After swimming for a bit, we herded the boys toward our spot on the beach, a little way from the water to play in the sand for a while. As we were walking, the boys ahead of me, I watched as a little kid destroyed his sand castle and politely smiled at his mom who was watching him.

Ringing the school bell, begging Jesse for a school house just like this.

    As I walked past her, she started toward me. I smiled as she approached, unsure of what she wanted. 

"You know, I know its just a sand castle, but when your kid is destroying it I'd expect you to say SOMETHING, ya know, like, 'No' rather than just watching him do it." 

"Huh?" I was confused, and my smile had quickly dropped.

"He's kicking it over, and you're just watching him do it."

"My kid?" I said, horrified that my kid is doing something like that that I was unaware of, I quickly checked on my kids, who I was sure had never left my sight. Seeing that they were happily playing with Dad in the sand, right were I thought they were. I noticed her gesture toward "her" kid, and I realized that the kid who she's been watching was not her own, but that he was destroying her kids' sand castle. 

At first Liam wouldn't go in the school house because of this creepy thing, but he warmed up after a while of goofing around, taking silly pictures.

"That kid?" I asked

"Yes, that kid!"

"He's not mine."

"I apologize." Was her quick response as she turned and walked away.

By this time, the kid's real mom had shown up, and I believe witnessed some of the conversation. She now seemed to be "tearing a strip off him" out of obligation.

Elias was ok at first, then got progressively more nervous after a sudden realization that he wasn't real. 

    Then the woman turned back to me and apologized again, more sincerely. Explaining that I'd happened to be walking by at the same time as the boy had started in on the castle, and that I was the only mom around at that moment. She was horribly embarrassed. She explained that she never does "momma bear" as she called it, saying that it must be the lack of sleep.

Mmmm....gelato.

    Then the awkward part. Our kids were playing in sand right next to each other. There was to be no quick end to the odd incident. It would be awkward to move or leave right away when the kids had only been there a few minutes. No, her and I were doomed to either an awkward silence sitting nearly side by side, or an awkward conversation. I opted for the silence, but she opted for conversation. I soon learned that they were from the states, not far from where Mandy lives, and quite a nice family. 

    Thinking back on it, its quite funny to me, and I feel a somewhat badly for her. Oh what it must have looked like from her point of view. Me smiling sweetly first and my son, then at her as I watch my son destroy her children's sand castle with a vengeance .