Thursday, August 02, 2007

Happy Campers


Here is a picture of Walker and his friend, Audrey (5 & 3). They are playing in our "secret garden."
This has been the best summer of my life. Pretty much everything has been fun, fun, fun. I've had a LOT of time off to spend with Walker. It's been great to have a change of pace from the "regular" year. Have I mentioned I love summer.



We used to camp, years ago, in a small tent without much else. We gave it up once we had Walker. Occasionally, we set up the tent in the yard and "camped out." We didn't think we liked it. I thought of myself as a HOTEL GIRL. That all changed last summer when our good friends, Coreen and Steven, invited us to go camping with them. We went out and bought a new, bigger tent, and a few other things. I wasn't really looking forward to it at all. In my mind it was "have" to go camping when I'd discuss our plans. Well, thank goodness they dragged us out there. We really enjoyed it. I think Walker liked it much better than he liked going to a hotel. There is so much more to do. We liked it so much, in fact, that we went and bought a pop-up camper. Now we like it even more - not sleeping on the ground. I also like having a sink to do the dishes in.
So, this is our camping summer. Last week we went to a campground called Whit's End in Ossipee, NH. http://www.whitsendcampground.com/ We had sites on the river. It's a great river for family tubing, even small children would be able to do it. There is also a pool and rec hall and play ground. Clean showers and rest rooms. We're excited to go to Eastern Slope Campground in Conway next weekend for a couple of days. http://easternslopecamping.com/ Then the week after that we've got 5 days at Goose Hollow Campground in Thornton, NH http://www.nhcampgrounds.com/ We've never been to either of those places, but hope they are as fun as Whit's End was. Now we just need to get more creative in our camping food. Everyone was sick of the hot dogs we had last weekend. We went through 3 pounds in just 4 days! But hey, they are easy to hold on a stick over a camp fire. Easy and fun for the kids to do. Think I'll try sword fish next time out.
Tomorrow is my last day of my only 5 day work week this summer. OK, so it's the only 5 days I've worked this summer. But hey, I'm on summer vacation. After finishing college with a teaching degree almost 20 years ago I'm FINALLY able to be on a teacher's school year. I never want to work summers again except for the couple of weeks of dance camp that I do now.
Have I mentioned I love summer?
Does any family ever finish all the freeze pops you get in one of those 100 packs? We keep buying new ones every year, but still have all the old ones in the freezer. Seems Walker only eats them when friends are over and playing outside. Or they multiply in the freezer?!






Here's another one of Walker in the secret garden.