2009-08-20

Things I've learned today

A seven year olds poop in a modern campground is even less fun and more stinky to clean up then a 2 year olds on a hiking trail when wearing no diaper.

Geocaching several caches in one day is stupid for us.

The geocaches that say bring your own pen are so samll that it doesn't have any fun trading items to keep the kids interested.

Apparently, my kids would love to live in a pickle barrell.

A day trip for our family usually lasts ALL day with lots of side trips. Its 9:57 and we're 1/2 hour from camp (strike that.....its now 10:45 and according to TomTom we won't be back at camp until midnight) .

However we see a lot of things that most people never see in their lifetime.

The UP has some gorgeous uninhabited country.

Which is a REALLY good thing considering that Chuck drove off and left me standing in a backcountry road with no pants on as I changed out of my swim bottoms and into pants.

Nylon swim bottoms are NOT comfortable to walk in all day long and the resulting rash is less comfortable.

Driving off the beaten track and into some primitive campgrounds of the NPS make me miss our tent camping days of Chuck and I.

However, driving back in the still of the night with sleeping children makes for some awesome quiet couple time.

And I'm going to enjoy it.

2009-08-14

Rant and Rave avoided...thank your lucky stars.

So, I had another post started but it seemed like a huge bitchfest and rambling nonsense to me so I figured I’d restart it. Afterall, who really wants to read about the wicked witch of the west that I work with, my horrible Aunt Flo cramping this month or the shitty city that I live in that gives tickets for parking in your own driveway?

A couple of weeks ago I got a new blackberry; I love the blackberry. Seriously, I think I’d marry it if I could as I already sleep with it usually. Hey, I use it as a secondary alarm clock! However, I’ve had issues with keeping up on blogging. I find myself less and less on the pc and more and more on my blackberry, which for all its awesomeness, it isn’t exactly made for blogging. Unless they made a blogger application for it, then that’d be way cool! Everyone would get daily updates from my vacation next week as I seem to be doing a lot of Facebook updating through the easy-peasy app. So if you’d like to keep up to date on my daily comings and goings, add me as a friend!

One of the major goings in our household right now is the fact that 4 days before our annual week-long camping trip, Miss Elizabeth has decided to potty train herself. Yay! Except for the fact that I’m not sure how well driving in a car for 9 hours is going to work with a little girl *just* starting out in panties. Or how well, traipsing through Tahquammenon Falls is going to be with her in a backpack with just panties on and no where to use the potty. I guess it’s nature afterall and she’s always trying to pee standing up (its what happens when you live in a houseful of boys and your sitter is a boy too!) However, I’m not going to actively discourage her so we’re working on wearing big girl panties to go along with her big girl bed that she got last weekend. It’s been sooooooooo nice having my own bed back to just Chuck and I again. Well, at least until about 5 am every morning.

And considering that Chuck just celebrated his 41st birthday last Friday, he needs all the uninterrupted rest he can get. He keeps sputtering about how he’s getting old and needs more sleep now then he did before. I think it’s true too, despite all the studies done that suggest older people need less sleep. Maybe it means “older” people without young children….cuz we’re exhausted at the end of the day.

His birthday was a nice day; spent some time at the splash pad, the beach and had a huge dinner made by me and Lucas. Rachel Ray is one of my culinary heroes. Okay, maybe she’s my only culinary hero…but I love her recipes and the fact that it’s a 30 minute meal makes it even better in my book. This time we did a recipe for Chipolte grilled Porterhouse steaks with a cilantro-lime butter compound, cheesy smashed potatoes and a fire roasted vegetable mixture tossed in the butter compound. I know, yummy right? It was all gone at the end of the day too…even the boys loved the meat.

During the whole time, Lucas kept saying “I’m turning into a good little chef, aren’t I momma?” Of course, I agreed but not just out of the motherly obligation…he really is! He was a ginormous help and has really come out of his shell lately. He, being Lucas, had to get in the good-natured ribbings on his father’s 41 years; last night he informed me that we beat Daddy at the grocery shopping game because Daddy is “old now and getting slow”.

However, we’ll see just how “old and slow” daddy is when we’re hiking through the wilderness and geocaching for the first time. I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll have a hard time keeping up with him.

We leave for the UP tomorrow. Hope to update in the wilderness….maybe it will bring out my sentimental, thoughtful side. I’m really looking forward to doing nothing for 9 days….and when I say nothing, I mean hiking, boating, swimming, playing in the sand, geocaching, visiting the museums, possibly going to the zoo, visiting the fish hatchery, Kit-i-kippi springs and seeing my aunt and uncle for a day.

Sounds like heaven.
 

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