CAMPING!

Last November we bought a camper. Nothing too grand, but it isn't a pop up, either. It is a travel trailer. November in Minnesota is not camping season. In fact, the camper was already winterized when we bought it. Our final camping trip of the year had been a couple of weeks before, in my dad's camper. So our new (used) camper was parked for the winter.


Industrial strength rain boots, ready for the mud. Wish I had some!

But just because it wasn't camping season, didn't mean that we couldn't plan! The earliest it seemed sensible to go camping in an unknown camper was May. Plans were made, supplies were purchased (we still have quite a few wants for the camper, but we were able to make it through a weekend), and off we went.


This is our campsite. We didn't even try to set chairs out. They would have sunk right in.

In the rain. Well, not in the rain. We got to the campsite and set up before it rained. The kids and I walked a bit around the campground, and then the first of the rain came. And stayed. It rained and rained and rained. We were snug and dry in the camper. The newness hadn't worn off, so the kids were content. We played games, colored, and learned to tie knots. It was great.


A common sight along the hiking trails

The weather didn't clear up until Saturday afternoon. It didn't stop us from going on a hike in the morning, in the rain. We dodged mud and puddles bigger than the path. We saw wildflowers and birds. We enjoyed the weather, well, we tolerated the weather. When it cleared up in the afternoon, we hiked some more! There had been so much rain that they closed one of the creek crossings. The creek was as high as I have ever seen it, and we have been going to this park for a while. It was so churned up and filled with so much run-off that it looked like chocolate milk.


No kidding!


I need to find the picture of this falls from 2007 when we camped here. It was literally a trickle that year!

It rained again on Saturday night. A lot. And thundered. A lot. It was not a terribly restful night. We got up on Sunday and the weather wasn't awful. We went for a little walk, but the paths were even worse than before, so we didn't walk far. A quick glance at the radar on the hubby's droid showed the rain coming. By the time we loaded up and got the camper back to my sister's where we store it, there was a severe weather warning. It went north of us, with tornadoes hitting the northern part of Minneapolis. We were just glad to get home before anything severe.


One of the more unusual looking flowers blooming at the park.

We had a great time, in spite of the weather. There were tons of birds to see, Baltimore Orioles in quantities I have never before encountered, Red-headed Woodpeckers, American Redstarts, Goldfinches, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, White-breasted Nuthatches, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Eastern Bluebirds, among others! And flowers, oh the FLOWERS! I have no idea what most of them are. We totally forgot to bring our field guides with us. We were able to borrow a bird book, but not a flower book. I took pictures, so hopefully we will be able to identify them from those! Kiddo and I learned to tie 10 different knots* using the game Knot So Fast (Have you heard of it? It is great!). We also just enjoyed each others company with few distractions. The only electronic toy we used? Daddy's droid, for checking the weather which was necessary several times.


We saw this when we arrived home. Rainbows always make me happy.

We can't wait until our next trip!


*Knots we learned to tie:

• overhand knot
• slip knot
• figure eight knot
• ring hitch
• clove hitch
• overhand loop
• figure eight loop
• double overhand knot
• reef knot (I learned this one as square knot. Apparently there is another one named that, though)
• stevedore knot

Camping out

Daddy wasn't feeling well the last few days, which for various reasons necessitated a shift from the upstairs to the downstairs for the rest of us. After brainstorming various ways to make it work, I came up with this:



A camp-out in the family room! So much fun. We actually have 3 more tents/forts that we could have put up, these are the smallest 2. The kids each slept in their sleeping bags in their own tents, and I slept in my sleeping bag on the couch (not a good trade for my bed, but better than the floor!). The kids loved it. They do not want to move back to their beds! I highly recommend it for beating back some of those January blues, too. We are longing for spring and camping at this point, so this has been a nice diversion. Maybe tonight I'll build a fire in the fireplace so we can toast marshmallows....mmmmmm, s'mores.

Our Classroom Today--October 5

Idyllic, no?

We stumbled upon what might be the greatest outdoor space for us yet. One of our Tuesday group members had a desire to camp, but, well, it just hasn't worked out for her this year. So she wanted to go to a campsite for the day. She did the research, found one reasonably close (it is SUPER close for me, so I love it all the more!), and made the plans. We didn't know what was there. We were pleasantly surprised. The campground is only 5 sites, and we had the whole place to ourselves. There is a central fire pit, along with pits for each site. We used the central fire pit. We had a fire, which the adults sat around while the kids ran and played in the woods surrounding us. They also found the creek pictured above. C had also put together notebooks for the kids, so they could draw things they had seen out in the woods.

It was a very peaceful day. The kids ran. The kids played. The kids drew. We hiked. The adults sat and chatted. And we all tried some new fire roasted foods! We made bannock, something I have wanted to try for a while but never got the ingredients together for! I didn't use the recipe from that site, however, because it was a bit vague for me. Mine was similar, but I can't find the link to it right now, sadly. I'll post it when I do find it! We roasted apples--the easy way, on a stick like a marshmallow. The peel will char, and you can peel it right off and eat the apple. We roasted one whole in foil, too, but I am not sure how that one came out, I didn't try it. We of course had s'mores. And we made banana boats. We didn't use that recipe, though it is similar. T brought bananas, and I rattled off how we had roasted them when I was younger, too. So she tried it...but we only had regular size marshmallows, and we used pieces of Hershey bar. Still, really good. I don't think 5 minutes would have been enough, however. They are better, in my opinion, when the banana is fully mooshy. The first one wasn't quite soft enough, and it was on the fire for more than 5 minutes. Still, quite good, just not as squishy.

The weather was perfect. The leaves are falling from the trees and made a nice crunch beneath our feet. It was such a great day, that we are hoping to do it again next week, weather permitting!