What a weekend! We left our home, bound for home, at about 9am on Saturday. Yes, that’s right, bound for home. we had our first stay-cation. We were going to go camping this weekend up north but just decided to stay put and camp right here in our backyard. This was definitely a great weekend for us. It reminded me of the importance of turning off the TV (and computer!), not doing housework, and spending time, quality time, with my kids. I don’t know about anyone else but I have a hard time focusing on playing. I can sit and do a craft for sometime or weed the garden while they ride their bikes around me but pretending that I am a race car, or a doctor, or a superhero for more than 8 minutes is hard for me. So this weekend really gave us that time to be fully engaged.
So our weekend was packed full of activities. The 
weekend activities included crafts (making necklaces, mostly), tie dying t-shirts, chalk drawing on the drive way, body tattoos, jumping in the kiddy pool and sprinkler, playing at the local playground, setting up the tent (a favorite), testing the tent out by wrestling and playing “camel saves the day” (more on that later), hiking up the brook, eating our meals outside, having a family ice cream social, starting a campfire, roasting marshmallows, and tenting out, oh… I am just exhausted thinking about all that we have done! Not mention, Ian and I did slip away for an anniversary dinner on Saturday night followed by some mini golf at Chuckster’s in Chichester while our sitter played with the boys in the tent and put them to bed inside the house (or as Kaiden has been calling it this weekend, our really big camper).
Our Bee Hole Brook walk was just awesome. We walked upstream in the brook for about a quarter to half mile. It felt like longer than that! Lots of little tiny rapids, some deep pools that came up to Kael's waist and lots of very careful steps.
I do have to elaborate a bit on “camel saves the day", as it was a learning experience for me. This is a game Kaiden made up. First the man in the desert (Kaiden) collapses and falls on to the mattress in the tent (yes, we have nice cushy foam mattresses in the tent… and yes, we still consider it camping), the man is dead, then the doctor (Kael) gets on his camel (that’s me) and rides to the man’s aid (although he is already dead so I am not sure what a doctor on a camel can do about it at this point). We finally get there but the doctor croaks getting off the camel. Not sure if it was too hot out or if it was hereditary but then the camel does surgery (tickling) on both the man and the doctor. The camel, as I quickly learned, has a magical hump that saves dead guys but only after they have had surgery. It is all so obvious after you understand the magic hidden in the hump!
We went through the weekend with pretty much a TV-free weekend. I *had* to watch a little tube to catch the Biden announcement and hype. I am sad Obama did not select Hillary but I do like Biden too…. that is a whole other post! See how TV can get you distracted and off topic!
We enjoyed the comfort of our own beds Saturday night, but spent Sunday night in the tent. The kids loved that. Monday morning we woke up from the tent and packed up (“grabbed my pillow”) and headed for home to end our Stay-cation. Kael and I left the house at 7am… to go back to the grind. Our very private site came with water and electricity, we didn’t get charged much, we didn’t have to fill up the car once, the neighbors were quiet, no barking dogs, and we added lots of great memories. And just like regular vacations, we came home to a messy house, we are tired from all the fun, and we are somewhat looking forward to the routine once again.
Good times. Really good times!
weekend activities included crafts (making necklaces, mostly), tie dying t-shirts, chalk drawing on the drive way, body tattoos, jumping in the kiddy pool and sprinkler, playing at the local playground, setting up the tent (a favorite), testing the tent out by wrestling and playing “camel saves the day” (more on that later), hiking up the brook, eating our meals outside, having a family ice cream social, starting a campfire, roasting marshmallows, and tenting out, oh… I am just exhausted thinking about all that we have done! Not mention, Ian and I did slip away for an anniversary dinner on Saturday night followed by some mini golf at Chuckster’s in Chichester while our sitter played with the boys in the tent and put them to bed inside the house (or as Kaiden has been calling it this weekend, our really big camper).
Our Bee Hole Brook walk was just awesome. We walked upstream in the brook for about a quarter to half mile. It felt like longer than that! Lots of little tiny rapids, some deep pools that came up to Kael's waist and lots of very careful steps.
I do have to elaborate a bit on “camel saves the day", as it was a learning experience for me. This is a game Kaiden made up. First the man in the desert (Kaiden) collapses and falls on to the mattress in the tent (yes, we have nice cushy foam mattresses in the tent… and yes, we still consider it camping), the man is dead, then the doctor (Kael) gets on his camel (that’s me) and rides to the man’s aid (although he is already dead so I am not sure what a doctor on a camel can do about it at this point). We finally get there but the doctor croaks getting off the camel. Not sure if it was too hot out or if it was hereditary but then the camel does surgery (tickling) on both the man and the doctor. The camel, as I quickly learned, has a magical hump that saves dead guys but only after they have had surgery. It is all so obvious after you understand the magic hidden in the hump!
We went through the weekend with pretty much a TV-free weekend. I *had* to watch a little tube to catch the Biden announcement and hype. I am sad Obama did not select Hillary but I do like Biden too…. that is a whole other post! See how TV can get you distracted and off topic!
We enjoyed the comfort of our own beds Saturday night, but spent Sunday night in the tent. The kids loved that. Monday morning we woke up from the tent and packed up (“grabbed my pillow”) and headed for home to end our Stay-cation. Kael and I left the house at 7am… to go back to the grind. Our very private site came with water and electricity, we didn’t get charged much, we didn’t have to fill up the car once, the neighbors were quiet, no barking dogs, and we added lots of great memories. And just like regular vacations, we came home to a messy house, we are tired from all the fun, and we are somewhat looking forward to the routine once again.
Good times. Really good times!
1 comment:
Love the camel story!
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