Father's Day Camping II

Last year's Father's Day camping trip was so successful that we booked sites for this year (and added two families) immediately after getting back. This time, our 2018 sites were booked before the weekend was even over - and we added a day to the weekend as well! Father's Day camping is officially a thing. And we couldn't really think of more fun people to spend the weekend with! Our group has five families with ten adults, twelve kids ages 1-7, and two dogs. It's wild, crazy, loud, and fun!

Mike was hoping that we would be adding a day this year as well - but between Dec's birthday, all the summer activities, and busy days at work, I finally admitted that I simply could not be ready to go on Thursday (after working all that day). Mike had the day off, so he got 90% of the stuff ready, picked up the kids, picked me up from work, and we all headed up to the site to drop off the camper and hang out with B&C (and family) for a bit. It was nice to get the camper there and partially set up. That way when we headed up first thing Friday morning, we were ready to start the camping fun.

After lunch, we biked down to the swimming beach. Our new co-pilot bike worked great all weekend and the girls loved riding it. P&E had brought their kayaks - both a junior kayak designed for kids and a regular kayak. Cooper and Fiona were so intrigued by the kayaks and had a great time working on their kayaking skills. By mid-afternoon, the two of them were given some well-defined, but rather generous boundaries for their kayak adventures. Cooper would have happily paddled Fiona around the lake for days! And either Mike, Brad, or I were always at the ready for emergency kayak retrieval.

The big kids all got out their bikes after dinner and what started as a quick ride around a neighboring site loop turned into a bike ride around the entire campground. All three of our kids did a great job and rode the entire big loop. Even Declan. He and I were the caboose by quite a bit - but I was so proud of him. He just kept peddling. My shins and ankles took a hit or two ... he may not have always kept steering through all that peddling.

Once the bike ride was done, it was campfire time, lawn games, and smores! And then, because there had been no nap, we put our people to bed. It was still easily 90 minutes past their normal bedtime. They did a pretty good job of going to sleep in the new camper and slept great all night. While I miss the uniqueness of our old camper, it was SO nice to all fit in comfortably and have plenty of space for our stuff. I felt pretty organized all weekend. After the kids went to sleep, we had a blast with our friends around the campfire and were all dismayed when we realized it was midnight!

The forecast for Saturday had always been rain. The rain held off until we were making dinner and we were very grateful for the lovely day. In the morning, we biked down to the playground and ran off some energy.  Then after lunch, we all went back to the beach. Somehow I ended up as one of the only adults in the water and got into a bit of a splash war with the big boys. We had a pretty fun time! The best part of Saturday swimming - Quinn! She borrowed a pool noodle from some friends and swam all over the swimming area. In fact, she was the last Vanneste out of the lake!! That has never happened before. She even tried the junior kayak. We were so proud of her and she had a blast!

With the rain on Saturday night, the group gathered in E&M's "mansion" camper. The kids were in the back bunkroom watching a movie and the adults (and a few miscellaneous children ... Declan and Hannah) were in the main area playing games, drinking, and talking. While we missed the campfire, it was still a blast to hang out with everyone. Dec got cabin fever, so he and Mike went back to our camper to play playdoh. Not much later, I gathered the girls for bedtime. We pulled the curtain that Mike had rigged up so that we were able to read (me)/use the computer (Mike) after the kids went to bed. That would have never happened in our old camper! It was really nice and relaxing.

Sunday was fairly chilly. We biked down to the fishing pier, but it was super windy down there. We talked E into taking Fiona on his bike co-pilot on the way back to the sites, so I only had Dec in the trailer. Which meant I was actually able to bike up the giant hill without pushing my bike. The extra 70 pounds of bike trailer had been kicking my butt all weekend! We ate lunch, played around with our buddies a little more, learned how to empty the black water tank (gross!), and got home around 2:30. Plenty of time to get the laundry going, everyone washed up, and the camper emptied!

This may be one of our favorite summer traditions and one that we hope continues for years!