My Summer Vacation

You know those horrible stories and essays you had to write on your first day of school about what you did on your summer vacation?  Here is mine for this year!

Last week we took the kids on our first ever vacation.  We had decided to do something small and local since it was our first time out.  We decided camping was something fun we could do!  Chuck and I love to camp.  It's one of the first things we had in common, even if our definitions of camping differed slightly (He liked tent camping, I liked camper camping). For our location, we picked someplace we both love and have been to many times.  Hueston Woods on the border of Ohio and Indiana and really close to Miami University.  Hueston Woods has a beach, plenty of camping sites, playgrounds, a nature center, lake, marina, horseback riding and plenty of trails for mountain biking and hiking.  I love it there!

This being the first vacation we've taken, we did it entirely tech free.  No lappys, no internet, no phone (exception to this being that it stayed in the car in case of emergency.  We aren't THAT nuts.). We had so much fun!  The kids were introduced to a new experience, we had loads of uninterrupted family time, and it was relaxing to boot.  For the most part anyhow.  Like any good blogger and Mom, I took along my Ipod Touch to write out some memories each day.  Here's some of the highlights of our vacation, be prepared to giggle.

• Apparently CS had gotten the same lisp A had at her age.  The whole time we were camping she talked on and on about roasting "Smarshmellows for schmorsh".


• We got out to the campsite and realized we didn't have our grill top.  Guess who had to drive back home just so we could cook dinner?


• It rained.  By rain I mean torrential downpour for around 30 minutes making everything at our campsite muddy and swampy.  Did it phase us?  Neh.


• After the grill top fiasco, we find out that the camp stove we have no longer works.  Thankfully Chuck and I are skilled in fire ring cooking.  Otherwise, we would have starved.


• We rented a pontoon boat for a day.  It was so much fun!  The kids had a blast and loved it.  They were so worn out on the ride back that the older two fell asleep.


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• Chuck played hide and seek with the girls for around 2 hours in one afternoon.  I've never seen them laugh so hard!


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• I took Ren for a trip around the lake and while out we encountered 4 deer!  Ren ask if we could take one home for a pet.


• We went to the beach every single day.  My little water babies were in heaven!


• We had so much fun teaching them about acorns (they were plentiful!), local fish, birds, fire and the like, that goes along with camping.  Nature is something to be respected and we made sure our kids were well aware of that by the time we left!

Now onto some of the oddities and such

• Did you know non-stop talking about Justin Bieber is the norm with tween girls?  I think I learned more about this kid just from listening to them chatter on at the playground then I ever cared to know.  Seriously.  It was super annoying too.


• I'm clumsy folks.  I just am.  I've been clumsy most of my life.  Yet nothing makes you realize just how clumsy your truly are like dropping every single clean dish you brought with you 2 days in a row.  Yup, I'm that good!


• When we camp, we don't use throw away utensils.  Everything is washable and is usually washed each and every meal.


• Always take some cash with you!  We wanted to buy some food from the place on the beach and they only took cash.  Chuck had to drive to the HUGE lodge at Hueston Woods, in his swim trunks, just to get cash out.  It was kind of a pain for less than spectacular food, but we'll remember for next time!


• Ren, in his daredevil ways, jumped off the play set and fell on his backside.  Which caused a rather large bruise to quickly appear on both of his butt cheeks.  He walked around the rest of the day saying his butt crack hurt.  It was funny (what he said, not the accident itself) and sad all rolled into one.


• Our first day at the beach, CS is playing so well in the sand.  I kept asking her if she needed to go potty and she just kept saying "no Mommy".  So, we head out into the water and she is content just to "bob" around in her life jacket and floaty.  It was then I noticed something brown floating in the water.  Yup, you guessed it.  She pooped.  In the lake.  I was mortified and quickly started splashing the poop away from us.  The only thing I'm super thankful for is that the beach wasn't very busy!


• The following day was when we took out the pontoon boat.  Well, CS decided pooping in Acton Lake shouldn't just be a fluke thing.  Oh no, not my little girl.  As soon as she jumped off the boat and into the water she pooped.  I wish I was making this up, but I'm not.  I'm embarrassed just writing it.


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There is a lot more to tell, but I feel as though I may have bored you enough.  Happy Monday all!