Summer Sendoff

Well, as excited as I was for the last holiday (August 13th, the First Day of School) I was kind of surprised by how much I enjoyed this Labor Day Weekend.  It was like we let summer escape out of the holding pen, then lassoed it back in with a triumphant "YEEEE-HAAAWWW", and hung on to it for a few days before releasing it into the wilds.  And sharing the carefree laziness with our friends, The Do-er's, made it all the sweeter. 

They have a comfy trailer, and left for the campsite before us so they could have some daylight to set up and get situated.  Check.  While we didn't bring a whole house with us, it still astounds me how much stuff we did bring along for these 4 days, especially considering my premeditated decision not to bother showering while we were there.  Mmmm.  Smells like...freedom.

Here is the tent that the campground has for us to rent.  Big Daddy will give you a little tour.

Come on in!

 

Here's the sleeping quarters.  Yep, that's a real bed with real bedding.

 

The kids made themselves at home right away and invited in the Do-er kids.  Ah, good move breaking out the Nintendo right away.  Don't want you to overdo it on that fresh air and nature.  Best to work up to it slowly.  They love the privacy curtains that turn their beds into instant forts.

 

 

And here in the front room is our kitchen area complete with fridge, microwave, coffee maker, prep station with plenty of dishes, bowls, utensils, etc.

We preplanned how we would feed this lot:  we were in charge of lunch and snacks, the Do-er's taking on breakfast and dinner.  Can I just tell you that camping is so not the can of Pork and Beans over the open fire that you might think?  Mrs. Do-er made incredible pancakes with fresh blueberries for breakfast, and Mr. Do-er grilled up steaks and a delicious concoction of mushrooms, onions, and blue cheese to go on top for dinner.   And of course we had S'mores, and even some Jiffy Pop popcorn.

                         

                         

The boys would crash and burn after their sugar high, but the girls would hang out with us silly grown-ups for a while before turning in.  They are a lot of fun, and either think we all are really cool and oh, so funny, OR they are gathering fodder to take back to the school lunch area about what total nerds their parents are...  Either way, we enjoyed hangin' with the 'tweens.

                         

The days were spent relaxing, too.  There is a nice enclosed playground near our campsites, and the kids could pretty much hang out there with little supervision.  We'd check in on them, and periodically, they would even check in on us!  So, between stints of scootering, palying spies (boys) and reading books (girls), we'd find them over at the park.

There's nothing like following up all that physical activity with a soak in the hot tub.

                          

We did manage to break the kids away for a little while to do some siteseeing and shopping in nearby Sovlang.  And since we were on lunch detail, we decided to take the easy road and take the group out to eat while we were at it.  And what's a (wooden) shoe-in for dining in a lovely Danish community?  That's right, Big Daddy suggested Mexican food!  That shouldn't be hard to find!  Well, sarcasm aside, would you believe that we found parking, strolled from the lot and the first building we came to was this?

                           

It was actually very good! BD had his Mojo working, fer sure.

The next part of the plan was to divide by gender.  The boys headed off to the Solvang Vitage Motorcycle Museum and the girls did some shopping.  Daughter Do-er was telling me about a store called Del Sol where all the products change color in the sun's UV rays.  Pretty fun.  I thought maybe I'd add a canvas tote bag to my BYOBag grocery collection.  When I inquired about the price, the shop attendant said they were $20.  My face must have answered that the bags weren't that cute, and he kindly clued me in that if we walked 3 blocks round trip, we could each get a coupon from the Visitor's Center that would get us a bag for free!  Great!

                    

Not bad for the price of my email address!  "Oh, I always give a fake one."  What?  I learn a lot from my good friend, Mrs. Do-er.  Maybe the volume of my spam will decrease with this bit of wisdom she casually passed on to me. 

She may, however, keep all of her tips to herself from now on.  She tested our friendship, and I'm pretty sure I failed.  There was a platform in front of our tent, and she somehow tripped off of it when she was coming in to see me or find her kids or something.  As she's going down hard with her eyes bulging out of her head, my reflex was to back up out of the way, not try to break her fall.  And then, true friend that I am, once I made sure she was laughing more than she was crying, instead of helping her up, I went for the camera and made her reenact it for me.

                                     

She holds grudges, too.  The next morning I was outside reading with my coffee and she came out to join me.  She started picking up bark and throwing it "at the crow."  Then one pinged me in the arm.  I'm pretty sure it was on purpose.  And I think she called me a crow.  I hope she feels we're even now.  She herself stated that "Grace is a lifestyle." 

 

Yes, it was a wonderful way to close out the summer.  We are thinking our next double-family-fun-fest might be down San Diego way.  Maybe we'll rent an RV or trailer and see how we like it for that trip.  Big Daddy has a dream of taking the kids around the US one summer.  Either my fond childhood memories of such a trip have planted a seed, or the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. 

                                      

 

 

  

 

 

Comments

[Alisa]

Crying. Crying. Yes, grace is a lifestyle is my mantra. God, could you have anymore bad pictures of me??
It was a blast and I can't wait to test the bounds of our friendship again. Maybe this time we can go on an adventure campout where they build trust by having one person fall back and the other catch? I'll be the catcher...

[MIL]

You do realize that what BD's parents do is NOT camping by any stretch of the imagination! It's an alternative life-style! And we love it and we love seeing you all having so much fun!

[MIL]

You do realize that what BD's parents do is NOT camping by any stretch of the imagination! It's an alternative life-style! And we love it and we love seeing you all having so much fun!

[Nonnie]

Nonnie loved sharing this adventure with you all, every single bit of it! About a hundred years ago Nonnie had S'More's for the first time ever camping overnight with the Girl Scouts in Italy. That is absolutely my favorite memory of that experience. (No, we didn't fly over to Italy to go camping...we lived there on a military base).
Loved all the photos you posted--what a beautiful family--two beautiful families.
I don't know what a Mojo is, but glad to hear BD has one (I guess?). My vocabulary is probably hopelessly behind the times, but I first heard the word during one of the numbers played at a Jazz Concert Pop Pop and I attended just a few weeks ago. I quite liked the song and the music, even without knowing what a Mojo is. It can't be a bad thing if you can sing about it, right?

[Lisa]

Thanks for the note, Nonnie! Here is a link for you about the origin of "mojo" (meaning magic, or a magic charm):
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/got-my-mojo-working.html

Love you!