Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts
Monday, November 16, 2009
I ♥ Faces Challenge: Autumn Beauty
The challenge this week is Autumn Beauty. We camped this weekend in a local forest and enjoyed every minute of the autumn beauty around us.Check out other entries here
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Camping
Nights were spent roasting marshmallows by the fire.
The days were filled with time at the playground,
Gloriously sunny days at the beach making sand castles with moats and secret passages,
And the ability to gain a bit more independence and explore.
And then night rolls around and the cycle of sparklers, glowsticks, roasting marshmallows and passing out begins again.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Extended Weekend Getaway
This weekend is a big party fest for us. We will be traveling to the Poconos to attend a family reunion (the first of its kind) to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. This will be a chance for many of the great-grandkids to meet each other for the first time. There will be BBQ, fishing, floating on the lake, glowsticks, and a whole lot of fun. Additionally, Saturday is my 11th wedding anniversery. Wow, 11 years married...who'd a-thunk it?
We decided inorder to make the trip super comfortable and ease the guest overload at my aunt's lakehouse, to rent an RV--plus we have really just been waiting for an excuse to do so. Since we planned this I have not been able to get the song from National Lampoons Vacation, "Holiday Road" out of my head or stop thinking of good old Cousin Eddie in Christmas Vacation and his RV. I promise to be a bit more high-brow than he was.
After the reunion we decided to add on a day at Sesame Place- the first time we have been there in three years. Meg has no memory of being there and Michael should be ready to do many of the slides himself! Should be great and so far (fingers crossed) the weather looks good!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Tuesdays Unwrapped: Moments
Go check out Chatting At The Sky to see more moments unwrapped.
Before you leave be sure to check out my GIVEAWAY by clicking here.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Camping Trip- Green Lakes State Park
We had an impromptu and sudden desire to camp. So we quickly packed the car to grab one of the 4 spots left. We camped at Green Lakes State Park and it was perfect! 
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Tuesdays Unwrapped: Girl Talk
A walk off into the woods to have a little girl talk. See the rest of Tuesdays Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky.Sunday, April 26, 2009
Weekend RoundUp: Summer in April
What is up with the Syracuse weather?? Wow. We started the weekend with Meg's softball which we had to leave early after 1 hour. The heat was so intense on the field and we were soo not used to warmth that Meg felt sick. Amazingly, Syracuse was sporting 80 plus degree weather at 10:00am- this after snow flurries just a few days ago.
We came home to a favorite activity-- a big BBQ of neighbors at our house. We do this very frequently and it was so much fun. We had about 30 people, Pete at the helm, BBQing and cooking his specialty: clams and mussles. The kids were roasting so we let them swim in the hot tub which got turned down to about 93 degrees. Our good time raged on from 3 until 1am. The Dads were hootin' and hollaring while playing dice in garage after the winds blew in long after the kids had gone to bed.
Today, we spent our day at Bass Lake Resort, checking out a camping membership and we are very excited. It is about 30 miles from our house and has everything a campground should have: pools, boat rentals, a bass stocked lake, tons of activities, mini-golf, and on and on. Better yet, they have RVs you can rent and even places for you to park one seasonally. We hope to get one next year so this will be its home. Until then, that new Coleman tent I got is going to get a workout!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Our First Camping Trip of the Season Completed
The weather was perfect! The kids had a great time hiking, letterboxing, building forts, and scavenging the pond for minnows and frogs. The views from Highland are spectacular. It was a great 2 1/2 days that ended all too soon. We cant wait to do it again!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Our New Home Away from Home-Set Up in Our Home
Seriously--it didnt look this big in the store. After looking at a ton of tents in super-sized super stores, they all start to look of average size until you bring it home and set it up in your family room.
This darling little tent is the Coleman Max Cabin tent and measures 10x14 and it 7.5 tall. Believe it or not--I was able to set up this beast by myself and the "help" of a six year old and a four and a half year old. But yes, I broke a sweat and will count it as my cardio for today.
The tent buying process was way too long and way too hard. I wanted something spacious (obviously) but I was really hooked on the superior weather features that seemed to go only with Coleman. I read every review known to man and think I made the right choice. I will just to be on the safe side, buy an additional tarp for the top to "help" the rainfly if needed. However if weather is that bad, we'd sleep in the back of the minivan on the air mattress which is where we camped before owning a tent.
We plan on doing about 10 trips this year in this tent (not counting our first camping experience in it tonight in the family room). Lets see how tonight goes....
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Camping
spending 2 nights in Highland Forest atop of a small mountain. Despite my enthusiasm for the event I had no real idea what to expect from the kids. Michael waxed and waned about wanting to go and not wanting to go-fear of the unknown was his demon. Meagan didn’t want to be homesick, but I’m still not sure that she knew what that meant. MY concern for them was the lack of 21st century modern niceties: electricity, tv, Spongebob, the computer; not to mention running water and indoor plumbing. But we prepped like we were pros and packed as if we were going to the Arctic Tundra (not a far cry from Syracuse in very late October). The nay-sayers placed bets on how fast we’d come home.Not only did we stay the whole weekend (we were among the last of our homeschooling group to leave) but both kids cried while I packed up the car to go home. They wanted to stay “forever”
was how they put it. These were my kids-who I usually have to beg to clean their rooms. Put them in a forest and they were actually offering other families to fetch stacks of wood for their fires and shuttle buckets of water from the pump. Maybe it was the mountain air….So this spring and summer I am planning a great adventure for my pioneers and me. We are going to explore this whole camping thing and be little nomads on and off. Our first camping trip will be back to the forest in early spring with our homeschooling friends again. We then have a trip planned for Herkimer Diamond Mines where we will excavate and camp for two days. For a planned family reunion weekend in Pennsylvania this July, we will again bring the tent to the overcrowded lakehouse we will share with my mother’s entire family before we spin off for two days to Sesame Place and the Crayola factor
y- tent in hand and Dad in tow! (that will be a first!)While Michael attends summer camp in July we hope to pop in a few local weekend trips. In August when we make one of our quarterly trips to Long Island to see the family, the tent will come along and the kids will get to camp on the beach among other places. August also holds a potential multi-day trip with some friends through the Adirondacks. By the time September comes my little gypsies and I will hopefully be camping experts and head up to Lake George for some fall foliage before heading back down to Long Island for the birth of their new cousin and some camping in the pine barrens. Now as for October---my plan is to find a pumpkin farmer who will let us camp amongst the giant orange orbs, before rounding out the camping season back in Highland Forest for another homeschooling camping trip.
We are currently researching tents and trying to find one that offers the most flexibility for our needs. There are several ones that peeked my interest especially one that can enclose the trunk of my minivan into it to offer the van as another bedroom. We are also planning on some delicious Freeze Dried foods (YUM…*sarcasm*) to make the transporting of food and cooking easier.
My hope is that by next November, my newly purchased tent is threadbare, my Coleman stove has gone through 20 tanks of gas, and it will be January before we get all the dirt out from under our nails. A few blisters here and there would just be a bonus!!
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