Camping is for the birds
First of, I’d like to wish my oldest sister a big happy 41st-birthday!!!!!!!! She is being released from the hospital on her b-day (again! Same thing last year) after a three-week stay for the stem cell transplant. The procedure went well but she had to endure a lot of pain and infections, not to mention her hair was falling out due to the chemo, so finally she had to shave her hair. But she is such a trooper despite what she has to endure.
All the nurses and doctors loved her. They call her the “perfect patient”, she never complained and always has a smile for them. The nurses actually fight with each other to see who’s going to take care of her. One nurse commented that she has this beautiful aura about her, despite her illness, that’s my sister!!
Here’s to a long and healthy life sis!! We love you more than words can say. You are a fighter and an inspiration to all!! We hope you’ll enjoy your birthday present (we did a mini home-makeover for her while she was away, that’ll be my next post.)
We’ll enjoy a glass of champagne when you are well sis! I’ll leave you with your favorite quote:
“The clock is running.
Make the most of today.
Time waits for no man.
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That’s why it is called the present.”
Author Unkown
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the title states, we did go camping this past Thursday-Sunday, 8 adults and 9 children (from 14-2 years of age. Parker stayed with my parents). Yeah, you can say that we were crazy!! Since my sister’s 3 children have been staying with us, we I (although it was comical trying to point the finger at everyone else for this brilliant idea) came up with the idea of doing something “fun” with the kids. Glutton for punishment, you can say.
Where should I begin? First, the weather called for rain, rain and more rain. As we were driving up to Maine ( a KOA camp site at Old Orchard Beach), it was raining cats and dogs. At one point, I couldn’t even see the car in front of me. Here’s one picture of the rain slowing down a bit. OH JOY!
As we crossed state line, the gray clouds opened up and we were overjoyed when we saw a glimmer of sunlight. We got to the camp site in no time and started to set up the tent. My brother-in-law, my sister’s oldest son, and myself attempted to set up the tent by following the instructions (we rented the tent from REI), but let me tell you…it might as well be in Russian. AAAAAND it didn’t help when the rain was slapping against our faces soaking us like sponges and we were only on “step 2″.
Here’s my 2 helpers, who I’ve dubbed “dumb and dumber”, who tossed the instructions aside and just went about setting it up “as they see it” (typical men, not to insult all men but just the men in my family!). Well, that just didn’t work and the water got into the tent and I swear it takes a woman to fix everything!!
It took about 45 minutes getting soaked to get one tent up. The 2nd one took a little less. My youngest sister stayed in the car with the 6 girls while we finished setting up the 2 tents. Despite the damp weather, Sophia was enjoying her time in the tent.
The rest of the crew met up with us later Thursday and Friday night. We worked really well as a unit, everyone had a job to do.
- My sister-in-law was in charge of building the fire, after many failed attempts by the men (again, our men). They were good for chopping the woods.
- My youngest sister gave the girls daily baths and making sure they were fed.
- My cousin helped out with everything (she called tonight to thank me for taking her with us and for doing everything but she said she went to work today, doing 8 hours but it felt more like 16 hours).
- I was in charge of cooking and cleaning. And not to boast or anything, oh alright I’m braggin’, but I was putting out some gourmet camping grubs, the crew dubbed me the “Iron Chef”. Here are some examples of our grubs:
First night we ate cups of noodle under a tarp while it poured buckets of water on us. There’s yours truly behind the grill with Sophia, cursing silently for the “brilliant idea”!
Second night, we had grilled marinaded chicken (marinaded by my little brother), spaghetti and salad. You still have to camp in style, I can’t leave home without my All-Clad pots.
Presentation is everything, even if you’re in the woods.
My mind is constantly working, thinking…about food. While lying awake in the early morning of the third day, listening to the kids’ snores, I was thinking what the heck are we going to do with 20 Pocketless Pitas, leftover cheeses and spaghetti sauce. Grilled pizzas came to mind!! My picky niece, who doesn’t like lots of different food absolutely loved it and asked to have it for lunch. Bobby Flay, master of the grill, would have been proud, I think!
I don’t know about you but camping is an exhausting recreation. We’re still trying to figure out what’s so great about camping. You’re leaving the comfort of your home with all the amenities to trek into the mosquitoes-infested woods (poor Sophia got 21 bites on her legs, despite the mosquitoes spray, and products without “deets” just don’t work), sleeping in discomfort, dealing with idiotic neighbors who don’t respect the quite time rule (10PM-8AM) and started chopping wood at 5 In!The!Morning!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a snooty city slicker. We’ve done the camping thing, it’s called “refugee camp” in Indonesia for 9 months back in 1980 on our voyage to America in search of freedom , sleeping in barracks on planks of wood along with 100 other refugees. Taking showers in streams, taking turns with my sister emptying our sibling’s pot of sh!t by walking through a cemetery (we were scared sh!tless-no pun intended-and always dreaded our turn), enduring the 100+ degrees heat in the summer. not sure when we would leave for America.
Camping is a lot of work, but I supposed when you have kids…you’d want your kids to experience everything that is out there (within reason of course), so we bit the bullet and all in all, it was exhaustingly fun. Would I do it again? Maybe this might not be a bad annual family trip. Wait, did I say that out loud?!!
So what did your family do for fun so far this summer?
First of, I’d like to wish my oldest sister a big happy 41st-birthday!!!!!!!! She is being released from the hospital on her b-day (again! Same thing last year) after a three-week stay for the stem cell transplant. The procedure went well but she had to endure a lot of pain and infections, not to mention her hair was falling out due to the chemo, so finally she had to shave her hair. But she is such a trooper despite what she has to endure.
All the nurses and doctors loved her. They call her the “perfect patient”, she never complained and always has a smile for them. The nurses actually fight with each other to see who’s going to take care of her. One nurse commented that she has this beautiful aura about her, despite her illness, that’s my sister!!
Here’s to a long and healthy life sis!! We love you more than words can say. You are a fighter and an inspiration to all!! We hope you’ll enjoy your birthday present (we did a mini home-makeover for her while she was away, that’ll be my next post.)
We’ll enjoy a glass of champagne when you are well sis! I’ll leave you with your favorite quote:
“The clock is running.
Make the most of today.
Time waits for no man.
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That’s why it is called the present.”
Author Unkown
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the title states, we did go camping this past Thursday-Sunday, 8 adults and 9 children (from 14-2 years of age. Parker stayed with my parents). Yeah, you can say that we were crazy!! Since my sister’s 3 children have been staying with us, we I (although it was comical trying to point the finger at everyone else for this brilliant idea) came up with the idea of doing something “fun” with the kids. Glutton for punishment, you can say.
Where should I begin? First, the weather called for rain, rain and more rain. As we were driving up to Maine ( a KOA camp site at Old Orchard Beach), it was raining cats and dogs. At one point, I couldn’t even see the car in front of me. Here’s one picture of the rain slowing down a bit. OH JOY!
As we crossed state line, the gray clouds opened up and we were overjoyed when we saw a glimmer of sunlight. We got to the camp site in no time and started to set up the tent. My brother-in-law, my sister’s oldest son, and myself attempted to set up the tent by following the instructions (we rented the tent from REI), but let me tell you…it might as well be in Russian. AAAAAND it didn’t help when the rain was slapping against our faces soaking us like sponges and we were only on “step 2″.
Here’s my 2 helpers, who I’ve dubbed “dumb and dumber”, who tossed the instructions aside and just went about setting it up “as they see it” (typical men, not to insult all men but just the men in my family!). Well, that just didn’t work and the water got into the tent and I swear it takes a woman to fix everything!!
It took about 45 minutes getting soaked to get one tent up. The 2nd one took a little less. My youngest sister stayed in the car with the 6 girls while we finished setting up the 2 tents. Despite the damp weather, Sophia was enjoying her time in the tent.
The rest of the crew met up with us later Thursday and Friday night. We worked really well as a unit, everyone had a job to do.
- My sister-in-law was in charge of building the fire, after many failed attempts by the men (again, our men). They were good for chopping the woods.
- My youngest sister gave the girls daily baths and making sure they were fed.
- My cousin helped out with everything (she called tonight to thank me for taking her with us and for doing everything but she said she went to work today, doing 8 hours but it felt more like 16 hours).
- I was in charge of cooking and cleaning. And not to boast or anything, oh alright I’m braggin’, but I was putting out some gourmet camping grubs, the crew dubbed me the “Iron Chef”. Here are some examples of our grubs:
First night we ate cups of noodle under a tarp while it poured buckets of water on us. There’s yours truly behind the grill with Sophia, cursing silently for the “brilliant idea”!
Second night, we had grilled marinaded chicken (marinaded by my little brother), spaghetti and salad. You still have to camp in style, I can’t leave home without my All-Clad pots.
Presentation is everything, even if you’re in the woods.
My mind is constantly working, thinking…about food. While lying awake in the early morning of the third day, listening to the kids’ snores, I was thinking what the heck are we going to do with 20 Pocketless Pitas, leftover cheeses and spaghetti sauce. Grilled pizzas came to mind!! My picky niece, who doesn’t like lots of different food absolutely loved it and asked to have it for lunch. Bobby Flay, master of the grill, would have been proud, I think!
I don’t know about you but camping is an exhausting recreation. We’re still trying to figure out what’s so great about camping. You’re leaving the comfort of your home with all the amenities to trek into the mosquitoes-infested woods (poor Sophia got 21 bites on her legs, despite the mosquitoes spray, and products without “deets” just don’t work), sleeping in discomfort, dealing with idiotic neighbors who don’t respect the quite time rule (10PM-8AM) and started chopping wood at 5 In!The!Morning!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a snooty city slicker. We’ve done the camping thing, it’s called “refugee camp” in Indonesia for 9 months back in 1980 on our voyage to America in search of freedom , sleeping in barracks on planks of wood along with 100 other refugees. Taking showers in streams, taking turns with my sister emptying our sibling’s pot of sh!t by walking through a cemetery (we were scared sh!tless-no pun intended-and always dreaded our turn), enduring the 100+ degrees heat in the summer. not sure when we would leave for America.
Camping is a lot of work, but I supposed when you have kids…you’d want your kids to experience everything that is out there (within reason of course), so we bit the bullet and all in all, it was exhaustingly fun. Would I do it again? Maybe this might not be a bad annual family trip. Wait, did I say that out loud?!!
So what did your family do for fun so far this summer?
You’re so brave! I would have turned back the minute I noticed it was raining. I’ll bet the kids had a terrific time.
OHGUY! First of all, I am glad your sis is doing well, I have been thinking about her for real!
Second, we went camping this summer too. I have the exact same reaction as you, but it looks like you did it a little bit more classy than us!
I came home dirty, exhausted, and everything we brought home was covered in dirt and grime. Good Lawd. Trent put it best, he said, “Mom, I think planning a camping trip is a lot more fun that actually GOING on a camping trip!” Yep, he’s my son.
Wow, you ARE brave. Or crazy. Okay, maybe a little of both.
Happy Birthday to your sister. It’s good to hear that she’s doing well.
Too funny. The Peanut and I went camping last week and we had the complete opposite experience. We had a blast. The only thing that could have made it better was if we ate like you guys. Nice set up!
So glad to hear that your sister is doing better!
holy!!!
Next time I go camping I want you to come & be my cook out there!!!
Awesome pics! looks like you all had fun even though the weather didn’t co-operate much.
I’m glad to hear your sister is doing well. Here’s to her continued recovery!
We haven’t been camping with our kids for around four years. I seem to remember a 3am bathroom visit that made me vow to not camp again until they were adults.
(Is that Spam I see on your grill?! I knew we had some sort of cosmic connection…)
Check out that setup!
You’re one of those fancy campers