Mike has had the past 3 weeks off school. We've loved having him around, and it's gone way too fast! A couple weeks ago, we went camping at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, about an hour and a half from home. Camping with little ones is a lot of work, but I have such good memories of camping with my family growing up; I want my kids to have the same. We had a great time!
We went from Monday to Tuesday, so the campground was pretty empty, which was wonderful. There were a few too many creepy crawly critters for my (and Mike's) liking, but it was still great. When we got to our campsite, I thought we must have been the first campers of the season, because there were huge, thick funnel webs coming out from all 4 table legs and spanning the width of the table. I made that my first item of business and cleaned them all off with a stick. The next morning, they were back! I cleaned them off again for breakfast. I'm sure those spiders were just camping out in the table legs waiting for us to be gone. Yuck!
We got there at lunch time, so I made lunch while Mike set up the tent. As he was doing so, he found a tick on his arm. Lovely. We found one on Sally's head a few minutes later. We sprayed the kids with deep woods Off and did tick checks every few minutes. I caught one biting my ankle the next day, but we didn't find any more on the kids. I hate ticks!!
While we were setting up camp and readying lunch, the girls collected sticks for our fire. As soon as camp was set up, Mike helped them. That's when they found this fine fellow! The second picture is blurry, but I included it for scale. That's a water bottle lid. I've never been so close to a tarantula not in a cage!
After lunch, we did some exploring. The girls rode their striders through one of the parks, and then we played in the river. It was beautiful, and I was sad I had forgotten my swimsuit. We camped in the Platt Historical District, a part of the park that includes many natural springs. The area used to be more popular than Yellowstone because of the supposed medicinal properties of the spring water. You can drink from lots of them; I tried a few, but Mike and the girls opted not to. Most of the springs smelled like sulphur.
Back at camp, we got a fire going (with damp wood because of earlier rain) and cooked beanburgers and corn on the cob. I left the corn in the fire for a bit too long and scorched most of it. Bummer.
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| Sally helping Dad blow the fire. |
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| Patiently waiting for dinner. |
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| Oops. |
After dinner, we roasted marshmallows and had smoares, a first for the girls. The vegan marshmallows and chocolate on whole wheat honey grahams were just as yummy as the real thing.
The girls decided to bless us with a round of goofy faces.
They get it from their dad, who was playing with his smartphone while camping. (Is that allowed?)
I really like this picture of my handsome husband.
After smoares we got everyone ready for bed, but quickly learned it was not going to work to put them to bed while it was still light (and only the 2nd night without pacifiers for E and S). We pulled them back out and sat around the campfire singing songs (with a very tired and sad Sally) until it was dark. We put M and E to bed at that point, and they were so exhausted, they fell asleep. Sally was scared, though, and wouldn't go to bed until Mike and I did. All 5 of us slept in our little 4-man tent, with an air mattress, a pack-n-play, and 2 sleeping bags. Definitely a tight fit.
Tuesday morning, the girls woke up with the sun. We got up, and I went for a lovely bike ride while Mike fed the girls breakfast. It was a beautiful ride and I got a great workout!
The girls explored and made friends with this "really soft" caterpillar while Mike and I took down camp.
We packed the car up and headed out for some more exploring. We walked to Pavilion Springs, where the water really smelled like sulphur. This was one of the springs that's supposed to be really good for you. The sign behind us in the last picture has the mineral content of the water. Sulphur wasn't even on there, but it sure smelled like it!
We walked from Pavilion Springs to Bison viewpoint. We saw no bison, but I did think this mess of spiders was kind of cool (and gross).
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| Taking a snack break on the "hike." |
We drove from there to a picnic spot for lunch (where the tick found me) and then headed to one more swimming spot. We decided to try "Little Niagra," and I'm so glad we did. We didn't get any pictures there, but it was
beautiful! There was a shallow water hole above the falls that was great for the girls, and I was able to dive from the falls to the lower pool, which was deep and great for my kind of swimming. I wore Mike's swimsuit and a t-shirt. Thanks, Babe.
We used the restrooms there to get back into dry clothes, and we were homeward bound. The girls were so tired, they were all out within 5 minutes. Elaine fell asleep with a triscuit in her mouth, poor girl.
