5-26-07

Saturday, May 26^th

After a very good nights sleep in Jill’s camper we woke to the sound of children playing, can you imagine that? The campground was PACKED except for the tent camping area. Hagen Stone City Park is quite large, with several ponds and shelters for picnics, great bike and walking trails, a pool and wonderful playgrounds.

This park is just 5 miles from Gary & Dulcie’s home and there is no entrance fee. Being that their home was so close it made it very convenient to go take showers there instead of the bathhouse. I know it took away from the "true camping experience", but I have to go into this gradually, J. (This was Lana's first time tent camping--Chan) We made it back to the camp around 11:30 after a quick trip to the house for showers and to put in a load of clothes in the washer.

Chan & I put up our tent when we got back. It takes longer to inflate the pillow top air mattress than it does to set up the tent and yes, the air mattress is totally my idea! Chan would be perfectly happy with his Therm-a-rest under his sleeping bag. He says that I’m spoiled when it comes to my sleeping priorities, and I guess he's right. (That air mattress is big, and heavy, but it sure is comfortable--Chan)

Dulcie was busy being Dr. Mom, redressing Reece’s wounds from the evening before. He had a nasty bicycle wreck on the gravel drive, and had major boo-boos on his knee, hand and elbow.

About 1:00 we decided on a group bike ride down one of the trails. We told Martha that we would watch her older 3 so she can stay back with the baby, and headed down the trail with 4 adults and 6 children. Drew was the oldest child at 11 ½, Will was next at 8, the two 7-year-olds you met earlier, Reece who was just short of 5, and Cameron ( “Cam”) was 4, and the comedian of the group. The trail itself was over 2 miles and Cam was on his trike with the large tires. He did really good, but the trail had some hills that presented a bit of a challenge, as he had no gears and no brakes! Gary took the lead with all the kids except for Drew and Cam. There were a few times when Chan jumped off his bike to go slow Cam down as he would go barreling down the hills full bore, legs straight out to the side, having the time of his life. On the steepest hill Cam went down he ended up in the bushes on the side of the trail. Chan said Cam looked up at him with a huge smile, gave him a high-five, then said “NOW GET ME OUT OF THIS MESS!” We laughed so hard when Chan told the story. When we came to the 2 mile marker, Dulcie and I decided to take the 5 younger kids back to the camp via the road while Gary, Chan & Drew finished the trail. I don’t know if taking what we thought was a short cut saved us any time or not as it took us at least 45 minutes to get back from there. Once we got back into sight of camp, Martha came running over to help us with Cam’s trike, as I had been pushing it along with my bike for what felt like 2 miles and was exhausted. She told us that Gary & Chan had both wrecked their bikes on the trail after we split off and Chan had a huge knot on his leg with scrapes. Come to find out they were riding like crazy people (Who, us? Chan) speeding around curves and jumping logs. Gary went over his handles bars and didn’t have a scratch on him, Chan’s foot came off his pedal as he jumped a log. At least there weren’t any broken bones and it made for a good fireside story later.

Gary had promised Drew a trip to the Ferrari dealership so they along with Chan snuck off without the other kids knowing it. I entertained the kids while Dulcie straightened up the camp, and Martha and Cam went to pick up a few items needed for dinner. Tripp was crashed in the Scamp with Mailey most of the afternoon, as he had gotten up early and didn’t feel great from the fun we had had last night. I must give you a bit of history of their Scamp. Martha’s grandparents were drying pecans in it at their farm up until a day before they brought it to the campground!! Martha had cleaned it with Clorox and said she still wondered if she had gotten all the pollen and dust out. The Scamp was so cute, and the Park Ranger told them a lot of diehard campers would love to have an antique like that.

Jill came back to have dinner with us, but again couldn’t stay as she had an early morning on Sunday. She offered her camper again, I thanked her and said that I had to get used to tent camping, J. Chan had picked up some Hpnotiq at the ABC store on the way back from the car dealership. He poured Jill some and before she knew it she was feeling really good! Hpnotiq is deceiving as it doesn’t taste like there’s anything in it, just a fruity drink.

That night we ate some of the best grilled chicken I had eaten in a long time, with all the fixings. The kids wanted to tell ghost stories, so we had fun with that for a while until the kids decided watching a DVD would probably be better, and not as scary. Around 10:00 we were still sitting around the fire and Gary was falling out of his chair, he was so sleepy! He went to lay down for a while and we didn't see him again! Martha had taken Mailey to her parents for the night and was looking forward to staying up late tonight with all the grown ups. By midnight we were all so sleepy (except for Martha) that we had to turn in. Sorry Martha!