Day #109

Guest post by Frankie:

On Wednesday we woke up early, like around maybe 9:00, and we cleaned up our rooms and made our beds. We went down for breakfast and watched tv. We had to put away our dishes and fold up the clothes and do the dish drain too. And then we had to pack up all of our stuff that we had picked out. So then we packed up the rest of our stuff. It was a lot of stuff because camping is really hard! There was a ginormous storm right when we were in the middle of packing! We did tutoring and Delaney and I were a little bit scared. We did tutoring for 30 minutes. Then we packed up our cooler and got in our car. 

We drove and we went to Walmart and me and Delaney picked these really pretty solar clip flowers for our hair that were first just white and then my mom got a tarp. We listened to Harry Potter. We stopped at wawa because I had to go to the bathroom with mommy. My mask kept on falling down and then we drove and I didn’t know where we were going. I was like “ugh, how much longer?!”

There was this really kind lady at the campground and she was in the security box before we went in. She lead us to our family and then we got set up and unpacked. It took a long time to set up. 

For dinner we had hot dogs and I cooked mine and we thought that ours would burn like marshmallows, but they didn’t. The s’mores were really good!

I couldn’t wait to sleep! But then when we finally got to sleep, I couldn’t! I woke up at 2:00 and I woke up my mom and we had to go to the bathroom with a lantern and we had to be super quiet cause other people were sleeping. After that I got to sleep better and I slept till 6:00 and then had to go to the bathroom again. 

Addie’s artistry.👆🏼 

Footnote by Michelle:

We had a super fab morning prepping and cleaning and generally working together. We talked about how much work camping is but how excited we were and how it wasn’t bad when we all work together. 

There was a chance of rain all day for here and also Westmoreland State Park where we camped. We had planned to leave in the afternoon, but as we were tetris’ing the truck, the thunder started and it started to downpour. I love a summer thunderstorm and they are always so short, except when we want to head out. This one lingered and was torrential. We got at least 3 inches in one hour. 

Westmoreland is just over an hour away driving, but only 16 miles as the crow flies (one of my fav sayings). Our tarp has been missing for some time now and Walmart was on our way, so we popped in. The girls were so stoked and loved looking at everything they could. They each bought something. I believe in letting kids earn money, “encouraging” them to save, and then letting them make choices. 

Chantell and I rocked the setup without the menfolk. Evan was there and was helpful, but he’s a man child, not a man folk. We laughed about the 60 second canopy setup that took us more like 60 seconds plus 15 minutes, but we did it and it all looked great and was sturdy. 

We each took a dinner and a breakfast. We brought hotdogs and brats, potato salad, veggies, and cotton candy grapes - which are some of the best things ever grown, imho. 

Our first day was a rousing success and I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t ridiculously hot in our tent. The one snafu was that I “forgot” my sleeping bag. All the sleeping bags are the same and the girls got theirs all set up and were like “oh man, mom, you must have forgotten your sleeping bag.” 🤷‍♀️ I had sheets and was fine until Frankie’s first bathroom trip, but I grabbed Laney’s small blanket and a beach towel and was totally comfortable. Everyone slept great!