Our camping trip

Kay, so you know how we went camping for labor day weekend, right? Well our biggest mistake was trying to drive to Harrison Hot Springs, which is normally about two hours away, on the Friday, when everyone else in the free world is going camping. We left here at about 2:30 to make our way into Langley, where my sister works. I had to stop at her work on the way out to grab a part for her bbq that I was borrowing. So it took us about an hour and 25 minutes to get there, when it would normally take about 45 minutes that time of day. Brutal. After that we made our way into Chillowack to do our grocery shopping and then pick up Anastasia. That took forever as well. The traffic was a nightmare and we were starting to worry about getting there after dark. Well after our shopping, stopping at walmart for an extra tarp, and picking up the rug-rat, we arrived at the campsite at around 8:30 at night! We had to shine our headlights on our site so we could put up the kids tent, fill the air bed, make their beds, put up our little dome tent, fill it with our junk, and then make a bed for Kelly and me in the back of the van. Phew! What an ordeal! Needless to say, it was happy hour after that.

Apparently, the night before we arrived, my buddies that we were meeting up there got reprimanded a couple of times for their loud partying. So the park security was hovering around a little. This one guy who worked security, Jim, actually stopped by after his shift for a beer. He warned us of the bears and how to react if one wanders into the campsite. He advised us about different breads of bear and their dispositions. he talked about food storage and how to protect our coolers and seemed really knowledgeable. Then he went on to say that there were big foots living in the park...hmmm.... so I say, "wow, Jim, you know a lot about this stuff...how long have you worked here?" And he says...wait for it..."A month and a half" LOL I almost fell out of my chair! It was so funny that this guy only just started working there. we were all expecting him to say 30 years or something. what a hoot. I just had to get a picture with Jim...

LOL anyhoo, we went to the beach the next day and played in the sand. Alicia drew in her sketch book and made a sand sculpture truck.

Kelly blew up a floaty for Anastasia to play with (you have to click on this picture to see the look on his face. too cute.) and, I gotta tell you, that little girl can take the cold water. It was pretty darn chilly but you wouldn't know it by how she jumped in.

OUCH! I stubbed my food and now it's all swollen!

Arrrrrggghhh I'm a monster with a claw foot!!!

Okay, so we got a little silly playing in the sand. LOL

And of course we played guitar in the evening and sang by the camp fire. Alicia is getting so good on that guitar and sings so nicely, it brings me to tears every time.

That's my girl.

So the following day we cleaned up our site, played a little badminton, dropped Anastasia off at home and made our way back to our little townhouse in Richmond. It only took a couple of hours to get home cuz we left on the Sunday rather than the Monday when all the other suckers were stuck in traffic. It was fun...but now I'm in moving mode.

I hope you all had a great long weekend! I gotta go do some packing now!