Day 3 of the Wilson Family Camping Adventure

Ok, ok...this has taken me quite a while to get back to. I'm sorry, I'll try to do better!

Saturday, 7:10am: up and going. I think we all slept better last night, perhaps due to exhaustion! LOL 

8:15: Leave the campsite and head to Wal Mart for umbrellas and a couple of coats that won't soak up the rain all day. Stupid rain! *grumbling*

We found a really decent parking space on the street, close to the Washington Monument. Took some pictures as we went along. Again, I can't wait to see what the kids took pictures of themselves!
First you'll see some pictures of the FOG on the way to DC...and the 'lovely' skyline we faced.

Washington Monument. Tori will be unhappy that I posted the picture with her hair blowing up into a 'Mohawk' style...but I did that to show you how windy it was that day! Thank goodness it was in the 50's, or we'd have gone home much sooner!

World War 2 Memorial fountain area. Got a picture of the kids &Don in front of the fountain with the Lincoln Memorial in the background. Then, I put the kids on a random ledge for a picture with the fountain in the background. I didn't even realize it was next to the Colorado pillar! So...here's a shout out to family in Colorado (hey, at least I'm honest, I could have told you I picked that one on purpose!). Then, we found the Indiana pillar, and Don took a much better picture of the fountains in the background.

I am NOT one who likes to have my picture taken, but this seemed like an opportunity I couldn't pass up. Being that my birthday happens to fall on Pearl Harbor day, I had Don take a picture of me next to the pillar that has the dedication to Pearl Harbor on it.

Ok, I had to show you all the absolute FAVORITE part of the day for DJ and Jr. What you're looking at (in the greenish water) is the 'reflection pool' that's between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial...it wasn't a good day for 'reflecting' apparently (too windy and icky). But, the ducks were having a great time eating. Now, having grown up in a not-so-rural area, DJ and Jr were absolutely excited about seeing live ducks. But, the really important part was that they were eating...and not bread that people were throwing to them...they were eating what was under the water. Therefore, these became known as the 'duck butt' pictures to them. They laughed forever about the 'duck butts' I'm sure we'll see a few pictures in their cameras!

On to the Lincoln Memorial. Quite a walk, though it doesn't look like it's THAT far from the Washington Monument. You can see how absolutely THRILLED the kids are to be there and having their pictures taken! LOL I got a nice picture of the Washington Monument in the background while we were there.

Then, due to the rain, we headed home (stupid rain). Jr was soaked as holding the umbrella up in the wind and trying to keep up with the long legs was just too much, so she folded her umbrella down and just tried to stay under mine (which didn't work out so well for either of us). We were going to check out the National Aquarium, but they don't take plastic (fair warning to you!), so we gave up for the day (though we sat in the lobby of the National Aquarium to rest Jr's legs and warm up a bit before trekking back to the van.

Back at the campsite, the kids had a great time running around outside and throwing stuff into the creek next to our campsite. The rain had stopped and the creek was flowing much faster, so this was entertainment enough for them.
     

Don was showing DJ a map of our camping site while we were 'stuck' there.

Don got his computer out to burn some time. We got a fire going around 5:30pm. This time, mom (with her vast Girls’ Camp experience!) got the fire going while dad split the wood into smaller pieces to catch faster. Don said that I'm the new 'fire starter' for camping, 'cuz I manged to get the fire going faster than he had the day before! LOL With it being so wet around here, we did pretty well. We cooked hot dogs and had applesauce cups. Then, ‘cuz we brought hamburgers and they would not last ‘til Sunday night, Don got out the frying pan and cooked them up. By far, these were the best burgers ever! They were SO juicy!! The kids got a kick out of it when Don caught the grease in the pan on fire (it helped cooked the burgers, I’m sure!). Then S’mores…YUMMY! Don’t get tired of those! An earlier bedtime tonight with a movie (Don and I watched one for us on his laptop).                                                                            I’ll admit to some frustrations, but things went pretty well on the whole. Jr’s teacher at school has a way of helping her student deal with issues at school that can be upsetting. They put their hands out and say, ‘No big deal!’ Well, at one of my frustrations, Don did exactly that…and it even works for big people!

Fall Leaves

On one of our 'warmer' fall days last week, I got outside with the kids for raking leaves and taking pictures...ok, so I did more 'taking' than 'raking', but I AM the mom...there have to be SOME perks! I absolutely loved the background that the colorful fall leaves give to these pictures. I guess it doesn't hurt that my favorite season is fall...maybe for just this reason! How beautiful are our fall colors!?

There were tons more pictures, but this is just a sampling. If the weather holds for another day or two (it was 50 degrees today!), I may get the older girls outside for more posed pictures 'cuz the one I got of Ariel came out so well I'd like to have one of each of the girls looking so good!

More school pictures

DJ & Jr finally got their school pictures in. I know I posted the 'less than wonderful' proof pictures, but here are the really nice ones that came home with them. I was SO pleased that they both smiled nicely and look happy! You always take a chance with things like this!

DJ: 7 years old, 2nd grade  

Jr: 5 1/2 years old, Kindergarten   

         

                                                                                  

         

Halloween 2008...finally

I'm still waiting on the pictures taken at our Trunk or Treat, they'll probably be better pictures. It was hectic, so I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would have like to. But, here they are anyway.

Jordyn doesn't look very excited in her pictures, but that's probably because she's not big on crowds of people, there were lots of families there. The other princess with her at the table is her friend, Caroline. That's dad with them at the refreshment table, with some random people in the background. Sorry they aren't anything special at this point, I'm hoping the ones that the Primary took will be better!

School Pictures

Ariel and Tori's school pictures for fall 2008. 

Ariel: age 15 years, 3 months; grade: 10

Tori: age 13 years, 9 months; grade: 8

Kind of like 'day' and 'night', aren't they? 

Both gorgeous in their own, distinct ways.

Day Two of the Camping Adventure

Friday, 7:15am. Off to the bathrooms, girls first, for potty and getting dressed where it's warm! Back to the camper, where the boys have gotten dressed AND put all of the beds and blankets back into couches and out of the way...how sweet are they!? Breakfast.

Ariel and Tori tend to whine just a little bit about the cold and cramped conditions. Don told them that they would look back on this and laugh someday. Ariel gave him a dirty look and grumped, 'I'd laugh about it, except...it's REALLY HAPPENING!!' Boy, we had a good laugh to start out the day (even Ariel appreciated that it was funny).

8:10: On the road again...just can't wait...oh, sorry, I won't sing for you, promise!

9:30: We found Hershey, PA!! But, where on EARTH is Chocolate World anyway!? We had a small detour while we figured out where we were. It was actually fun as we ended up in downtown Hershey. We got to see the streetlights and Chocolate Ave.! 

Lots of pictures with the kids' cameras! We can't wait to see what they thought was so cool! It'll be a while, there are lots of disposable cameras to develop. They were really funny with the cameras. We bought way too much candy...but how can you NOT!? The entire place smells like chocolate! Everywhere you look...chocolate...it's almost obscene!

Just a sampling of our wanderings thru' the candy shop.

Our 'official' vacation photo while on the chocolate tour.

Oh, and let's not forget that Don managed to catch Ariel and Tori both getting a BIG KISS while they were in Hershey!! LOL

Picking out the 'perfect' gifts took the kids about 20 minutes...SO much to choose from!

11:45am: Leaving Hershey...sure seemed like more than just 2 hours! Whew!! Glad we went in the 'off' season!! Kids have had way too much sugar and need activity to get their energy out!! Actually, they are doing really well, to be honest. 

12:35: Ok...trying to explain 9/11 to the little ones is tough! Since we're visiting the site of the crash of Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA, we thought we ought to at least try to explain it. The innocence of Children is wonderful! They just don't understand why there are 'bad guys' who would want to hurt people that they don't even know, or why people would die by crashing the plane into a filed instead of letting the 'bad guys' crash it into Washington D.C.

1:15: Stopped for lunch (much more fast food than I figured on with a camping vacation!)

2:05: On the road again...there is some incredible scenery around here! Absolutely beautiful!

2:30: Opps, missed an exit. Good thing we're running ahead of schedule today! The next exit is actually near Shanksville. We were just going to exit early to save the tolls, but this works too!

We took lots of pictures while we were there, this is just a sampling. The visit was very cold and windy! The wind was really blowing and it was about 47 degrees! It's a very impressive site, and reflective. The volunteer who told the story for us was very good. It seemed to both Don and me that he was directing his comments right at DJ. The kids were well behaved at the memorial and listened really well to the guy speaking. The Stirks made good time driving over to pick Ariel up for her visit. 

Ariel and Jessica...together again!!

4:20: Leaving Flight 93 Memorial.

5:45: The little ones are fighting sleep now...only about 20 minutes to camp, I guess. I put in a movie due to the non-stop chatter and repeated questions and answers and statements (turns out they were trying to keep themselves awake, I guess!). We're planning a campfire tonight with hot dogs, some applesauce cups and homemade banana bread that I brought with us. Then, S'mores before bed, a trip to the bathroom (gotta wash off the s'mores!).

6:30pm: Campfire was a rough start, good thing mom brought so much paper! Dinner as planned, with lemon aid that we brought with us. Don cooked for Tracy while she set up the rest of the meal in the camper (he's a pretty good cook!). Showers were...interesting, but at least everyone is clean! Kids are way too excited about camping! LOL Everything's an adventure to them, so it's actually fun to watch.

I think that things are going better than we expected, actually. There are times that we (as parents) may feel slightly overwhelmed and frustrated, but it's out 1st ever vacation as a family...I think it's sort of expected that we have a few 'glitches'. The kids have been pretty well behaved, they have been stuck in the van a LOT so far. I'm really hoping that there won't be rain tomorrow as we're supposed to be walking all day in DC! If it's too bad, maybe we'll go back to Hershey and see their 3-D movie and see what other indoor attractions we can find.