This year was Brian's 45th birthday. A big-ish one. And since we weren't able to celebrate with him last year when he was deployed, I wanted to do something fun with him this year. He chose cabin camping, close by, with 4 other families. Sounds perfect to me!
His birthday was Saturday, and we would camp Fri-Sun. So instead of lugging a giant box that came in the mail for him camping, he decided to open it ahead of his birthday on Thursday night. Here goes...
A crock pot? What?!? It was from Lynn- who is a thoughtful listener. When I was out visiting her in Sept, Brian was making pulled pork in the crock pot to take to a Boy Scout function. I mentioned that the crock pot had spontaneously been turning off occasionally and hoped that it wouldn't do it to Brian- who was trying his best- and highly succeeding- to be Mr Mom while I was away. (I would have brought along store bought cookies. But not Brian- not his style. Homemade pulled pork for all!)
Well, luckily it didn't turn off, and he has since used it again and it didn't turn off that time either. So now he just thinks I'm nuts and wonders why he received a crock pot for his birthday gift?
The kids loved the box it came in-
No matter the age, kids love boxes!
Okay, now on to this birthday weekend away... Brian and the kids camped at this place once before with the Wisneski's when I was in Cali once visiting my mom. So he knew the place, knew the cabins, and knew for sure it was going to be a great weekend. There is a sense of comfort that comes from revisiting a place you've already been. (Something we adventure seeker travelers rarely do...) But no surprises this weekend.
Here are the cabins each family reserved-
Adorable, right?
The campground is close by- only about 40 minutes from home. There were 5 families going, and we could share 5 meals, so everyone would make one meal for all, and then be off duty for the rest of the meals. (Thank you Diane!) Check-in was at 3pm, and we had Friday night dinner, so Brian took a 1/2 day from school and we pulled the kids out early, hoping to get there right about 3, get set up and begin prepping dinner before the others arrive.
Brian and I ended up in two cars, and I arrived first and went to check us in- only to learn that Brian had accidentally reserved two (one for us and one for the Melendez's) RV sites instead of 2 cabins. And all the cabins were reserved for the weekend.
WHAT WOULD WE DO?
It took about an hour... but we camp up with plan B. The other 3 families- who were thankfully still at home- would bring camping gear and the men would sleep in tents. Two tents, two guys in each- 1 tent on each cabin site. Amy, Diane and kids would share one cabin, while me and my kids, along with Christine and her kids would share the other cabin. It worked. Not ideal, but it would work. Again, thanks Diane!
During the hour before we came up with this plan- we were scrambling. And so were the campground managers. They felt terrible, adding that the website you must use to reserve cabins is extremely confusing. Diane later remembered that she herself reserved an RV site instead of a cabin 2 years ago here. The staff began calling around to other campgrounds in the area- all full. They called RV rental places- no luck. Brian begin looking at Airbnb homes in the area that could sleep 20- nothing. It was going to be a cold weekend, and knowing that we would now be in tents, the staff graciously delivered wood to us about 10pm the first night....
Once we got over the shock and embarrassment of what happened (we felt terrible that we had inconvenienced every family), Brian was able to embrace Plan B and enjoy what would become a fantastic weekend.
All set up and ready for the other families to arrive-
And then as the sub set, everyone started arriving and Brian started cooking, with a head lamp, over an open fire-
It takes skills to cook like this! Skills I do not have.
Our meal- steak, smashed potatoes, and corn on the cob with pumpkin sandwich cookies with cream cheese frosting for dessert. I did the dessert. And only the dessert. While Brian infused two different types of butter for the potatoes-
check out this steak-
It was an amazing meal! As they all were. We know who to camp with. These people are flexible, have good gear, and know how to cook & eat well in the woods!
I'd bet that ain't coffee in Wayne's cup-
The kids had SO MUCH fun together! We brought along bikes, and they had free range of the campground together. There was a playground nearby and the loved just making up games to play together.
Friday night crew-
Minus Eve- who had a church obligation she had to leave for on Saturday...
And now everyone kids your spouse-
I love how many of the kids looked up!
Sadly, one of the families we'd invited- the Barber's- found that they had a couple of broken windows on their RV when they went to pick it up, so they decided not to come along. They planned to still come out for the day on Saturday to hang out, but didn't feel they could stay in the RV.
Well, upon hearing about the cabin fiasco, they called and offered to tow out their RV for us to use. We passed, but were so touched that they would have gone through the work it would take to get it ready just for our comfort.
Then Saturday afternoon, guess who pulled up with the RV in tow? The Barber's! Jeremey decided that taping up the windows and sleeping in the RV couldn't be as bad as sleeping in a tent- so they came out to stay with us Saturday night!
More kids, more fun-
Wayne brought corn hole- and I won!
The campground hosts had a sweet RV, and this cool teepee with a smoke machine and skeletons camping-
The campground offered a wagon ride, so we all went!
They had a fun scavenger hunt for us all to participate in. The Barbers brought along Pumpkin Moonshine, so that made it even more fun. Just saying.
Diane and Wayne stayed back to prep dinner for us. We need a bigger grill!
The birthday boy....
The Barber's always bring cake. Brian's birthday was no exception! But just a single serving size.
Saturday night I thought I'd let Jose go snuggle up with Christine on the horrible futon we'd shared the night before, and I'd sleep in the tent with Brian. Boy am I glad I did! I really do like tent camping- if there is an air mattress, and warm sleeping bag. Both of which I had. And if I didn't have to do the hard work of setting up the tent- which I had not done any of. And if it was a cool, dry night- okay it was dry- but it was COLD! We woke up to temps in the low 40's and the wind had howled alllllllll night long. One of the things on our wagon ride scavenger hunt earlier in the day we were searching for was fallen trees. And there were many. I woke up a lot that night to the sound of the strong winds and thought "could we both survive a fallen tree landing on our tent?" But, it'd been 13+ years since Brian and I got to got to share a tent without any kids- so I really did enjoy it immensely. And one night was just enough!
Loved the kid fun inside the cabins-
Lots of cards-
it was a screen free weekend for the kiddos- and they loved it!
Rick lead us on a little hike-
Nico took his bike along, and Macy loved riding on the pegs!
So much time around the campfire-
Thanks to these guys who were happy to unload it all!
And mostly to Rick and Wayne, who both had a ton of wood at home, and loaded it together on Thursday night. What a savings it was for us all!
The camera didn't quiet capture it, but Diane's sweatshirt looked red to the naked eye-
They reminded me of Elliot from the movie E.T.
So then I got in on the action and we reenacted the movie scene-
Pretty close, right?
Is it Slow, Children Playing or Slow-Children Playing?
The McLendez Cabin-
Sadly, all good things must come to an end. These are the people you want to camp with-
What a weekend. It turned out wonderful! And started off with such panic and chaos. I do wish it had been a long weekend- the hustle in Friday, and the hustle out on Sunday only left us Saturday to just be and relax. Two days of that would have been ideal in my mind. We tossed around so many ideas for how to spend Brian's birthday on Saturday- a visit to the civil war battle ground, a trip to the winery- no no no. We all just decided to be. A hike and wagon ride were perfect.
We sure did miss the Mann's being with us... Eve's due date for baby #3 was on Brian's birthday. So they decided to skip out on camping. And no baby even came that weekend. Sigh.
This weekend was also the GIANT lottery- so Brian bought each family a ticket as his party favor... sadly come Monday morning this was true for us all-
A birthday to remember for sure.
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