Owen's birthday was on Wed. June 12
th . The kids and I celebrated with cake and salad with him on Wednesday. Since Owen is on a strict diet right now and in the process of losing all his junk in the trunk, we made
delicious fruit salads and bought the cake for the kids
benefit... well
ok..mine too:)
For his birthday Owen decided he wanted to go kayaking. So my mom and dad watched the kids
Sunday night and we packed up our gear and headed out to a camp ground and then to kayak in the morning. It has been about 6 years since we have camped and I had forgotten how much I love it. Though it seems that when Owen and I are together somewhere , strange things happen or things that you think would never happen do. Such as our tent....
I promised Owen I would not mention anything about this tent but , wow I got a great laugh about it... it was awesome!! In his defense this tent that we had borrowed from his sister had two smaller kid size tents that attached to the side..
soooooo maybe a couple of kid poles were mixed up in ... I am just saying .. maybe..
heehee....
There we go .. little better now.......
While sitting around the fire enjoying each others company a lone
raccoon came waltzing right up next to us.. I in the state of panic leaped to the picnic table and tried to get my camera situated to get a picture of it but forgot that I had the wrong setting on.. This beast of a
raccoon literally took it's old sweet time walking around the fire then around the table , then took it's time walking around our tent... it had no fear even though Owen was trying to blind it with his flash light.. he just didn't care till he was sure we were not holding out on any food that he was entitled to...
Then my bum caught on fire...
haha.. no not really....... Owen took this picture and I think the reflection of the fire got caught in the picture.. but oh boy did we get a kick out of it... It couldn't get any more perfect than that ...hahahah..good times!
Monday morning we headed to Camp Hi in Hiram OH . We originally were going to get 2 kayaks but then we saw they had a 2 man kayak, so what better way to improve our communication skills and build our love for each other........ If you want to really put your marriage to the test and work on showing love to each other , get a canoe or a two man kayak , where communication skills are vital in getting back down the river to your car. Besides maneuvering around fallen trees and some small rocks our kayak trip went very smooth. .7 miles in about 2 hours..I am just happy to say I got out of the kayak in the same condition I got in the kayak... DRY!
To sum it up:
1. Plan extra daylight time to put up your tent in case of unexpected circumstances.
2. Watch out for scary fearless raccoons.
3. Bring plenty of firewood( so spouse does not have to scout out small wood scraps in the dark woods, with wild raccoons)
4. Make sure camera is turned on correctly for unexpected wildlife that enters your campsite.
5. Find a river without fallen trees every few feet, it will be less stressful on your marriage:)
6.Start lifting 5lbs of weights a few weeks before your kayak trip , it will be less painful.
7. Always remember the great memories and new stories you now have together!
Here the kids were checking out there new rooms. The boys shared one side tent and Sage had the other. Owen and I were in the middle so if anyone would try to sneak out they would have to go through our middle tent first.
Torin and Kaitlyn were riding around and checking out all the fun activity on there little vehicles.
Here is the set up. Mom and dad's tent is on the far right trying to stay away from all the craziness of the children while still trying to be included in the circle of tents.
Cooking hot dogs and marshmallows.
Dad sitting by the fire so peacfully not aware that he would later be the center of a lot of laughs and entertainment for the evening... .. Several time in the night we were awaken by a loud bear noise... only to realize dad's snoring had woken us up .. and they were worried about the kids waking them up ....
The nice morning breakfast chef.... Cooking several dozen fresh pancakes for the crew.
Here's the crew up bright and early. All in all everything went pretty smoothly. We had a few rain showers about 5am but all was good . Though our Sunday afternoon nap time in our own beds was absolutely glorious....
