Busy, busy

Pat and Liam headed off to Boy Scout camp on July 3rd leaving Gray and me alone with Phin (that's what the boys call him/her/it). We got to work tinting the windows with mirrored film for privacy during the day and temperature control. It's amazing how hot it gets in a metal box sitting in the sun all day. Home Depot trip #483 produced the screen mouse, an amazing little gadget, so Gray and I replaced several screens with sunscreen screen. Seems repetitively redundant, doesn't it? Have I mentioned that it gets hot in there?

Sun protection projects done, we took off for the Pontiac Lake Recreation Area. It's less than five miles from where we store Phin and feels like the middle of nowhere - just what we were looking for in a place that has electric hookups. A friend and her two sets of twins joined us. Burgers? Check. Fireworks? Check. Wine for mommies? Check. It was the Forth of July.

The kids finally went to sleep around midnight. Ahhh, the peace and quiet of nature, blissfully uninterrupted until 5:45 AM when kids started squealing and dancing around. What the...? Who were these crazed little people? Note to self: marshmallows made with Benedryl make excellent s'mores, find recipe.

A quick trip home for Wednesday's piano lesson and we immediately headed out to Proud Lake with another friend and her daughter. Proud Lake is slightly further away and is more of a parking lot type camping area. The kids went swimming in the lake, we tried to set up the awning (a no go) and I cranked up the baby gas grill for sliders.  Kids popped popcorn over the campfire and roasted marshmallows. Everyone went to bed a a reasonable hour.

About 5:30 AM Mason and Dixie woke me up to go potty. Oh, yes, little dogs went camping with us. They love it - so many smells to smell. And roll in. And bring inside the camper. I got up to take them outside and we took a quick walk around the campsite loop. We all went back to sleep for a few more hours. The kids took off for the lake for a morning swim and brought back a huge crayfish. It took some convincing but they took the crayfish back to the lake.

We decided to return to the Pontiac Lake Recreation Area for the next night. Same routine - set up, swim, supper, s'mores. We were the only occupied campsite on our section of the campground. It was great being in the middle of nowhere with electricity. I'm really into electricity. A raccoon spent a bit of time knocking stuff off our picnic table in the middle of the night but puppies were so tired from smell smelling and running around that they didn't notice. After a quick campsite cleanup and unplugging, we were on the way home to meet our Scout campers.