October 6, 2020

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• Tuesday's used to be our calmer day around here, but with Reagan going to Comm Central things are just a bit crazy. I do think that she is loving it, but right now she is a bit overwhelmed.  They seem to try to cram a lot in a 50 minute class. They also expect them to do a lot which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Reagan is pretty smart and motivated so if she is having a hard time staying afloat then I can't imagine the others. 
• We did our morning work together this morning. Then the kids started on their school work. Things went fairly well this morning. I will say that some days, I wish that I was an unschooler (those folks that don't do much schooling, but still end up raising brilliant kids). 
• Robby took Reagan to school. While they were gone, everyone else went outside to run a mile and play some football. The football didn't end too well at all. They must have all made up, because 2 more times during the day the kids went outside to play a game of football.
• I worked on the camper some today. I have most things put back, but still have to clean the kitchen. That doesn't take too long when the kitchen is only about 3 feet. I will say that I really need to clean my big kitchen and pretty much all of this house. It is a getting a bit rough in here-I did print out myself a chore chart, so maybe we can get this place back on track.
• I left fairly early in the afternoon with Shannon to go a thing at her church. The speaker was hilarious plus they had food trucks and a roaring fire. What could be a better end to the day? After it was over, Shannon and I both ate a chicken biscuit topped with pimento cheese and cooked sweet onions-it was delicious. So delicious that I saved half for tomorrow or to share with Robby.
• After I came home, we watched a few tv shows while playing a card game with the kids. Tonight's game was 5 Crowns-it is a pretty neat game. Robby and I ended the evening with some ice cream before heading to bed. 

October 5, 2020

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• For a Monday today wasn't too bad at all. I slept a bit later than I should have, but I was still able to get school started by 8:30. I am starting right now of our pile of books that we will read tomorrow morning when we do our together work. It is about a foot and a half high-and my favorite part of the day. I guess that some day I might just have to become a librarian because I sure do love library books. Anyway, that is not to relevant to our day around here.
• During our school morning, the roofer man came to put the roof on the rv shed. It didn't take too long for him to do that so that is one more step finished. There are just a few things left and that project will be over-gravel is the next thing on the list followed by staining the posts and lighting. Once that is all finished, what will be our next project? I am pushing hard for a fire pit and Adirondack chairs surrounding it.
• Whitman took just about all day to get his school work accomplished. I tried to have him work right by me, but that didn't help speed things along today at all. We will eventually get it figured out. Speaking of figuring things out, I sure am enjoying our spelling break that he and I are taking. I plan to start back at the first of the year-those are my plans at least!
• I did some work on the camper this afternoon. Everything has been washed and folded. Now I am slowly cleaning sections of the camper and putting the things away. This takes longer than usual since there was sand everywhere, and we felt that everything needed to be washed. It will be so clean that I will not want to go anywhere.
• At some point on the trip or after we came home, Reagan lost a pair of her shorts. She doesn't have many shorts, so this did cause a problem. We have looked everywhere for them, but they have apparently vanished. So we left early for her soccer practice to stop at Academy to find replacements.
• We did find a replacement (not a cheap replacement). As we were walking out, she spotted a sweatshirt. We walked past it and I asked if she would want that for Christmas. After trying it on, she decided that she wanted it right then. I did find that it was cheaper to order it for store pick up online so we had Robby do that-then after soccer, we went and picked it up from the store.
• She was super happy with her purchases and so was I though I wish that she would have let someone buy her that shirt for Christmas since it isn't that very far away.
• While Reagan was at soccer practice, I sat in the car and did some Bible study, read a book and worked on my travel journal. By the count in my travel journal, we have been on 108 trips. That isn't too shabby at all. 
• Back at home, Robby had made quesadillas for supper tonight. They were delicious!. This evening after I worked some more in the camper, I played a card game with the kids. Then it was finally time for bedtime!

October 4, 2020

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• Robby said that he woke up last night in the middle of the night and didn't know where he was. He briefly thought that he was in the camper, but then unfortunately, realized that he was back at home and back in the real world. 
• We didn't have a very long morning this morning-before I had really finished all of my laundry, it was time to leave for church. We didn't have too many kiddos in our Sunday school class this morning. Afterwards, we again filled our church row up with folks-our 6 plus 2 extras. It is always fun to have a full row of people with us-every Sunday I try to figure out how I can take a picture of all those kiddos with their Bibles in their laps. Maybe someday I will pull out my phone and snap a picture.
• After church, we hurried home to drop off most everyone. Then we turned around and headed to Reagan's soccer game. We didn't ask the others to go today since we had a pretty full day today. 
• The weather was pretty perfect for a soccer game. But I will say that soccer games are just a bit long! They play for 90 minutes plus a half time along with some added time today because of injuries. Reagan's team was dropping like flies-one had to be carted off the field and another had to be helped off the field. Gracious, these soccer games are kind of like a wrestling/kicking match,
• The lost the game by a point, but they did really well. After the game, Robby and I did work on the camper for about 45 minutes. He worked on some cords while I worked on the bathroom.
• Then we headed to Nonna's house for Jason's birthday supper. We had pork tenderloin and Jo Powell cake for dessert. Jason opened his presents and we stayed for a little bit visiting.
• When we left there house, we headed to the Wilson's for some ice cream to start our week off right. The kids spent most of the time outside playing while we did some Christmas light watching. 
• As we were getting ready to leave, Graham mentioned that he thought he had poison ivy-yep, all over the boy. Not sure where he got it-possibly Louisiana. Ugh! Tony had some creams. So when he came home, he had a hot shower. Then I slathered him up with stuff before giving him some Benedryl before bed. Hopefully, he can sleep well tonight and hopefully we can get him some thing for relief tomorrow!

October 3, 2020 - Day 8 of Camping at the Beach

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It was chilly enough last night that Robby had to turn on the heat in the middle of the night. I do believe that we all slept well. Well, we slept well until right at 7 when Robby started this rig. Campbell, Graham and I woke right up. 

I changed my clothes and straightened a little bit-it is surprising how many things can fly around in a moving vehicle that you forget to put up each time. Then I climbed up in the front by Robby with his breakfast right after he pulled out of the state park. He even stopped to dump which didn't take long at all.

Campbell, Graham and Anderson were the first ones moving. They all came towards the front and grabbed their ipads to play as we soon pulled into Mississippi. Whitman was the next one who was awake-he was already given a poptart by Anderson before I even knew that he was awake. 

Keaton didn't really wake up until we were stopping for gas at 9. I will say that I think that I will always get a bit nervous when we stop for gas while pulling the car. Robby did just fine, but our turn had to be a bit sharp making me wonder if we were going to be able to make it. 

It is a pleasant day so I guess that if we had to get out and unhook, then that would be fine. We didn't have any problems at all though and were soon back on the road. By this time, most of us were working on our morning snacks while Keaton started making s'mores dip for her breakfast. 

I think that I have mentioned it, but the food. We brought so much food that it is just ridiculous. We could still stay out for about 4 more days without needing a grocery store. We have almost run out of milk, but other than that we have plenty of stuff. The pantry is so full that I still have to take things out to try to find what I need. I guess that I would rather have too much than too little. 

We zoomed on down the road today. We stopped one more time just on the side of the road for Robby to run to the restroom. It was a super quick stop-he was actually looking for a red light for me to jump into the driver's seat but never found one.

I made lunch-it does seem to get a bit easier getting things accomplished in the camper while bouncing around. It took me a few trips to figure out how to successfully turn on the generator too-now, we turned that thing on so we could make some popcorn and heat up Keaton's wrap.

We arrived home around 2 and worked until the football game started tonight. The kids worked hard-helping Robby unhook everything and when they weren't doing that, they were hauling things out of the camper and into the house. 

The camper is empty, but not yet cleaned. That will be tomorrow's task. Let's see, we have done about 10 loads of laundry (no lie). I have washed everything that can be washed from the camper plus all of our clothes. Most things are folded except for 2 loads, so that isn't too bad at all. And speaking of laundry, Campbell, without being asked, kept my laundry going while Robby and I ran to go and get gas for the camper and my van. They both were almost empty so we put about 75 gallons of gas in them.

We heated up some pizzas for supper and sat around the tv watching the Hogs. I watched the first half, but did snooze through the second half. It was a great day and a great week. I am glad to be home, but I am ready to leave again!

October 2, 2020 - Day 7 of Camping at the Beach

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It was another good day-and when you are cuddled up under some blankets in the bed before 10, I would say that it was a very good day. The morning started with Robby making chocolate chip pancakes and sausages for our breakfast. Anderson was in charge of the scrambled eggs. Breakfast was certainly yummy, and it probably made it even better that the Crafts came over to eat theirs with us.

Once breakfast was over, we walked to the next campsite-the campers there had already pulled out. The alligator was across the pond, but as he saw us, he slowly crept our direction. He was about 4 feet long and didn't really seem interested in us. My big boys pulled out their fishing poles, and then the Crafts did as well. No one caught anything, but the kids all enjoyed fishing-you would have thought that the alligator might have liked our bait-hot dogs!

The next thing that we did was take a short walk down to the river. It was a sandy trail, but it was neat to see the different plant life than we have at home. We weren't able to walk too long, because we had to pull out at noon.

Campbell and Keaton rode with the Crafts, and the rest of us just rode in our van. We had about a 30 minute drive to the Global Wildlife Center. We have been there twice before-and the pictures from last time just make it look amazing. So we were a bit concerned that it would be as fun to the kids as we had remembered it being.

It was! The first trip there I bought a bucket of food. The next time we bought a 50 pound bag of food and this time, we shared a 17 gallon bin with the Crafts. There was plenty of food to feed the animals. We did run out near the end, but there was enough pieces on the ground of the tram for the kids to pick up and use.

As you are driven along, all of the animals rush to the tram. I believe that they said that had 1200 deer-and it seemed like most of them followed us during the one and a half hour trip. There were deer, zebras (which you could not feed), llamas, alpacas, bison, lots of other animals that I don't know their names and most importantly giraffes. 

When we were at the giraffe stop, it took a super long time for the giraffes to make it to our car. When they did, the kids loved getting to feed them. And just as Reagan did 5 years ago when we were here, she gave a giraffe a kiss this time as well. We were starting to think that the giraffes wouldn't make it to us, but thankfully they did.

It was so much fun. Robby and I aren't big animal people, but we really do enjoy the animal tour. I think the kids will really remember it for a long time too! After it was over, we said our goodbyes to the Crafts. They were heading back to Little Rock. We had toyed with that idea too, but we decided to stay and enjoy one more night before coming back to reality. 

When we made it back to this state park, Bogue Chitto, we drove around for a little bit since we were in the van. We found a splash pad with a huge water slide. Imagine Campbell's surprise as she was inspecting it when we told her to go ahead and do it. Campbell, Keaton and Whitman slid over and over again. It must have been a little bit too cold for Graham because he only did it once.

Since Campbell, Keaton and Whitman were soaking wet, they had to ride in the back of the van back to the campsite. So Graham rode Whitman's bike back to our site. It took him a while, but that just warmed him up because afterwards, he went with Anderson, Campbell and Keaton on a bike ride on one of the trails. They thought that they went about 3 or 4 miles. 

Soon it was time for us to start on supper. Tonight's meal was bbq that Robby had made it home along with fried potatoes which is Jennifer's recipe. It was all perfect-until I ate the last tiny bit of BBQ and Whitman asked for some more. Thankfully, he was happy with some cheese on a bun-which he later said was his favorite part of the entire trip. It is the little things!

After supper, we watched some of a movie outside before breaking down camp. Robby wants to leave fairly early in the morning so we loaded up the van, put everything away outside and are sleeping with the slides in. It was pretty chilly tonight (and is still even in the camper), so we headed inside to finish our movie.

While we were watching the movie, we pulled out the Blue Bell that had been in our fridge for a few days waiting to be eaten. We probably would have gone home today, but we still had that ice cream! Ha! It was a good end to our trip. The kids were all asleep by 10:30-this camping stuff can be exhausting! 

October 1, 2020 - Day 6 of Camping at the Beach

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Our alarms started buzzing around 7 this morning. There was lots to do today so we know that we better get an early start. Before the kids really stirred, Robby and I had already gotten ready (it doesn't take much), straightened our bedroom area (again, it doesn't take much especially when a room is about 7x7) and started a load of laundry (there is much, much laundry-always!)

Soon my Campbell, Graham and Keaton were dressed and ready for the beach. Graham opted to not wear his suit. The water has been a wee bit chilly so when they would get out of it, then they would be chilly each day. However, I think that today the weather was going to be in the 80s so the water would probably have felt nice.

We walked to the Crafts camper to wait on them. Then we all walked to the beach-Anderson and Whitman walked down as well. Reagan followed and arrived about the time that we did. When we arrived, we found a spot-the first row on the beach was already filled up. People come out early and claim their beach spot with umbrellas and chairs. They say that the rows of people are 3 rows deep in the summer. This has actually been the best time to be at the beach-at east in my opinion.

The water continued to be calm today even though there was a yellow and purple flag still flying. The water was also clearing up so that made things even prettier. We probably arrived at the beach at 8:30. Soon the others joined us, so the kids had one last beach day before we loaded up and left.

Whitman had seen a large Connect 4 that he really wanted to play. So he and I went to play it. We played 3 rounds-he won two and the "cat" won the other round. He was very pleased with himself. When we were finished, he told me that he was finished with the beach so he headed back for a quick shower. That was nice since at least some of the kids were ready for departure.

When we are driving, the slides are in so the kids clothes are inaccessible. That is usually fine, but today I had everyone put their next clothes on my bed so they could easily find and grab what they need even if the slides were already in. Soon after Whitman and Anderson returned to the camper, the sliders were put in, and we started tearing down camp.

We had done a ton of work last night. Really, the only things left to do today was unhook and then hook the car back on. Anderson was able to help Robby hook the car dolly up-Robby just pulled forward and then backed up in the middle of our site to where he had pushed the dolly. That worked perfectly.

Next up, I walked to the beach to gather my people. It was after ten by the time I made it down there, and it was after 10:20 by the time they all said their goodbyes. Campbell and Keaton were motivated to leave because they were getting to ride in the Craft camper on the first leg of the trip. 

They took quick showers while Graham and Reagan just changed their clothes. They were not rolling around in the sand today. A bit before 11, we pulled out of our spot. Robby was able to pull up towards the exit which was not too far from our site. There he stopped, and I drove the car right up behind him.

He pulled that car on the dolly, and we strapped it down quicker than quick! We have decided that we really want to teach the kids the camping things-for example loading the bikes on the trailer should be Anderson's job while folding up the floor mat and putting it away should be Whitman's job. There are plenty of jobs to be had and lots of new skills to learn-Robby and I have learned a whole lot lately.

Casey was soon next to us ready to lead the way to Louisiana. The plan was to drive to a Buccees which was a 100 miles away. This camper is on the base of my van, but it doesn't have all of the perks of my van-Robby definitely considers the little thing that tells you how many miles left as a perk. Since we don't have that, he wasn't really sure that we could make it to Buccees.

Since we are driving a tin box, it does get warm in the back. There are a lot of us so you really can't ask everyone to be in the front. To keep it cool in the back, you have to use the generator which is fine-however, the generator cuts off when you get to 1/4 tank of gas. We didn't want for the generator to stop and more importantly we didn't want for us to have to push this thing, so we found a gas station and topped it off. (And in case you were wondering, topping thing thing off is still a lot of gas!)

That just put us about 10 minutes behind the Crafts. Robby whipped into the gas station and turned on out just like a pro. I was silently convinced that he wasn't going to be able to make one of the turns, but he did just fine. It was relatively quiet in our car on the way there-Reagan even wrote most of her essay that is due tomorrow.

At Buccees, all of the kids found icees plus I grabbed items for s'mores tonight. Hopefully, they will be the most expensive s'mores that we ever eat. The graham crackers and marshmallows were not expensive, but the Hershey bars were a bit pricey. That was fine though since memories aren't cheap! We have talked about always carrying things for s'mores but just forgot to add them to our list. It is so confusing, because some things can stay in the camper between trips, but other things need to go inside. 

Speaking of food-we are overpackers. I guess that is a good thing. We have so much food-tonight we just got to the bottom of the first 2 bags of chips that we brought. I have at least 4 more bags of chips that we haven't yet opened. We probably should just have all of our meals in the camper for a few days when we come home so I don't have to haul everything back into the house.

The next leg of the trip, all of the Craft girls rode with us. I will say that the ride was surprisingly quiet. I was busy after first throwing things away, making lunch for my crew that had not eaten yet, and helping Reagan on her school work. After that, I just sat up with Robby and helped keep him company.

Now, Robby's bladder must not be as large as the other folks that we have traveled with. When we were about 30 minutes out, we came upon quite a few stoplights. Robby was getting squirmy so he jumped out of his seat, and I jumped into it. The kids were all going a bit wild since they knew that I had never driven before.

I did just fine, and it is like driving my van. It does feel heavier when you are trying to stop, but other than that I felt comfortable for the 100 yards that I drove during stop and go traffic. That was seriously enough driving for me for a while. I think that I need to build my confidence just a little bit-maybe a drive to church or something, because I probably would have been terrified to have to make a turn.

We arrived at Bogue Chitto State Park in Louisiana just as they were closeting for the night. They had our sites ready and we drove and drove until we got there. It isn't a fancy place though it does seem to be huge Our site is a pull through site, but in reality we are just parked on the side of a road.

It is all fine though because it looks like we are right in the middle of Louisiana-which of course we are. We have a concrete pad by our door, then there is a decent sized deck overlooking a fire pit and swampy stream. 

We got everything ready for the evening and then started working on supper. The Crafts brought their supper over here to eat so we just had ourselves a party. Robby grilled hamburgers and hot dogs-Reagan opted for leftover ravioli which was certainly fine. Our fridge is filling fast with leftovers. 

After eating, we walked to a neighboring campsite to look for the alligator that he had seen earlier. He actually had to throw rocks at the gator to make it change its direction after it eyed his dog. Needless to say, we also kept the little kids nearby tonight.

We weren't able to see it from his spot, so we went around the lake a bit and looked some more. We did see a huge bull frog-bigger than any I have ever seen. Then we returned to the campsite for the expensive s'mores. While we were eating them, the neighbor came over saying that the alligator was there-sure enough we could see him floating through the water.

Now Whitman was not happy about this alligator trip at all. He was a bit scared and ready to go back to the campsite at all times. I probably would have been the same way when I was 7 years old. We soon got back to our s'mores and ate and ate until we had finished most everything that we bought!

We stayed out and chatted until about 9:15. The kids are exhausted-Campbell and Graham kept asking me when bedtime was. I couldn't get the beds ready fast enough. We even let them play their ipads for a few extra minutes, but when I went around to tell them to put them up, no one was still awake. That must mean that it was another successful day.

  

September 30, 2020 - Day 5 of Camping at the Beach

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Exhausting! That is the only way that I know of to describe beach days. Seriously, we are beat, and I know that the kids are tired when they are asking to go to bed. Now, I will say that they were asking to go to bed around 11:15, but still they wanted to go to bed so they must have been tired.

We didn't sleep as late as we have today. Campbell, Graham and Keaton were the first ones out the door. They also found folks to head to the beach with. While they were down there, Reagan did some school work, and Robby made our breakfasts.

Today's menu was biscuits, eggs and sausage. This was our first time to get the biscuits done really well. Usually, it takes forever for them to get done. He thinks that he let the oven preheat long enough today. Either way, they were good. Graham rode back up to eat his breakfast. On his way back down, he also took a breakfast sandwich for Campbell to eat on the beach.

I am sure that they were ready for us to get down to the beach because we had told them they couldn't go very far without us there. When we arrived, we added our tent to the mix-at some point today, the old lady sitting next to us said loudly that she would not have set her chair up there if she knew she would be right next to a day care! 18 kids could possibly be called a day care. 

I am not sure if that lady was still there later in the morning when the Kamps showed up! No one knew that they were coming-it was a super fun surprise. So that did make our kids total 21. The kids just have so much fun at the beach. Campbell, of course, is the water girl. She could stay in the water the entire time. Whitman really enjoys the sand. 

Today, Keaton and her friends dug a hole that was about 4 feet deep. Anderson and Graham also floated out in Andrew's kayak for a little bit. Reagan does enjoy being on the beach and tried her best to soak up some sun. The first day they all soaked up a bit too much sun. Yesterday it was cloudy the entire time so no one became burned. I hope that we used enough sunscreen today.

Around 1, we left with all the kids but Anderson for some souvenir shopping. Everyone found a sweatshirt but Whitman. He found a 17 dollar stuffed animal-which he did not get! Of course this made him sour so he set his eye on some cotton candy-which he also didn't get. The cotton candy was 7 dollars.

He is lucky though that a Dollar General was right next door because I ran in to look for some cotton candy. Lo and behold there was some for a reasonable price-1 buck. You should have seen the boys face when I came back to the car with his treat.

We then dropped them off-some were headed back to the beach. It is super nice to have lots of adults around to help watch kids. Some hung out in the camper. Robby and I bought 5 and a half pounds of shrimp plus some boudin balls and a key lime pie. Most of the shrimp wasn't for us, but the key lime pie was!

We hurried back-there just doesn't seem to be enough time to do everything around here. Robby still could use a pair of tennis shoes, but he may just have to wait until we get home. We then went back to the beach and stayed until 5ish. Then the kids started heading back for showers. 

Tonight was picture night on the beach. I didn't bring fancy clothes for my peeps, but we were all at least clean! I hope that there were some decent pictures taken tonight-I haven't even seen them yet. It took about 45 minutes for everyone to take pictures. Imagine how long it takes over 30 people to have their pictures taken-there was a group picture, family pictures, couple pictures, kid pictures and the list just went on and on.

Afterwards, everyone went back to their spots to fetch their dinners. Then we all met back up for the cooking of the shrimp. Shrimp, to me, tastes like nothing. The boudin balls were spicy and mushy and definitely different. Our main supper was cheese ravioli smothered with sausage and sauce. It was delicious!

When the suppers were all cleaned up, we all headed towards the beach for some crab hunting. The moon was huge tonight, so we should have been able to see the crabs really well. However, there were very few crabs out tonight. That was fine with me since it made our evening walk a bit shorter.

Robby and I had the kids to come back to the camper next-they helped us for a few minutes. Then they went back up to see their friends and watch some of a basketball game. (At least I think that it was a basketball game). While they were gone, Robby and I worked and worked putting everything away. This camping stuff is a lot of work.

We were still working when the kids came back down an hour later. We had just finished on the outside and were moving to the inside of the camper. Robby dried some bathing suits for they would be ready for our quick dip in the morning, Then it was time for bed for the crew. It even took a bit longer tonight because we changed up the sleeping spots. Most folks were happy with the new spots-some didn't want to give up their spots. Either way, hopefully they all sleep well tonight!