Camping

In August, I know I'm a blog slacker, we went camping with some of our wonderful friends and had a fantastic time with them, the campground and fellow campers left much to be desired... But we had each other and we're alive so what more can we ask for??

M and Miss E in one of the tents playing.

Partners in crime, they were giggling up a storm, it was so much fun to watch.

Miss E

Miss T

M- isn't she DARLING?!?!

Our other set of twins Busy and H, looking rather clean, this was early into our camping adventure.

Silly Girls!!!!

Sporting the same hair do, great minds think alike : )

P-man and A in his tent, this is them trying to zip it up and shut me out.


They succeeded!!!!

Miss E starting to look a little more like a kid who is camping.

Miss T running around, in her bare feet : )

The littles taking advantage of not having to share the little tent with the older kids.

note: Eva is not drinking a beer, it is a root beer bottle that I gave her to bribe her from beating up M and Miss T, what kind of mom do you think I am?? LOL

Roasting hotdogs




Miss E finally found a place to play on the toy computer without having to share with anyone.
I did not take a single picture on day 2 of camping. We had little sleep that first night due to a party going on a couple camp sites away. I am including my review of the camp site at the bottom so you can read all the details.

On the way home we went to the coast and H found a bunch of crab legs and of course was super smart and put them in her pockets so she could carry them. I had to get a pic she is so cute.




Eating our sandy lunch.


Saying good bye to our awesome friends.





It was a fantastic camping trip if you subtract the drunks and crummy accommodations. But we were with great friends and for that I'm very grateful. Here is the review I left on the web site to give you an idea of how it went. Jonathan's PTSD flared up with all the happenings of night 2, it was stressful for me but especially stressful for him.
I entitled it: Worst camping experience ever, we feared for our lives. And guess what I'm not being over dramatic.
We went to Loon lake after having many friends tell us how beautiful it was. They were talking about the BLM Camp ground there, not Loon Lake Lodge Camp Grounds. But when we registered for camping we didn't realize there were 2 different camp grounds. We arrived to find our camp site littered with trash and dog messes. Camp staff weren't helpful and we had to clean it ourselves. The campsites have NO PRIVACY from one another. A neighboring camper described it best when he referred to it as a refugee camp. The first night we had neighboring campers who kept us up till very late playing loud music and yelling. No camp employees were there to enforce the quiet hours, which were suppose to be between 10:00pm and 7:00am, and it was left to the fellow campers to deal with the noise till 2:00am. The next day we awoke tired after little sleep the night before, but went over to the BLM recreation area which has a nice sandy beach and swim area, plenty of picnic tables and nice showers. We had a wonderful day there and the kids had plenty of sand and grass to run around on. We returned to camp tuckered out after a restless night and a long day of play. The camp was quiet till 11:15 when loud music began to blare. We knew then it was going to be another long night, but at that time had no idea just how scary it would become. At 11:45 while walking back from the out house the noisy campers started up their truck and began to rev the engine over and over. A camper across the way asked that they knock it off, he had kids that were trying to sleep. The noisy camper stopped but only briefly, when she began to do it again the camper across the way along with 3 other men approached their camp and told them they needed to turn it off, but they brought over a axe which only made the situation worse. Once that calmed down the campers went back to what they were doing. They were still loud but at least they weren't revving their engine any more. An hour later the revving starts up again and you hear a women screaming, "help, help, help him." The fighting had started again. One of the noisy campers goes into the other camp site and goes at the picnic table with a axe breaking a bunch of stuff. (I can see this 6 campsites away because 1. the campsites are super small and close together, and 2. the only thing to look around or over are the tents people have up because there again is no privacy.) At this point my husband and one of our friends, we are camping with, go up the hill to the lodge to get help. The on site manager is not home, no one is in the lodge and the pay phone doesn't work, we have no cell service and are feeling very helpless. We have been left with no options. The camp staff should have had someone on site, a working pay phone, should enforce their quiet hours so we woudln't be put into situations like this and I could go on and on. Then the drunks climb in their trucks and start chasing one another down the main road. While the men were up top trying to find help I was in the tent with our 4 kids listening to people screaming, fist hitting skin, axes waking things, people screaming about guns and yelling help. It was very scary and there was no one there to help us. Someone did drive out the 9 miles to the main highway and call the police, they showed up a hour later. When talking to the manager the next day it sounded like the police come out often. The manager said sorry but no money was refunded. Typing this out I can't express the pure terror we felt for our children and ourselves. It was like a scary movie being stuck in the middle of no where, and having scary things happening all around you with no one to help you. If you are looking for a nice relaxing weekend, this is not the place. If you want to have a nice time with your family, this is not the place. If you want to party and yell and fight and no one but fellow campers to tell you to be quiet, well this is the place for you.