Lipstick Cover-Up

These are a few of my favorite things. I didn't last 24 hours out in the wild. 23 hours and 30 minutes to be exact from the time we rolled in to the campground till the time we rolled out.

Now, to my credit, we did have fun moments, we enjoyed many of the things that we did. I would not recommend camping to anyone with an infant, just too many things you HAVE to have with you, but to my Little Bean's credit, she fared so much better than the rest of us honestly. She loved the sites, sounds, fresh air, didn't disturb her schedule really at all. She went with the flow. My son, the dear boy, got diarrhea the night we arrived and it only got worse on Saturday, he's 6 and a half, fully potty trained, he just got sick. Somethings you cannot control and when you're a hundred yards from the potty and you got the "soupy poopie" well its tough on anybody, let alone a little kid. That's how our first morning went, constant potty trips, but the trooper that he is, he had fun between those bouts. He caught his first large mouth bass! My oldest, she caught a 2 pound trout! A first for both of them. We went kite flying, hiking, saw the waterfalls, it was fun. We played mini golf, it was not fun, a disaster I must say. Filled with tantrums and poop. Little guy started with a fever by then but he didn't want to stop playing. We went for a relaxing walk by the river and the feeling hit him again, I snatched him up and high tailed it to the nearest potty, and as my little guy sat there and felt miserable, he looked up with his big blue eyes and said quite matter of factly, "Mommy, I guess the great outdoors just don't agree with me."

Then he asked me to take him home. I went and found hubby and broke the news, and I've really not seen him look so happy in a long time. OK, let's start packing up! and we did. Our very gracious friends who love to camp and love this campground were sad to see us go, but I think deep down a little relieved to have us on our way. I was cranky by them I'm sure. Didn't sleep well the night before, had NO Starbucks, and the local coffee brewed at my site didn't compare. By noon on Saturday I had looked at hubby and told him I'd give my left arm for a latte and room service. Knowing the state of affairs our friends suggested instead of eating lunch there, we go out to eat. THIS PLACE WAS HORRIBLE!!A BUFFET, I hate buffets, breeding ground for such a plethora of germs and bugs. Then there is the clientele, usually senior citizens who don't much care for noisy messy kids, or those buffet loving folks who love to, how shall i say it, GRAZE at these feeding frenzies and don't much care for tiny humans getting in their way at the troughs. It was institutional, it was very 'country' fare. Spoonbread, greens, candied ham and some beet concoction that had a gelatin look, but was a hot dish. Not what I normally eat, my kids didn't know what do to. They had fried chicken, well that stuff was flying out of the silver tray quickly, one of the people at my table ate an ENTIRE CHICKEN!!! Then asked the waitress if she minded taking away his 'boneyard', too much I tell ya. I had the salad bar only, and tried not to touch anything. Thought some protein might help and the woman at the counter said the stuff was tunafish, it WAS NOT, unless tuna suddenly turned into hard grey matter that has a grainy consistency with pebbles in it. It literally fell out of my mouth, I felt like a baby just letting it fall out, spittiing and then wiping my tongue off with a napkin, I usually grin and bear it, swallow and wash it down politely then stop eating, but I could not swallow it, NONONONONONONONONONONONONO! My son ate one slice of cucumber and quarter of a piece of chocolate cake, and a roll, dry. He then shit 4 times in the next hour.

I learned how to put a worm on a hook, I learned that when you catch a trout they aren't happy, as I was told, "they are a very delicate fish, they panic easily" well when they panic, they start spewing their eggs out, like a gusher of little eggs just spilling out all over the place, the sight of which makes most shudder. I never realized just how barbaric fishing is till this weekend. I learned that just because the brochure says something does NOT make it so. I learned that it takes all kinds to keep this world turning. Most people are very good at heart and want to help out a mother in distress. Kindness comes in the strangest forms some days. I learned that camping is a sport for some. Most campers I think just camp though so they aren't at home and won't have any chores to do, they like being out in the woods and just hanging out. Some people are not and never will be goal oriented, I am not one of those people and that's ok. I like having a direction, I like having things to do, to get done. I love my husband and my kids, they make me feel good. I now know you cannot flush regular toilet paper in a camper. "Air conditioning" is a very relative term. Beer can be an accessory (doesn't go well with my Coach bag, but who am I to judge). A campground is a true "melting pot" of society. If you've never been, you should go, try it out for sure.

I know what I like, room service, steam showers, spa treatments, good coffee, great food. If I'm paying for a vacation even just a weekend getaway, it has to have a few of these elements. No worms, dirt, bugs, miniturized dollhouse like toilets are a no-no for all of my future vacations. Lesson learned, moving on.

Lots of love to all of you in bloggy land!
-lil'sis