Life's Little Moments: Camping

Yikes it has been a while since my last update. We have been ridiculously busy and a lot has happened in the last month. We last left off on our Girls Day Tea Party. The following week I finally got a golf lesson in! After three consecutive weeks of my golf instructor cancelling our lessons I decided to get a refund and go somewhere else. My Father-in-law set me up with a pro at his golf club and my Mother-in-law joined me for a semi private lesson. It was great! He helped me with all the mechanics of my swing and I could see a difference right away. A few days later Aunty Chantelle and Aunty Elyse babysat for us so that Sandy and I could have a quick date at the driving range to test out my newly acquired skills.

That weekend was Sandy's first Father's day which we spent going for brunch with the McLarens. It was a nice day together as a family. Later that week we continued to train hard for the ultra marathon quickly approaching. On Saturday Alexander attended his first Birthday Party for Wyatt, followed by my Dads 50th Birthday Party, followed by Chantelle's Baptism. It was a very full, very fun day.

Chantelle's Baptism

The last week of June was spent planning my Sister-in-laws baby shower and getting ready for camping on July long weekend. The day before we left the little bundle of joy arrived for my sister-in-law. On Thursday June 28 at 5:00pm weighing exactly the same as Alexander at 5 pounds 11 ounces and 17 inches long, Ejay McLaren was born. It was a very exciting day, especially coming from a perspective other than the mommy! I am definitely a proud Aunty

Baby Ejay with Aunty and Uncle

The day after we got to meet Ejay we set off on our Camping Trip for the Canada Day long weekend. We went to Banff which was a little chilly but we had a fun weekend regardless of the weather.

At the hot springs with Daddy wearing a skirt

Out for a mountain bike ride

10 months later, both of us seem to have changed!

When we got home it was crunch time. We had three days until Sinister 7.

The week was filled with lots of packing and organizing. Alexander also had his first day at DayHome as I started back to work at Sandy's Company. Just one day a week for about 4 or 5 hours but it is still a big step for me and my little man!

We just got home from our first family camping trip and it was great! Minus all the pre-camping issues we had to deal with of course. Lets start with the back story. Sandy and I started looking into trailers for camping last May-June (2011) but because I was due with Alexander in August it didn't make much sense to invest in something that we wouldn't be able to use right away. So we decided that we would wait, not do Christmas presents for each other, and instead buy a trailer in the spring of 2012. So that is what we did. We only exchanged stockings with one another (except the diamond earrings Sandy got for me and broke the rules, but that's neither here nor there) and in February we went to look at trailers at the RV show. We had basically already decided what we wanted but thought it was still a good idea to go look. So one fun date day in February we went to the show, and within 20 minutes had decided on our trailer and purchased it! We were told it would arrive in March or April. So in the meantime I started purchasing what we needed for camping and making lists etc. March and April came and went and no trailer arrived. Finally in May we got word that it was here so we went for a quick peak and it looked great! Just as we had expected and everything looking like it should! We made an appointment for our orientation and pick up of the trailer. It was a Tuesday morning about two weeks before we had our first camping trip booked. But, when we showed up for our appointment, the trailer wasn't ready to go home. The salesman had forgot to put the work order through to have it pressurized and ready to go. So instead of getting it that day we ended up getting it Saturday, six days before our scheduled camping trip (and the day of Alexanders dedication). I spent Saturday night and Sunday (Mothers Day) filling the trailer and getting it organized and ready for camping. The only thing left was to fill the fridge! Tuesday Al went to my Mom's for Grandma-baby time, like he always does on Tuesdays so I took advantage of the free time and went and got our groceries. Five hundred dollars worth of groceries.

the groceries

Not thinking, I didn't plug the fridge in ahead of time so when I got home I plugged it in and waited for it to get cold. The manual said about eight hours so I gave it eight hours, and it still wasn't cold. I gave it twelve hours, still hot, and by twenty four hours it was still warm inside! At that point we called the dealership and the short version was the fridge needed to be replaced, three days before we were supposed to leave. Luckily they had the fridge in stock so they replaced it and we had the trailer back that night. Which leaves us to Thursday. This is the day I went over our site we had booked and last minute lists. This is when I realized I had made a mistake with our booking and accidentally booked a non-powered site. Bahh. Not the end of the world but I was disappointed that I had made this over site. Oh well. Friday it was time to leave on our first camping trip. Fridge replaced, food and clothes packed, gassed up and ready to go.

We hit the road shortly after lunch and got to our spot around 4:00pm. Within ten minutes of getting there and starting to set up, one of our jacks hit the gas line (our main source of power for the weekend) and blew the line. At this point we packed up, signed out at the office and got a refund, and were on our way home! All of this work and waiting and packing and planning, just to come home 10 minutes into our trip because we had blown a gas line. We ended up taking the trailer straight to the dealer and they were able to fix it for us immediately (I think they felt bad for all the trouble we had been having with the brand new unit). By 8:00pm Friday night our trailer was fixed and ready to go again. I ended up calling back to the lake for a reservation and got the last site in the entire park. We left shortly after lunch on Saturday and had a great camping trip! We put a couple little scratches into our new trailer but I guess that is going to happen! Anyway just wanted to share the adventure of our first camping trip as a family. Despite that I was very upset each time something went wrong, I can now laugh at it because it all worked out in the end. There are people in much worse situations so I have to smile and remember how blessed we are. After all, our fridge in our trailer malfunctioned, some people don't even have fridges in their homes.