Boys Will Be Boys

Posts Tagged ‘merrick’

Merrick still thinks his chair makes a great bed!

Sometimes I think I could live off in the woods along a river or lake.  Then I realize that I would eventually need to come back into reality and the technology world because the inner geek in me can’t be away from it too long.    We took the boys camping last week and I wasn’t sure any of us wanted to come back to reality.  That meant work for both Patrick and I, daycare for the boys and schedules!  Ugg!  It’s still summer though at least and our weather is somewhat cooperating now.

Back in May my family came out for Memorial Day weekend.  I drove them over to the coast to do some shopping and then we did some scenic driving along the coastal highway.  Well, once we got to Newport, we decided it was time to head home after our very long day.  My dad was on his new phone all mapping out our route.  I thought we should just drive back up the coast and go the way I was familiar with.  He thought we should go this other way inland from Newport.  Well, we took a turn too early and ended up on Hwy. 229.  It got us a bit lost and confused but I figured we’d end up in an ok spot eventually.  The road followed a beautiful river and was tucked back in the coastal mountains.  I told my parents that day, as we are lost and laughing about it, that I would love to camp back there somewhere.

While plotting a camping trip I looked up campgrounds along Hwy 229 and found Moonshine Park in Lincoln County tucked along the Siletz River.  We found a winner of a campground though!  The camp host is incredibly nice, the campground is well maintained and has bathrooms.  They just got showers 2 weeks ago (we forgot quarters so couldn’t use them but we know for next time!).  They have a nice looped road around the campground and a shoulder for kids to bike / people to walk along.  I loved how our site was close enough to the river but far enough that the boys weren’t running to it.  I can’t say enough good things about this place, truly a hidden gem but the host told us it gets full fast now a days so we’ll have to get there early next time too.

**all pictures are thumbnails, click for bigger, sorry for being so tiny, will fix later!**

We left Wed. morning and got there shortly after lunch.  We pulled in and found a nice spot under a big tree.  Can we say Shade is good?   I thought it’d be a lot harder getting camp set up with the boys running wild but they stayed fairly close, trying to help and getting into the camping stuff.  We got the tent up in a nice shady spot and then proceeded to settle in before exploring a bit. It was a very warm afternoon so we got the boys in their swim suits and headed to the river after scoping out a few swim spots.

A typical day camping was like this:
Bugz wake up around 6, get breakfast going and then head off to the fishing spot.  We’d sometimes fish until 9-10, depending on when we got over to it and how long Bugz could last throwing rocks into the river.  We’d head back to the campsite and then get some snacks, change into our swimsuits and head over to the waterfall area for a morning paddle in the boat.  We’d take turns taking the boys out in the boat, paddling them around.   Bugz would start giving us that glazed over tired look in the boat or he’d be on shore turning into monster Bugz, which meant time for us to head back for naptime.

While Bugz was napping Braysen and Patrick would head out for their father-son fishing time.  They went to a different spot at lunch than in the morning that had a better fishing area for Braysen.  It wasn’t a good spot for Merrick and I to go though as it was harder to get into.  When they came back, we’d get some lunch going, hang out a bit and then head back for our afternoon swim.  We went between the waterfall and another swimming hole spot because it kept the boys happy and they each were nice for different reasons.  I like to paddle around the waterfall but the other swimming hole has a nicer gradual slope for the boys to play in and it’s where more of the younger kids that are camping there play also.  Before dinner we’d head to the little rinky dink in the middle of nowhere store for ice and to get the boys out for a drive.  Dinner time and getting a campfire ready for S’mores came and went then it was bedtime, which Merrick fought us on every nite until 9ish, one night 10!! While I was getting Merrick down for bed, Braysen and Patrick would usually go do their nightly fishing run.  Some nights they’d get back and I’d have Bugz asleep so the 3 of us did S’mores, other nights I was still fighting him.    The boys got in a groove and it was a lot of fun, they stopped running so far away and stayed closer to camp, knowing where they could go and what not to do….for the most part! haha

Highlights Reel:

Patrick flipped the little boat going down the rapids the first time he took Braysen.  He told Braysen that if they fell out, to just back float and daddy would get him.  Sure enough, they flipped and Braysen did just that, as he is floating, he asks Patrick, “I’m backfloating daddy, are you going to get me?”  Patrick got scraped up pretty good on his legs from the rocks while getting Braysen and the raft. He lost an oar and his hat though!  Luckily, our neighbors found the oar and I found the hat later that day at the swimming hole.  He got quite the rep. for being the guy that flipped that day.  To his credit, our little raft is not meant for much of anything but floating hehe.  Although, there were people taking inner tubes, blown up air mattresses and random other weird things down the rapids.

Braysen caught 3 fish on his own!! We were all pretty excited for that and if you ask him, he’ll tell you, “I caught 3 fish and the last one was bweeding (bleeding).  We put him back in the water because it makes him feel better.  Poor Fishy.”    Among other funny lines of commentary on his fishing adventures that I can’t remember atm.   We cooked up one of the fish Patrick caught and even Braysen liked the taste of his first pan fried fish.

I learned that you can make all sorts of games out of throwing rocks or playing with rocks after spending hours on the banks of the river with Bugz entertaining him with rocks, shovels, buckets and water.  hehe

We’ll be going back there in August, which can’t come fast enough!  It was so nice to be away from phones, work, TVs, drama and other distractions.  Just good ol’ family time, just like I remember spending with my family camping.  The only thing it was really missing is family and friends with us but maybe someday.

All of the flickr camping pictures can be found here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mymindslost/sets/72157624355474569/detail/

Dimples and goofy grin gone…we now bring you the “don’t mess with me face”

Merrick styling in a swim diaper as a hat! Kid has style what can I say?

Patrick flies home this evening from Houston and then we hit the ground running with lots of stuff going on this weekend!  It’s been a crazy week!  One of the most annoying comments is about how we “did it or made it through the week” as opposed to the house burning down and all of us losing our minds or something.  Of course we made it, I  can more than handle the kids & house..even if I whine about it a bit!  The hard part is honestly getting in this groove of a new schedule & routine when I’m used to having my loving “partner” there to help me out.  I was telling him last night that there’s something about even having that extra set of eyes and ears that puts you a little more at ease and not so on edge about the chaos going on.   I also admit to being completely spoiled by a loving husband and great father to our kids who does help out with not only the kids:  watching them so I can shower, watching Merrick so I don’t have to take both Merrick & Braysen to swim lessons, getting the boys to/from daycare on days I have class, among other things.   But, he also does some of the cleaning:  aka trash and dishwasher emptying and he likes to vacuum haha.  Some of those things I just listed are really big things when you are the only one around to do them! hehe

Anyhow off to our busy weekend!  Saturday is full with a visit to Great Harvest Bread for their anniv. weekend specials.  How could we miss double bread card punches, free coffee, cookies for the kids and balloons at our fave bread place?

Then we have the UFO Festival Parade in downtown McMinnville.  Did you know that it’s the 2nd largest festival of its kind, only to Roswell, New Mexico’s?   It’s probably one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen to be honest.  It brings out the crazy’s and makes for great people watching!

Lastly we have a birthday party at Scotty’s Playhouse for Austyn (a neighbor’s girl).  One of the sweetest things she does is asking guests to bring donated items for C.A.T. (Cat Adoption Team) instead of gifts.  We adopted our Stormy kitten from them thanks to finding out about the organization from Tracy & Austyn.  I was so impressed by C.A.T. and I highly recommend that if you are looking to adopt a kitten in Oregon to check them out!

Somewhere between all of that and on Sunday we need to get our garden planted.  We have the tilling to do, since I pulled the weeds last weekend!  Then we need to get the compost in there to fill it up more.  Time to stink up the car again I think!  Sometime in the midst of that I need to get out and buy the veggies + last few herbs to fill it up.  I’m hoping my green thumb pays off!

I’ve gone OCD with this garden stuff and made up a spreadsheet plotting out the lay of the land shall we say.  It has the various beds dimensions and what I have planted.  The main vegetable garden is the one I need to plot out currently.   The spreadsheet isn’t true to where the beds are laid out in the backyard but more so just the shape and order of how I plant in them.  I just want to be able to look at this to tell where things are.  In part because next year when I’m planting again I can make sure I rotate crops in the right places. I’ll be adding notes to the spreadsheet through the season as to what’s growing well, bugs we have & treatments, fertilizing and dates when we see them producing..basically a garden journal of sorts.

I am also looking at companion plant lists to see which veggies like to be next to each other, which herbs or plants to grow next to them to keep the bugs away etc.   So much to learn!  Thankfully the Vegetable Garden Bible book I was recommended has been a great resource and then of course I have the internet with it’s endless amounts of information!  I’ve really gone with the square foot gardening idea because we don’t have huge plots and I think with the size of our cedar beds it will work the best.

Here’s the spreadsheet on google docs:  Garden 2010 I’ll be updating it as I go ..or that’s the idea!

One last thing~ I’ve been meaning to get new pictures up on Flickr.  I posted some facebook but I need to get my flickr galleries all updated.  I am on a picture taking frenzy again now that I have this new camera.  I’ll post about it later but my Canon Rebel T1i came last week and I’m in love..if it’s possible to love a camera that is!