Post-camping trip

We're back! and the weekends not over. I must say it was WONDERFUL to sleep clean and in a real bed.

We left the city around 7:30 friday evening, we were well prepared and packed it up, grabbed supper on the way out, Caden went to sleep when we hit the road. Big, grey clouds are above us most of the way and rain accompanies too. As we got closer to the park, the clouds were starting to disperse, the rain had stopped, yay!

We check-in, go to our campsite. There was no way I was stepping foot in that campsite, it had a minimum of one and a half inches of standing water. Quinn checked it out. We decided to find a dry-er campsite (very few tenters in the non-electrical sites, surprise, surprise!). We found one that was dryer and made the switch. I was in the only sandals I have, which have a cushy cloth base, stepping into the site, the ground was so saturated, the water swarmed your feet. Immediately apply Fragrance au Repellent. Hurry to set up tent while it is still light out.
Try not to get frustrated with tent set up and take it out on my husband. :)

Caden slept almost the entire time through set up which was very helpful. We finished tent set-up. On the way out to the park we realized we forgot flashlights. It was after 10 and we decided to go to the store and get one. The stores were closed. We decided to drive back up the highway to find a gas station, drove 20 minutes, it was closed too, go back to the site. Decided we would use the truck lights for light with the screen door open. (That means starting the truck every 20 minutes b/c it automatically turns off lights). We hauled in everything we needed to sleep with snacks and drinks. Caden was now awake, so we fed him and played a bit, he grew tired quick and wanted to go to bed. Us too. I so wanted to take a picture of Caden of his sleeping outfit, I didn't have my camera in the tent. He had socks on, his sleeper over the socks, a sweater over his sleeper, a touque and 4 blankets in his play pen, 2 under, 2 on top. (I think this is why he slept as well as he did). He went to bed around 1, got up at 5 to eat (which is normal), then I kept in our bed and he slept til after 7.

Back to bedtime, after we put Caden to bed, Quinn and I decide to have a drink (cooler/beer) and some snacks. Before we go to bed, Quinn decides he has to go to the bathroom, I didn't want to drink my entire cooler, because at 5am, I would really need to go to the b-room, no thanks. So, Quinn said he would finish my cooler on the way to the bathroom. I'm in the tent, the truck is running and I hear muffled male and female voices. I thought maybe our neighbours two sites over were talking loudly. It went on for 5 minutes or so and then I heard Quinn yell "Lyla, have a bit of a problem here." I was confused. I went to the tent door and he said the park police had seen him with his drink on the road = possession of alcohol on public property. oh boy. Me thinking "am i going to have to bail my husband out of jail?", apparently these same thoughts were running through Quinn's head.

I went out of the tent to hopefully get more info and be a positive influence on the officer's (2 women) decisions as to what to do about this. Turns out, they had been standing on the road by our site because we had come late into the park, so they thought initially that maybe we weren't even checked in. (You would think they would check the records before coming to visit our site.) The 2 officers had been standing on the road, when Quinn walked off our site. Quinn saw 2 shadows and asked Hello? Who are you? Well, they immediately shone their flashlight and stated "You are in possession of alcohol on public property." Well, Quinn, being very tired, and not thinking clearly (he only had one beer!!), decided to quickly drink it, so that he wouldn't be in "possession" of it anymore. (brilliant, I know!) Well, now the officers said "and now you've just consumed (disrespected) in front of an officer". It was SO innocent, Quinn had no intentions of purposefully drinking on public property or in front of them. The 2 violations would have come close to a $1,000 fine or a night in jail. When he left the tent I didn't even think anything either, it didn't cross my mind it was illegal! One comment they made "If you were in the city, would you take a drink onto the street or the sidewalk?". Ok, its a campground, we both didn't think of it that way. So, after 15 minutes of Quinn explaining and convincing them it was a honest mistake, they sensed he was a little stressed because it was late, no flashlight, honest mistake and they let it go. PHEW!!

Poor Quinn, he was so stressed that night, not really believing it was over, worrying they would come back or send him a fine later...nope, we were free, forgiven!

Needless to say, we thanked God for that in our bedtime prayer!

(Those park police are serious, aren't they Candice?? no foolin' around with them ;)

Ahhhh, so we settled in for a good night's sleep.

Saturday morning, the sun is shining, it's a new day! Caden's being cuter than ever in our bed, seemed slightly confused as to why the ceiling was so close to him, he liked the tent though, crawling around in it. Feeling kinda dirty from the night before, we hit the showers. Bought some firewood and made breakfast. The site was slightly dryer than the night before, still pretty squishy, but we were used to it at that point. We had our jogging stroller which performed superbly in those conditions. Caden stayed clean. We had a dryer spot where our picnic table was, which was so nice. Quinn's parents came around noon to hang out. We checked out the beach, water still a few degrees too cold. Played at the park (saw some Dads there having a beer while their kids played, hopefully they didn't get caught ;)....SEE, it's so innocent!
Played Canasta with Quinn's parents while Caden had a nap. Sat in the sun. Made supper, ate supper. Around this time was when Quinn proposed we go home that night (brilliant)! We would have lots of laundry to do, I knew the house needed to be vacuumed, bathroom cleaned, ironing done. To be better prepared for Monday and my babysitting duties, would be very wise. Also considering we have to pack this Friday evening for our trip to Toronto. And we have 2 evening dates with friends this week and we need to do some shopping in the evenings too. It was a very wise decision and Quinn's parents were there to watch Caden and help us pack up. If it weren't for all the events of this coming week, we definitely could have handled another night.

This was definitely an experiment to see how camping would go with Caden, he loves being outside, watching birds, squirrels, anything really, its a lot to take in. Imagine how much fun he'll have being able to crawl around out there.

So while we caught up on some rest last night, we'll enjoy Father's Day and get a few things done :)