Mason's First (Day) Camping Trip

I'm not sure if I mentioned this last week, but we went up to the family campground last Sunday (Memorial Day weekend).

First, let me start by saying that I do not like to be outdoors...I'm not an outdoorsy girl. I have horrible allergies and do not like bugs or the heat. I can't stand sitting around sweating, which means I certainly would not want to be sitting around a camp fire on a very hot summer day. Not to mention, that there is not a day that I don't take a shower; and taking a shower in a public shower is not my idea of clean.

Anyhow, David's dad has a camper up at Camp DiClair on Nettles Lake in Pioneer, Ohio. Along with his dad, he has a sister and two brothers that also have campers on the lake. There are also a couple of cousins, and many family friends. David's mom and dad camped at this particular campground for years until his mom passed away 12 years ago. His dad has continued to camp along with some of his siblings (there are 9 kids all together; don't know if I've ever mentioned that).

Well, David is an outdoorsy man. He loves to fish, golf, and just be outside in general. So, naturally, he likes to camp. We've gone up to the campgrounds at least once or twice every summer for the past 10 years. Last year, over Labor Day weekend, I gave in and offered to stay the night, for one night, at the campgrounds. It was the first time we ever stayed overnight with the kids. My kids absolutely love being at the campground. They love to be outside and love to play in the water, and for some reason, the huge dirt pile by the water (gross!).

Last weekend I knew everyone would be camping so I wanted to take the kids up there, for the day this time. So we went on Sunday; it's about an hour drive.

All of the kids loved it; even Mason, as long as I was holding him. It took awhile, but eventually, I was able to hand him off to some of his aunts and at least sit and eat my chicken. One thing the Merritt's know how to do is eat; so I love being around the family...we're always eating. Ha!

Mason and Papa M (right before Mason started crying). Mason is biological grandchild #20 for Papa M (#21 due to be born this week)!


Allison and Preston playing on the dock...I said they loved the water, didn't I?

That other little boy is my kids' 3rd cousin, Mason. So, it was funny to watch Allison, Preston and "Mason" playing! haha
I wish you could have seen their socks when they took them off; and the 2 pounds of sand that came out of them, yuck!

David and Mason in Aunt Judy's camper (David was watching the hockey game - Wings are in the finals, like he'd miss a game, even when camping!

Mason liked being in the air-conditioning...did I mention that he doesn't like to be hot, at all?

He so wanted to be in the water.

In the dirt pile, which, if you knew Allison, is totally the opposite of the "princess" persona she gives off. You'll notice, she already changed her 1st shirt because it was too dirty.

Oh, he loves the dirt, too!

"What? I'm not doing anything wrong"

With sticks, in the dirt

Uncle Jay & Aunt Kay's camper...where most everyone congregates, since they are right on the lake (lake to the immediate left of the camper).

Aunt Kay, aka the baby hog, with Mason! haha

Uncle Greg and Mason

David, taking Mason for a walk

David, showing Mason the water..it's only a matter of time until he also wants to be in the water, too.

I wish I knew was David was saying to them.

Aunt Judy and Mason.

I'm sure Mason will love camping like the rest of the family soon enough. I'm even thinking of giving in and maybe buying a camper, too. After all, we can get satellite t.v. up there..someday I'm sure it will be wired for Internet; no one said I have to spend all weekend outside, as long as I'm camping, right?

Mommy Confessions: I'm obsessed with baby stuff!

So, I stumbled across a new blog (thanks to Alicia) in which Victoria over at Life Starring Ellie and Eve is starting a new series called The Mommy Confessions. As moms many of us have things that we would like to get off our chests or that we would just like to confession. So here is the place to do it!

Head over to her blog and link your weekly confession and see what other mothers are confessing.

So, my mommy confession for this week? I'm obsessed with buying stuff for baby Mason. I shop online and bid on things for him on Ebay. Currently, I'm bidding on 5 pairs of Trumpette socks. 4 days ago, I bid and won 5 summer rompers and two pairs of shorts for him. Of course, I only spent like $5, $9 with shipping, and they were like brand new, but Mason has more summer clothes than anyone else in the house (thanks to many outfits I had saved from Preston). Two days ago, I bid and won a Bumbo seat with tray for Mason..I cannot wait for it to arrive; the auction said it was rarely used. Like this child needs anything else to sit in, but I had to have one since everyone else raves about them. Oh, and remember last week, I bought that fabulous brand new, super over-stimulating exersaucer from Craigslist for 1/4 of the original price. What was my last post about? I save too many things, and my house is jam-packed with stuff? Yet, I find it necessary to buy more. Poor Allison and Preston hardly have any summer clothes; Preston is mostly wearing all his stuff from last summer (thank goodness he insisted on me buying him tons of elastic waist basketball shorts). HOWEVER, I will be going to get the older kids a couple of new items this weekend, now that I received my rebate from Lowe's and I sold a kids playhouse that we had in the basement. But, I cannot promise I won't stop and at least look, and maybe buy, something more for Mason. I don't remember boys clothes being so cute when Preston was little.

Anyhow, now that I got that off my chest; I'm going back to Ebay to check out the status of my new/used Bumbo seat!

What do you have to confess this week?

New Year's Resolution

Yes, I said New Year's Resolution. I don't make New Year's Resolutions. That would just be setting myself up for failure, so, I'm going to call this my mid-year resolution....I can't take it anymore. My house is so disorganized and packed with crap. I just don't know where to start.

So, I'm going to give myself till the end of June to clean out our entry closet and organize the basement, again. I think if I pick two projects and give myself a month to do them, it will help me not get so overwhelmed and maybe, just maybe, I'll actually do them and get them done.

Who lives like this?

I don't think half of these shoes even fit anyone in our house anymore.

And obviously, we stuff everything on the shelves.

In January, I bought this neat little shelving system (Closetmaid Cubicle), with different colored fabric baskets for each type of toy. Unfortunately, the shelf was ruined in the flood in March. Lucky for me, I bought a new shelf 2 weeks later...it's still in the box, unassembled.

We also bought a new black t.v. stand (to the left), which has more shelves than the old one and two drawers...unfortunately, the kids have just shoved stuff on the shelves.

Also, we bought a black book case to match the t.v. stand, for the stereo, some books and maybe more organizing baskets, it also has two drawers for storage...and yet, it also still sits in the box, unassembled.

I am having an itch to make our house look and feel more homey, for instance, our family room still does not have curtains, nor does our dining room (don't worry, there are blinds up, so the neighbors are not getting any free shows). I have yet to hang anything on the walls of the dining room or either bathroom. Since money is tight these days, I figure if I can clean out some areas (see above pictures) and organize them...maybe I'll find some things to sell and make some money to help me finish our home.

I'm also a pack-rat. I don't smoke, I rarely drink, I don't gamble...my bad habit? Saving EVERYTHING. I don't know why I do this. I always think "Maybe someday I'll need this" or "Someday, I'll have somewhere to put this". Luckily, I saved a lot of baby clothes; Mason is getting the benefit of this. But, do I really need to save every toy? Or save every piece of artwork from the kids? Or, save every pair of old shoes? No...and since I'm running out of room to "save" things, I need to start eliminating some of the clutter. Anyone have any tips on how to do this?

I will post pictures of these two spaces when I'm done...and hopefully have two new spaces picked out by then.

For now, I'm going to bed; instead of blogging or blog-stalking, I should have been working on the closet!

Until next time...

Wordless Wednesday

Unnerved

I'm having a hard time today because today is day one for Mason to be at the new baby sitter's house.

Yes, she was supposed to start last week, but daughter #2 got sick and ended up getting daughter #1 sick as well. Turns out, they both had strep throat. Boy, we sure dodged that bullet...thank goodness I followed my mommy instincts and didn't send them at all last week.

Last Sunday when I stopped over at Amie's house to drop off diapers, wipes, extra clothes, etc., I was able to sit and talk to Amie for about 15-20 minutes more and it reassured me that Mason was going to be ok. Not that I don't trust her at all or have a bad feeling, I just want to get to know her as much as possible, because, let's face it, she's going to be "raising" my baby during the week....I know Preston will be fine...and Allison, too, once she's out of school. I am just not liking the idea of leaving my baby with anyone but family yet; even though both Allison and Preston were at sitters at 8 weeks on.

This time is harder. I'm older, I'm wiser and I'm well aware of how fast kids grow up. I just want my kids to be safe and healthy and happy. I know they will be, I just don't want to be a working mom anymore. Darn it.

Also, Mason is going through something right now where he's not too happy when anyone other than David or I are holding him. Anyone, even my niece who's watched him since he was 8 weeks old. I thought it was too early for this, but read in his 13 week update that this is the time they start acting like that and may cry when mom leaves the room. I never went through this with Allison or Preston, again, since they were at a sitters since 8 weeks. I just can't fathom the idea of him sitting at Amie's, crying all day because he doesn't know her and I'm not there.

So, back to my reason for my post...I miss my kids today, badly. I guess spending 3 days in a row with them just felt natural and normal. We had a great weekend; went to the campground on Sunday (that's another post, with pictures) and just spend Monday, Memorial Day, doing absolutely nothing important. But, Allison and Preston played beautifully together all weekend, no fighting...just playing, outside...it was so nice. And, I got to cuddle with Mason an extra full day.

It's 12:15 and I've already checked in with the sitter once today...Preston was playing and Mason was sleeping; taking his long morning nap. So, I'm not missing much, but just being around in case they need me...that's what I need today.

There are so many women out there who are stay at home moms and they have sick children, or have recently lost a child or baby...and here I am, having three beautiful, healthy, living children and I'm working all day, not being with them. I guess this just means that the time I do spend with them needs to be more fulfilling and more important.

Anyhow, everyone is well and obviously happy...I am just having a hard time sitting at this desk today, working...and not being with my kids.

I know Mason will be fine at the baby sitter's house..I just hope she loves him as much as I do. But, I hope not too much, because after all, I am his mommy...and I love this job.

Thanks for letting me get this off my chest.

Kalahari Trip

OMG...it's been a month and a half since we went to Kalahari and I haven't posted the pics yet..I was scrolling through my posts and found this one was still a draft! Seems it was waiting for the rest of the pictures. Sorry...hopefully no one was holding their breath, waiting for that post. But, here it is!

So, Kalahari was a great time. We arrived Tuesday afternoon about 2pm and waited about 20 minutes for them to find us a room. Technically check-in time is noon for the water park, but you can't get into your room until 4pm. But, I told them I needed a place to nurse, and they got us a room quickly. Of course, that may not have been the greatest idea; our room was second to the last farthest room from everything....like a mile away from the lobby, water park and all the fun stuff. Needless to say, we did a lot of walking!

The weather was crappy; cold and rainy when we got there. It was a perfect time to stay at an indoor water park.

Once we got our stuff in our room and ate lunch, we went to the water park. It was the perfect time as most people must have been eating dinner; it wasn't too packed. Once we talked the kids into trying the kid-sized water slides, we couldn't keep them off of them; they loved them!

We played there for quite awhile. Here is Allison getting dumped on by the huge water bucket.

Mason liked the water on his feet, but that was it; it was kind of cold.

After all the initial excitement; he fell asleep and slept through a lot of it; which was a blessing for the rest of us.

We ordered pizza in our room for dinner..it was the largest pizza ever; 20 inches! And, it was good!

That evening, after dinner, we enjoyed playing in the arcade, where you earn tickets from playing the games, and can then turn in the tickets for prizes. (Similar to Chuck E. Cheese's). We got 100 credits with our room package for the arcade. This was a great time-filler and a nice way to wind down the evening.

The next morning, we got up early, had breakfast at the buffet (which was awesome!) then Allison, Preston and I went and painted pottery. We received $40 towards pottery with our room package. It was so fun and relaxing and I let the kids do whatever they wanted with their pieces. Of course, I touched them up a bit when the kids were done painting. This was probably the most fun for me; something that I would like to do.

We went back to the water park after painting. Had another fun time, but it was in the middle of the day, so it was pretty busy in the park. Mason got overstimulated I think...so, we cut that trip short, went and got lunch and went back to our room to eat. I nursed Mason and took a nap with him while everyone just chilled out and watched some t.v. for some down time. When the kids were ready to get up and go; David took them to the putt-putt course, which had only 9 holes. I stayed back and fed Mason again and then headed out to meet the family. By the time I got there, the kids were done golfing...so there aren't any pictures of that, but they both shot the same number of holes, so no winner and no loser, which equals no fighting.

By this time, it was closer to dinner time for everyone else (but we had a late lunch, so we were ready to play), so the water park wasn't so packed. We had a more enjoyable time this time. The kids loved the lazy river. David and I took turns going with the kids, but they also went through it by themselves several times.

And, again, Mason slept through most of it...

I even talked the kids to going on a big water slide with me; it was in a big raft...unfortunately, David is even worse with the camera than I am, so these are the pictures of that...but I'm not too worried about it since I was in a bathing suit, on film. HA!

After going on the big water-slide with mom, the kids were brave enough to go on the big slides by themselves; they graduated from the kiddie area...

The kids' favorite part of the whole trip was the "Wave Pool". They loved it, and every time they went in, they got deeper and deeper. There were a few times that we told them it was time to get out and they told us no and went closer to the wall...obviously, we eventually fished them out.

We ended up leaving the resort for dinner...wanted to get out and maybe not spend $60 on dinner. It was about 8:45 and apparently, the city of Sandusky shuts down at 9:00 pm in the off-season. So, all the local restaurants were closing when we were looking to eat...we ended up at Wendy's, but at least it didn't cost us a fortune!

After dinner, we stopped and got some candy from the Sweets area; can't remember the name of the shop. Then we headed back to our room to wind down. The kids watched t.v. in the living room and David and Mason hung out in the bedroom while I took a bath in the whirlpool tub...I cannot remember the last time I took a bath instead of a shower, but it was so relaxing. I even dropped in a few drops of the lavender body wash they supplied in the room. Needless to say I was totally relaxed and ready for bed. The kids slept great and Mason was so easy going for being an 8 week old on vacation. It was so nice.

Thursday morning we packed everything up, loaded the car, went back to the buffet breakfast and then picked up our finished pottery. We let the kids finish off the last of the credits for the arcade and pick out prizes (junk) with their winning tickets.

We then headed home...and the weather was beautiful, which was great since we were headed home and would be spending the rest of the week outside.

So, there you have it...our Kalahari trip from spring break over a month ago! If you want to see ALL of the pictures (as if I didn't post enough), you can see them here. These include the pictures of the room, our view from our room and everything else. Hope this post was worth the wait, if not, at least I got this page on my "scrapbook" done!

Until next time.