Camping Trip 2009

Ryan is looking at an inch worm that we found:


The cute little place we stayed at when Aunt Lou was ill.

Ryan driving cars up Grand Dan's legs, because Ryan seems to think legs make good car ramps.
Aunt Lou giving Ryan his new cars.

Lacey like licking the grate that we had cooked chicken on the night before and got beautiful black marks along both sides of her nose. It was a good laugh :)


On the drive up! Ryan seemed to think it was funny that Lacey would lay up against his carseat.


We just got back from our camping trip. I was really nervous about how well Ryan would do, especially with tent sleeping, but overall, I think he did pretty well.

The first night in the tent Ryan didn't sleep well at all. Poor Aunt Lou was in our tent too, and I think we all got about maybe 4 hours of sleep that first night. He slept MUCH better the rest of the nights.

Naps on the other hand, where more difficult. Aunt Lou took him for walks in his stroller several days until he passed out, and then we would try to lay him down for a nap. Sometimes he would stay asleep, other times not. The thing that really stunk was that because he was outside and running around so much, he really needed the naps. When he didn't get them, he was a major crab.

Ryan thought it was fun to chase Guinness relentlessly, and the poor dog really did not want to be chased. We would all tell him to stop, and put him in time outs, but he would keep doing it. That was the hardest part of the trip I would say. He would not leave the poor dog alone, and we were afraid Guinness might nip at him to get him to stop. Oy! It was tiring to say the least. By the time we were packing up to leave for home, Ryan was ready. He was exhausted and he ended up taking 2 naps in the car on the way home, and he still went to bed at a normal hour.

It was rained one whole day while we were there, so Sean, Ryan and Aunt Lou went to Berlin to poke around at the Wal-Mart there just so Ryan could run around and get out some energy. We stopped at one of our favorite stores, Middle Earth, but we think the economy must have really affected them because they really didn't have too much. On our way back from camp, Aunt Lou bought us all a fresh raspberry pie, that was expensive as all hell. In the end, it was delicious, but we think she definately got ripped off, which was not cool at all.

Unfortunately, Aunt Lou ended up getting very sick when we got back to camp. She decided she didn't want to sleep in a wet tent, so we went and got a room in Errol at a really cute little lodge. Ryan and I slept together in a twin bed against a wall, and he did really well that night. I thought I would have had more trouble with him getting to sleep, but he fell asleep about 10 minutes after the lights went out. Thankfully, Aunt Lou felt so much better the next morning.

None of the days got very warm, except for the Saturday before we left. Most days were overcast and cool, and it seemed like everyone was ok to just hang around camp. Everyone seemed to have a day where they didn't feel well so most of the vacation was spent relaxing, telling Ryan to leave Guinness alone, and the guys playing their new Ukelele's.

Ryan and I went blueberry picking over the covered bridge, and I was amazed at how well Ryan did. Once he realized what they were, I really didn't end up bringing many back because he ate most of them. He did try to pick a green one and eat it, and found out pretty fast that they tasted terrible in their green form. So I took a blue one, and a green one and put it in my hand and explained that we eat the blue ones, they are yummy. The green ones aren't that good, and we should leave them there so they can turn blue. He never tried to pick a green one again, and was very careful to ONLY get the blue ones. I wish I had brought my camera, but it was a very buggy day and we didn't stay long.

On Saturday, we went white water tubing down the Androscoggin. It was finally a beautiful day, and the water was pretty warm. It was great fun. Ryan didn't want to go in the water, but I think it was because it was so loud. Nana brought him to the Errol elementary playground while I went with the guys down the river, and Aunt Lou watched the dogs.

Sean and I didn't see any moose this trip, but everyone else saw one when they had to run back to camp to get something. Oh well, I was kind of bummed, but maybe we will see one next time!