We are the Griswolds~~Only We Could End Up in a Police Chase

We just returned from a 6 day camping trip at a great hot spot in our state. Central WA, here. I'll write about what I learned, what we enjoyed, and our Griswold moments.

What I learned on a 6 day camping trip:
1. I must buy an iPod before our next road trip.
2. Local hot spots are way too crowded on a holiday weekend, and/or any approximation.
3. A child who is autistic needs more social protection than we realized (ie..accepts treats from strangers, ends up getting pushed off 2-story play equipment, rides bicycle into a BMW, etc.).
4. Bring minimal treats for the kids.
5. Bring more treats for mom. And alcohol.
6. Bring more cash, because you never know when you may find great local fruit stands. And ice cream stands.
7. Even though there are limits on campsites, we may still end up next to a commune of 7 families on 2 campsites.
8. We are getting old. We do not enjoy teenagers screaming and blaring their music at 2am.
9. A campsite ranger will kick out teenagers the next day who do the above, even at the opposition, whining, and arguing of said teenagers parents.
10. Mood medication kicks in after a few days for a bipolar child.

What I enjoyed on our 6 day camping trip:
1. The mood medication kicking in for our 13yr old son who is ADHD & bipolar. I now have an appt with the doctor for Friday for our youngest son to partake as well. This will hopefully help his bipolar moods, and anxiety/depression with Aspergers.
2. Loved the water slides. We went sliding for two days.
3. Sunshine every day.
4. Campfires every night.
5. A nearly pain-free experience with my back/hip on this trip.
6. Catching up on Oprah magazines.
7. A lot of laughs
8. The park ranger kicking out the obnoxious teenagers.
9. Knowing this is our last camping trip where I have to wear contacts.
10. The lovely man at the Circle K who told us exactly how to find Costco. Best directions we ever had.

We are the Griswold's. Remember family man Clark Griswold? Well, seems like we end up with "Vacation" moments too:
1. Passing thru the same town three times looking for Costco.
2. Trying so hard to have a wonderful family vacation, yet mishap after mishap happen (ie..went to water park. went down a water slide with hubby. I flew off the double inner tube, and DH hit the wall. He took out a chunk of the back of his head, leaving an open bleeding wound. It's now a pussy open wound.).
3. Kids complaining incessantly that I didn't do anything for this trip, then they ruined the one treat I brought for myself for the weekend. So, what did I do in said situation? I thru out all their treats. Told them they are welcome to get them out of the dumpster. Surprisingly, I did not have any takers on this.
4. Went to a local park to play tennis & golf. I warned the family ahead of time that we need to kennel the dog at the campsite. Oh no, they wouldn't listen to me, and they brought the dog. So we arrive at the park, pay for parking, get on a tennis court, and then park ranger comes over to inform us no dogs beyond the park entrance. That's right. We couldn't even have the dog on a leash. I've never heard of a park not allowing dogs, but whatever. First though, park ranger had to yell at me about parking without paying (guess he was blind & couldn't see my tag on our window). Then he proceeded to lay into me about the dog. I said we'd leave. He continued to bark at me about the dog. I said "WE'RE LEAVING". He continued to bitch about the dog. I said "TAKE IT UP WITH MY HUSBAND. HE'S THE BIG GUY OVER THERE PLAYING TENNIS." The @sshole ran and hid behind the men's room (how appropriate). After we packed up the whole family, I walked over to tell the guy that we were packed up & outta here. He was squatting, literally hiding behind the mens room. Pathetic.
5. Probably the coup de graw~~We were leaving the water park one evening, driving down the highway. We notice an oncoming police car with flashing lights. He does a u-turn, and drives off in front of us. We thought that odd, but maybe dispatch changed their orders. Then even more odd, a Winnebago from about 1970 pulls up right on our ass. I noticed this in the rear view. Less than a car distance between us. The driver looked scarier than the Unibomber. He was screaming, kids were running around, then he made some phone calls.....yelling profanities into his phone. He was that close, I could make out his swear words. I kept voicing all this to my hubby, and we noticed right away the similarities to this & the buttholes in "Christmas Vacation", riding Clark's butt on the highway, as they are off to get a tree. Remember how Clark's wife says "Clark, I don't want to spend the holidays DEAD!".....as he's dealing with the truck driver. We felt just like that! This went on for miles. There was no where to turn off, until we'd gone about five miles. We of course turned off. I turned to watch the guy pass us, to notice immediately that he was being chased by the police. No wonder he was riding our ass! Apparently the first cop we saw, who turned in front of us, was out to head him off at the pass. Geez. Only we would end up in the middle of a police chase.
6. The only thing we missed on this trip was having cousin Eddie along (for you Vacation lovers out there).
7. Two of our boys got braces last week. One of them broke a bracket on his mouth. So we went home early, hoping to get him into the orthodontist before school. Got home, called the orthodontist. He's on vacation all week. How poetic.

What I Learned This Weekend

What I learned this weekend:

1. Sending a child to summer camp leaves them beyond sleep deprived.

2. Doing a makeover on the master bedroom/bath is exhausting. Especially if you paint your bathroom a color called Orchid, and looks dark orchid. You will have to paint your bathroom three times.

2a. Need to remove painting tape immediately after painting a room.

3. I will never paint behind and/or around a toilet in a small space, ever again.

4. Do not leave a sick puppy home alone with children. Sick puppies require adult supervision.

5. Going to Costco without my husband leaves him barking "how on earth did you spend $400+ on groceries?"

6. Going to Costco with my husband leaves us with a $500+ bill at checkout.

7. Looking for free blog templates was harder than it used to be. Many of those sites are no longer functioning and/or are their HTML codes.

8. Upon asking the trusty husband & oldest son what I should name the knitting blog, DH said it should be named "Let me sit down". Oldest son said it should be named "The worst blog ever."

9. After reworking a section of a knitted scarf three times and one is beyond tired, better to put the project away for another day when one can keep their eyes open.

10. Discovered my DH knows all the lines to the movie "Karate Kid 2." Have no clue why.

11. When you cook stew in the crockpot with cut up steak, brown the beef first. Unless you want to cook the stew all day in the crockpot, then take out all meat & brown it at that point.Probably easier to brown it before using the crockpot.

I think I learned enough this weekend.

My knitting blog is over at http://www.noviceknitwit.blogspot.com/. Nothing is there yet, but it's a start.

Puppy

Here is the puppy sleeping under her favorite tree, in her favorite bushes.


I promise this will not turn into a blog about the dog. But, I just had to share a couple pictures. I bought a baby gate so I can baricade her out of the den & master bedroom when I feel like it. Here's what she has to say about that:

The baby gates will be returned today to Target. I even put Vaseline on the top. She still jumps them.

I've gotten over my son not wanting to go on the USA road trip. My husband and I discussed it last night. Hubby is now coming on the whole road trip, which means all three boys will too (he he he he). A few of our stops will be shortened or canceled, but we will still see most of what I originally planned.