Say What?

I have been very busy the past few weeks so haven't gotten around to posting about our vacation. I will begin installments with a short list of humorous things I overheard while camping. If I forgot anything, please feel free to add them on in the comments section and I will edit them in over the next few days.

Before I start, I just wanted to say that I love our new doctor's office. After spending 6 years in the military health care system (a sneak peek at the future of socialized health care in this country, I am afraid), it was wonderful to return to the private sector. A real office, with available appointments at my convenience, clean floors and walls, no wait, separate waiting rooms for healthy and sick kids, friendly office staff who don't ask for your rank before helping you- it was totally worth the $20 co-pay to get Rebecca's ears cleaned and checked and medicated. And a thanks to R for recommending it.

Now, back to the business at hand. People say funny things when they think no one is listening, especially when they are mostly under the age of 8!

The second night we were there, Sandra locked her keys in the car. an 8 hr drive from her husband and the spare set. I was about to call my ins company to call in the road side assistance when Cody walked over and broke in. Overheard: "Should we be concerned that our little brother can Grand Theft Auto into a real car that fast?" "Only if he takes up stealing minivans."


We arrived late in the evening to our campsite. After investing about an hour into setting up camp, Lenna was tired of waiting around for her dinner. After I ran through the list of things that needed to be done before dark and before we left for the restaurant she flopped down on her sleeping bag and declared "Camping is SO hard!" Yes, yes it is.



Krysta, while driving through Jedidiah Smith State park, where they filmed Star Wars, "I think I saw an Ewok!!"

Making s'mores the first night, Daniel was quite taken with the campfire. He kept holding his stick a little too close to the fire, ending up with a burned marshmallow. After he threw yet another charred one into the fire, Brad offered to help him roast one so it wouldn't burn and he could have his dessert. He said "I don't want to eat it! I just want to roast it!" Brad replied, "Ok then, burn the heck out if it, dude!" He did, several times.

Our first morning at camp we took the kids exploring around the grounds, besides huge tree stumps and giant ferns, there was an abundance of 4-5 inch fat yellow banana slugs. Emma was called away from observing one and protested, saying "Can I just stay here and pet it for a while?" The next one we found was Nate's favorite. After watching it slide along for a while he said wistfully, "I wish I could have one for a pet."

On our first trip to the beach, Lenna splashed right in. After emerging covered in sand with a soggy sweatshirt and wet hands, she reached up to wipe her face and tasted the water on her fingers. She looked a little concerned and asked Grandma, "Why did they salt it?"

Andrew fell in a few minutes later, scraping the bottom of his foot on a barnacle-covered rock. He started yelling, "A crab got me! A crab got me!" and later asked "Mom, could we go to a beach that doesn't have any water in it? I just want to build a castle." Uh, yeah, it's called your sandbox.

One afternoon Emma came back from a grounds exploration with sticky fingers. She had picked up a coveted slug/pet and loved it to death. Hands were covered in sticky slug slime. She said, "I think I squeezed its eyes out." FYI: alcohol-based hand sanitizer removes slug slime where soap and water don't.

Emily, after a particularly long day of shell gathering, "Wow, I small bad. I think I will go take a shower." I am sure your tent-buddies appreciate that!

"You are cooking Puddles! Do we have to eat her? I am not eating the suckers!" Puddles was the name given to the starfish Sandra picked up off the beach. It was already dead and starting to stink, so we dried it on the fire grill. Emma was a little concerned about dinner that night.

"Yumm! You are right mom, everything does taste better when it is cooked on a campfire!" Lenna ate two burgers for dinner. She usually doesn't eat ground beef. When you spend the day running around the sand and don't have snacks or cereal to fall back on, food does become more appealing!

Daniel made a habit of sitting as close to the fire as he could each morning to warm up is cold feet. One morning I told him to scoot back so he didn't catch his pjs on fire. He told me, "It's ok, I know how to stop, drop, and roll. And you can just pour some water on me." I watched him a lot closer after that.

Andrew, after yet another day of relative introductions, "Wow. There sure are a lot of grandma's in this house!" two greats, one regular, two great aunts who also take the name of grandma, two more on the other side of the country earlier in the week- yep, lots of grandmas.

We celebrated 8 birthdays over the three weeks we were gone. That is a lot of cake! Lenna said, "Is it always somebody's birthday here? We should call this a cake vacation, all we ever eat is cake!"

What did you "overhear?" I wonder how long we can make this list......