So this year was emotional.
Less than 2 weeks before my Camp Mate and good friend from last year unexpectedly passed away. Left me trying to process her passing and unfortunately due to the timing dealing with the anniversary of others who had passed on top of it.
Work got crazy leaving me drained and in need of a long vacation someplace with drinks sand and palm trees.
Oh and I still had to pack, and try and keep the anxiety of taking my child and husband camping for the first time in check. More so after we got the notice that the creek was running high and children and adults were to stay away from it.
Yeah.
Emotional was a thing.
Lucky I had taken Monday off to get things packed.
The plan was I was headed down Tuesday with plans to be onsite at gate open. Husband and Kid to join on Friday.
I made the traditional stop at the City Market to sock up and get ice before heading on to the site.
The head of our camp had been there since Saturday so I arrived to only needing to set up my tent and shade fly. Lucky another campmate was about and he helped me get that accomplished and in return, I helped him get his tent set better.
As far as setting up my tent I really want to say it is simple but I am fussy. The long grass was also an issue, I do not like things brushing me so I dove right for my rain boots to keep my sanity.
From there I lounged about camp getting my tent set and just enjoying relaxing. And finally, after it cooled off a bit took the long adventure to the parking. And then wandered back to camp in time for dinner.
Wed
The rest of our camp was scheduled to come in and I spent time hanging around camp. In part because my allergies had flared up in part to make sure someone was in camp when people arrived.
I hate to say but my carefully planned Onigiri was a flop. 1 Rice doesn’t reheat well and Two they were a little fishy. So I crossed them off ever making ahead again vowing just to make rice there.
My sister talked me into taking her car in to replace a tire as she had developed a slow leak due to sidewall damage on Tuesday. I used the opportunity to also make a stop at the bank and change big bills for small and then to stop and get a better lunch at the City Market.
By then I was needing to make dinner and I will say….I managed to mess it up. I normally am ok but I haven’t been cooking as of late. So the things I used to be able to do off the cuff have become a huge struggle.
In the end, it was cheese with some noodles, pesto, bacon and then the salami and more cheese. No one was done in, but I can honestly say I probably got a black checkmark next to ever being asked to cook again. (Too bad I had now 2 more meals….we found on Monday we had missed a breakfast shift)
I also found out that I wasn’t cooking for 11…more like 5. And that is a HUGE difference. I probably could have done a whole different meal with less frozen and more from scratch.
At that point, we ended up going to the hot springs. A huge moral boost, because let’s face it a shower after two days of heat dust and cotton was needed.
I really want to go back and just spend time there as the hour we got was relaxing and needed I can only imagine a whole day would do for me.
Thursday
By thing point, my allergies set out to try an do me in. I had got up, got ready headed down to the coffee grotto and then proceeded to become a mess. I did get nice ice Chai but after realizing hey you can’t breathe I packed up and headed back to camp.
I doubled up on the allergy medication and FINALLY found a use for the madder dyed silk I had been holding on to. A facemask later and I was feeling ok. I mean when you have as much allergy medication as I did it was all ok….
I did end up going back up to the town center to bring bug spray to our camp made who was MOL for that night’s torchlight tourny. And got some good shots with the night mode on my camera. After that wrapped up we came back to camp decided we needed to raid what was supposed to be our neighbors who got moved to the far end of the site for birthday cake.
Friday
For my third meal, I planned polenta and berries. Of all the meals this was the only one I like. Polenta is good, berries yummy and then I made up some eggs and we had coffee.
I had planned to be at the scribes work time and heavy drugs and my face mask later I made it.
I had a nice time working on a new scroll blank, and I met new folks and generally had a good time. By then my husband called and said they had arrived so I had to cut my time short and run to meet them.
Kiddo was super excited and my husband was focused on getting to archery.
So we parted ways after I got them dressed and let mom take a short break before heading back home.
Kiddo and I ended up walking back to Archery to bring my Husband water after my mother left and we sat for a bit before walking back by merchants row. I did some quick looking as Kiddo wasn’t keen on shopping before making it back to camp.
Needless to say, he didn’t nap at all. And that made me a little grumpy….We had issues too with when exactly do you eat dinner? added in so I took the kid on a walk vented to the neighbors.
We ended up coming back for a late dinner, and I once again had issues with rice. It turned out ok and we fed some folks who had been struggling with gluten-free. By then the rest of the camp had shown up and we decided to head out for Midnight Madness.
A slightly more sober and restrained shopping adventure, but still found the things I wanted. Kiddo was excited because I let him buy a few small things. However, remember that lack of nap? It came back to bite us and daddy being done in by the day said he would stay with kiddo. I took the chance to pour another drink and go back up to the Hafala. I had a good time dancing and chatting with people but with my dinner dishes back in camp I gave in to their calling.
We ended up with a few people in our camp chatting as we washed up and when they finally dispersed I called it a night.
Unfortunately, a 3 am poopy diaper paired with being confused and in the dark woke kiddo up and after getting him changed. Realizing that he feet were freezing and trying to calm him down we ended up just tossing him in with us.
For the record. a 2-year-old, a barbarian and the mommy are VERY cozy on the queen airbed cot.
Saturday
The Husband was off to get authorized as an Archery marshall so once he packed out. We hung around camp until I decided we should go check things out.
We started by getting kiddo dressed, a task as he as VERY happy to sit in the dirt and play with his trucks. But once that happened we headed to see if our friends were there and ended up meeting some more children. After that we made a stop at the Coffee Grotto to watch fighters before, heading on to Reble Racoon. We took a good break there and kiddo discovered the Rice Crispy treats so we ate them and watched Morgan teach a young man how to make a rattan sword.
After that, we took the long way to the Archery range stopping to give apologies to a friend as I hadn’t made it out of my camp much thanks to allergies.
We then walked up the road and saw Daddy at archery. At that point I realized we needed lunch he was cranky I was cranky and we ha better fix that.
Heading back to camp we ate and I tried to get him to nap but we chose that moment to decided that hey I can climb out of the pack and play so screw napping!
At that point I just gave up and we walked down to the lake again and called it an afternoon.
Grand court was that night and we did end up going after rounding everyone up. Kiddo made it most of the way thanks to snacks but after he got too squirrely daddy took him back.
Sunday
Pack out day… I was and wasn’t ready for it. Daddy took our sunshade down way to early and I forgot to apply sunscreen. Yes, I made lobsters look pale after that.
What had taken me an hour at home to do suddenly took almost half the day. Followed by pulling the big tent and racing the afternoon showers to get it packed. It didn’t happen so we let it dry and vowed to air it out when we got home.
At this point, kiddo managed to trip over a stake and got a nice bruise, so we hiked over to Aunties camp as I knew she had an Ice Pack (I probably did too but at the point, there was no unpacking the car to check) and shortly after that had to head out as we had all just reached done.
We made it home one fast food stop and some traffic later. I was VERY happy to toss the kid in the bath. (Let us just say the bathwater was dirt black.) Before getting my own shower.
Overall it was an ok week. I finished this post well after the fact so once again I probably forgot some things and got things out of order.
But I will say camping with kiddo and husband put a whole twist on the weekend, it was less a vacation and more being the mommy. I don’t mind it but as I said I really could have used a vacation.
So stay tuned I have some projects for next year and some improvements I would like to make. But for now, the 2019 Battlemoor is in the books.
