4th of July camp: getting settled and ready!

Update:  I have changed my wording about my part in "everything", I didn't do everything.  I did have a lot of help from my in-laws, and I didn't mean to take all the credit.  I was just meaning in general I had to do a lot more than usual, and when we got home I did have to do all the physical work to un-hook the trailer with my Hubby's direction.


We I survived another camping trip!  I have to admit coming home from this camping trip I was ready to sell the trailer and give up camping completely.  Our 4th of July camping trip was very stressful for me, the Momma.  I think everyone else had a good time, and now that I'm home and more relaxed I think there were definitely some fun moments.  I'm not going to sell the trailer quite yet, but the kids were sure crazy this trip, and we had a few mishaps.  I got a good dose of doing everything when we packed up to go home because Hubby's back got thrown out so he couldn't hardly bend over.  Thankfully I had help from my in-laws, but taking care of everything (kids and helping to hook up the trailer) for the last day and night was a bit stressful for me.    Oh, and don't even get me started on how bad the mosquitoes were!  On the last day I counted 22 visible bumps on Aric's face. 

Anyway, on to the fun stuff!  This year we camped at Fort Stevens state park campground.  There's some cool places to go and things to do around there, so  I am going to break up our 4th of July into a series of posts because I have a lot to share.  We arrived Tuesday night pretty late, so we did a lot of the settling on the 4th which included a lot of decorating!  


I had April make us a little sign while she listened to her Harry Potter tapes. 



Our decorated tree.


A picture of our site, and the truck and trailer.  Yes, we took a canoe and a kayak.  More on that later.

I put up all our red, white, and blue decorations around the awning.  It made me happy to see the lights up because I don't often get anything up because it's rainy or we run out of time.

Bicycle decorating

This has become a fun tradition since our trip a few years back to South beach.  They didn't have a bike parade at Fort Stevens like they had there, we just made our own :-) 

April's "horse tail" for her bike.

Trying to decide what to do

Loved the little blue sparkly wire.

Decorating a bike takes absolute concentration!

April and her bike, and look it even has a mane.

Aric and his bike.

Aaron and his bike.  Just a few decorations you know, wouldn't want to stand out too much while riding around :-)