Northwest Trek Family Camp Sunday Morning

 Our campsite

 Walking the back trails to breakfast

 Back area tour. I did not like the way that cougar was looking at my baby.

Sunday morning camp early at family camp. She was set to ring the triangle at 7 but the amazingly loud birds woke us all up about 630. We got up, got dressed and tore down the camp. We headed back to the cafe in the park via some closed trails for private breakfast. It was great - pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, cocoa, coffee, etc. They gave us each a picture of our family they had taken on the first day, plus a NW Trek postcard and poster.

After breakfast we met up with a zookeeper for a behind the scenes tour. We went in to the back area and saw where the animals stay when they are off exhibit, how they clean the areas and what they feed the animals. We walked about a lynx, porcupine, cougar, beaver and got a look at a few other critters. The zookeeper tour was our last activity of camp, ending about 11. After that we were free to stay in the park all day. We chose not to do another tram tour but we could have. We looked at the few animals we hadn't yet seen, ate lunch and visited the activity building to make the crafts. By then we were all getting tired so we left. I was trying to leave while it was still good but on the last visit to the barn owls, Sam fell down and that was it for him. He cried all the way to the car and then ate a quick snack and fell asleep for the drive home.

We all had a good time - the camp was very well run with the right mix of fun and education and activities. We were busy the whole time. Camping's not too bad when you don't have to worry about the food. Yep, that's my kind of camping (at least when it's just me.)

Northwest Trek Family Camp Saturday Evening

 Helping out

 Making our nametags

 Making enrichments for the animals

 The NW Trek moose

 Hanging the enrichments on the beavers' glass.

 Sam and a bear

 Gabby and a wolf

 We played hide and seek using wolf howls.

 S'mores time

Lights out

The kids and I went to Northwest Trek's Family Camp this weekend. I thought it looked like my kind of camping - the kind where you don't have to worry about food or building the fire.  I admit this took a little bravery on my part. I would never have tried this last time. But Sam's out of diapers and getting bigger and Gabby has become very helpful so I thought it might work this go 'round. I worried most about rain and it being too cold to sleep (imagine in August!) In the end, we had a great time and the kids did well. They helped and stayed with me and listened (mostly). We were not without mishap and I admit Sam left the park crying today (falling down + being worn out) but it was overall fun and good and I would do it again alone.

Northwest Trek is a zoo that only has animals native to the NW. They try to present the animals as naturally as possible. I like it better than the full fledged zoo. They do a few of these camps each summer, this being the last one for this year. The camp was not full but had a good number of people - 18 folks from 6 families. It might not be as fun if it were full (crowded). You go on Saturday afternoon and set up your campsite, make nametags and animal enrichments, and then have a camper meeting. After the meeting there is time for supper, either in the cafe in the park (which we did) or bring your own. They did build a fire in case you wanted to cook on it. We took a tram ride at 615, after the last ride of the day. It was nice b/c we could take a little longer than normal and also because it was late in the day and lots of the animals were out. We saw everything they have in the free roaming area, including three of the four moose. Animals around every curve. 

After the tram ride we went to the wetland area and hung our enrichment items on the glass in the underwater/downstairs part for the animals - beavers, otters, fishers, etc. They were starting to wake up for the night and we were now the only people in the park. After enjoying them for a while we went to the theater for a quick talk about wolves and how the communicate. We learned to howl and yip and bark like wolves. Then we went out in to the park for a wolf hide and seek. One of the leaders hid and the rest of us had to find communicating like wolves. It was getting dark in the park and it was kind of creepy howling and going through there. Sam got a little spooked but it was lots of fun. We finally located her in front of the wolf exhibit. All of our howling had woken them up but we never could get them to howl with us. Since it was now nearly dark, we headed back to the campsite and enjoyed some s'mores before turning in for the night about 10. One benefit to being the last group of the summer was that we could have as many s'mores as we wanted. Not too helpful for sleeping, however.

Christmas Eve

 Making the birthday cake

 It was fine until Daddy decided to help...

 Cake Wrecks, here we come!

 After church came the Christmas Eve present

 New jammies and slippers

 You don't think they are excited, do you?

Cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer

Christmas Eve is always busy. We have to get everything ready for Christmas Day, cook our Christmas breakfast birthday cake, try not to bust with excitement, go to church, open one present. Lots to do. Gabby nearly made the cake by herself this year. She loves to cook - so glad she does. Sam jumped in at the icing part and Robert decided he was needed at the decorating part. Except he dropped the icing container on top and messed it up. In the end, I hope the "joyful noise" principle applies to birthday cakes too.

We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church where Gabby read part of the scripture during the service. She did a great job.  We came home and opened our Christmas Eve present and put out the cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer and then got the kids off to bed.

Christmas Crafts

Somewhere along the way, I think by way of too much Amazon Christmas shopping, I decided to make snowman kits of friends around here for Christmas. I found the white bags at Micheal's. Gabby painted them all by herself.

 I ordered a pack of 6 Melissa and Doug carrots from Amazon (I did see something similar at Micheal's but I had already ordered them). The fleece I used to make the scarves I had in my stash. Since fleece doesn't fray, I just cut it the width of the fabric and cut fringe in the end. No sewing, no tying, nothing. The hats are foam and I found those at Micheal's, along with the red ribbon I tied around them. The "coal" came from a bag of stones I also bought at Micheal's. One bag gave me enough for all 6 bags. I bought a package of assorted buttons (Micheal's) and pulled the big black ones out. I never came up with anything for a pipe but that's no longer PC anyway so I didn't worry about it.

 The finished products! I put a short explanation with them and we gave them out to friends. Yes, we kept one for ourselves. Later you'll see where we used it.

 My second craft was aprons for the kids. I found these monogrammed handtowels at Kohl's on super clearance. I turned down the corners and sewed across them, leaving about an inch or so casing. The kids picked a ribbon from the ribbon box and we fed it through the casing. I used safety pins to attach it since I figure they will grow and we will need to adjust them. Sam's is obviously long but he'll grow fast. I didn't get a good pic of Gabby's from the front but her's has a cute "G" on it.

More December Fun (and Not So Fun)

Gabby and Daddy going to The Nutcracker

Fall Brownie badges and patches

 Sickness aftermath

 December is always so busy. We had our last Brownie meeting of the fall and the girls got the badges and patches they earned during the fall.

This December was even busier while we were trying to close on our NC house. It was a huge crazy mess, mostly due to the horrible law firm the buyers chose. They single-handedly delayed the closing nearly two months.  

There we were, the Friday before Christmas week, running all over town trying to find an open notary to help us and then trying to get the papers faxed and then overnighted back to NC so the house could close. I suppose to didn't pay much attention to the signs. We dragged the kids into Applebees for supper after all that. Sam was tired and fussy and didn't want to eat and kept thinking he needed to go to the bathroom. Yeah, I should have known but I was also tired and fussy. Finally I had had enough and I was holding him trying to finish up the check and all that when Mount Samuel decided to blow. Unfortunately, I was holding him inside my coat facing me when he puked and it went all over me, including straight down my shirt. I snatched him up and ran out of there only to get to the van with no change of clothes for him and it being 34 degrees. Poor baby. It was a terrible ride home in the van with him throwing up again and again. And sure enough, as soon as we finally all settled down for the night, Mount Gabby decided to join in the fun. Needless to say, we haven't been back to Applebees (no, we don't think they caused it - we just had a bit too much of it that night.) The next day Robert and I didn't feel so great. He had to spend the day at the battalion open house. I stayed home with the kids and did laundry. Gabby recovered quickly, as she always does. Sam spiked a fever, as he always does, and was sick all through Christmas. The bottom picture was taken the day after Applebees. He plopped down on those pillows behind the couch late in the afternoon and fell asleep.

Busy Sunday in December

Sunday School Christmas program - 3 year olds

 Sunday School Christmas Program - Elementary kids

 Chehalis Steam Train

 Santa

 Making gingerbread houses

A busy December Sunday held the Sunday School Christmas program where both kids sang and Gabby had a part in the elementary play, the Santa train at the steam train in Chehalis and then home to make gingerbread houses. December can be like that, especially when Daddy is going to be gone two weeks of the month.