Every year my family takes a camping trip the week school lets out. It’s a “Welcome to Summer” “School’s out” “Time to de-stress” “Let’s reconnect” time that we look forward to all year! We’ve been doing this for years, and I think we’ve found our favorite place in Pennsylvania: The River’s Edge in Connellsville. It has lots to do right on the campground (pool, fishing, bike riding, kayaking and tubing) but the mountains with waterfalls, hiking tails and natural waterslides are just miles away. This year was our second time at this camp ground, but I think it’ll be “our” place from now on.
I have so been looking forward to our trip. With Brett finishing school, Olivia becoming a teenager, Logan finishing middle school, Messay growing up and becoming less and less my “baby”, and me working nonstop… we’ve needed this time to reconnect! We were all a bit stressed and disconnected. We NEEDED time to laugh with eachother, away from the TV, the computer, the e-mails and phones. Sadly, Brett couldn’t join us for the whole trip- he still has the state boards to pass and a week of vacation just wasn’t possible. So my mom and my two nieces joined us and I also allowed Logan and Messay to bring a mutual friend, Nico. (He was such a great addition to our group!!!)
Yes, you counted right, that’s six kids and 2 adults (three when Brett arrived) which to some may sounds like a nightmare and not a vacation! But to me it was fun chaos… the three girls and three boys split well when some wanted to fish and others wanted to go swimming. Sometimes three is a bad number… but for this group they did a pretty good job of getting along (six kids of course means there was occasional whining and fighting, but hey, I have learned to tune it out!)
As busy working parents, it so important to take time out to enjoy your family. Yes, I know the tasks seem never ending (my e-mail currently has over 100 messages unread!) and you feel you CAN’T take a break. But I have learned, if you put it on hold- yes, it means the week you get back might be a bit more hectic than normal, but it WILL GET DONE and your business won’t implode without you working it for a week! Take your calendar and pencil in REAL family time!!
Be prepared, you WILL feel stressed before you go… trying to get it all done. Cleaning the house, packing everything, doing your checklists, preparing your businesses or jobs to work without y four a week… it’ll feel stressful and choatic! But just remember you will also be creating memories that will last FOREVER! We have some awesome “inside jokes” from our past few years of camping, that always make us crack up when we recall them around the campfire! Memories that would never have come from the family time we carve out in between work, school, wrestling and soccer practice, dinner and environmental club! We needed sole family time devoted just to having fun.
I hope you have planned some time this summer to do just that! Go camping, go stay a weekend at an inexpensive hotel with a pool, go visit family… schedule some time to do something DIFFERENT! Honestly, your kids won’t care if it isn’t “5 star” or expensive, they’ll just care if you’re involved and present! Put away the phones, computers, televisions and e-mails.
I LOVE that we had horrible reception at our campsite…. it meant even if I wanted to check my messages or e-mail, I couldn’t! I had no choice! Instead, I swam more, fished more, hiked more and spent MORE time with my awesome family creating memories. Memories that hopefully will be carved into my kids brains, so that as adults, they remember them over the stressed out mom in front of the computer, yelling at them to do homework or clean their rooms!
Here are some of my images from my trip… taken with my cheap Canon point and shoot camera. Yep, I told you I left work at home… which means my big cameras stayed home too. So yeah, some of the pictures aren’t that great. I decided NOT to be a photographer on this trip.. to just be mom! 🙂 So enjoy some of my memories of our trip… and then let me know what YOU are going to do this summer to plan some “reconnection time?”
Nico and Logan put up our tents all by themselves! They did get frustrated at times and tried to quit, but they finally did it ALL BY THEMSELVES!!!
Visiting “Cucumber Falls” and the natural waterslides. This was a favorite… we went back three times! 🙂
I can’t believe we didn’t take more pictures of these AH-MAY-ZING fried pickles we found in this random town called “Normalville” that was on our way to the falls. We got 4-5 orders everytime we stopped… I think it ended up being around 18 orders!!! We got them a few times last year and they became a “I can’t wait to find that little place again with the fried pickles!” YUMMMM!!!!
While the girls swam, the boys went on a peddle cart ride. These little bikes could MOVE! We road on the Youghiogheny River Bike Trail for awhile (I road my bike) that runs right through our camp site.
Dive in Night!!!! We love that there is a drive in right by the campground and we had such a great time this year seeing “How to Train Your Dragon 2” on the big screen. And to make SURE we didn’t forget this evening, my car battery decided to die and we had to get it jumped by the attendants!! Oh, the memories! 🙂
Another favorite is the zipline course. I did it last year, but this year decided to take pictures instead! My kids are so fearless! 🙂
After all that hiking and ziplining, the kids enjoyed sifting for arrowheads and gems. What great finds!
More of the Youghiogheny River! Someday maybe we will white water raft it!!
The natural waterfalls were a blast! No man made waterfall here, this is God’s playground! We let Logan go down the BIG one, but after he almost went over a waterfall, I nixed that idea! (Hey, at least I had him wear a helmet!!) They had so much fun in the river, jumping off the rocks and sliding down the mini waterfalls. I thought after seeing a snake enjoy the waterfall with them, the kids would run screaming from the water, but they just let him pass and went back to playing!! (They are braver than me!)
Back to Cucumber Falls to show it to Dad!
Most nights I left the camera in the tent, but on our last night, we got some campfire pictures!
Brett and I celebrated 14 years of marriage this week. We are going to go out sometimes this week to truly celebrate, but I LOVED the roses he brought me! Even after all the heat and two thunderstorms, they still looked and smelled amazing. Love you honey. These pictures of our family remind me why we work so hard… at life and in our marriage. It is so worth it to continue to make these memories with you. I love our life and I love that I get to spend it with you! 🙂
