9.08.2009

No Labor on Labor Day

As a child my parents didn't travel on major holidays. That left chores and housework to do on the holidays from work. I had such a fun childhood! Actually, I really did, I'm not complaining, especially if my parents are reading this. But because of the few times my Dad said we were going to "Labor on Labor Day" I refuse to do that as a grown up. This year we went camping with some friends and family. We had an absolute blast!

It didn't necessarily start out that way. We hadn't even been on the road for an hour when Olaf noticed our friends were no longer right behind us. I figured the roads were busy and a few people snuck between us. Olaf begged to disagree and when he got hold of our friends he was right. The back wheel on their camper trailer had completely flown off! Apparently the middle bolt came loose, the whole thing jiggled for who knows how long, and then all the lug nuts sheared off and the wheel went flying through the air! It hit an empty, parked car, thank goodness, and no one was hurt.


Of course, Olaf knows someone in Heber whose husband has a Tire Shop. What are the odds? Seriously? The next three hours were spent with friend's husband helping Olaf and his friend fix the tire and get a new spare; you know another problem would happen if we proceeded without a spare, it would be too tempting for Fate. We couldn't have asked for better weather to wait by the side of the road, cool and cloudy, and it started to rain just as we got in our trucks to head out again.

After we got to camp people started setting up and I made dinner so I didn't have to set up anything. I know how to get out of work! We had a nice evening hanging out with our friends and cousins and aunts and uncles. I always love visiting with Olaf's family, they are a lot of fun. We finally all headed to bed and the kids crashed pretty quickly.

I slept great in my sleeping bag in our tent. I love sleeping in a tent, especially when it's cool outside and I have to snuggle in my bag to stay warm. I did wake up in the middle of the night and heard an owl hooting around our campsite. Then I heard a squirrel that sounded like he was in our tent, but I'm sure he was just above our tent in the trees.

At breakfast in the morning one of the Uncles told everyone he thought he heard our friend's girls out screaming in the meadow in the middle of the night. Maybe that was what originally woke me up, I'm not sure. But then he thought about it a little bit and realized it was probably just a cougar. He and a few others went hunting for cougar tracks and found some good sized tracks by the stream.

The tracks are about six inches across. I didn't have a ruler up at camp to set next to them. But it was cool to see them!

Several people brought 4-wheelers, the kids' favoritist thing about camping. Until last year Middle Child didn't really like 4-wheelers and then last year something happened. We're not sure what but he loves them and we have a hard time keeping him off of the machines. This year Baby learned to drive the big 4-wheelers and loved it!

Notice how his legs don't even reach the bottom! He's driven kid-sized 4-wheelers but he was pretty excited that he knows how to drive big ones now. Of course Olaf and I had to keep going on rides with him. He got bored driving around camp and couldn't go anywhere else without an older person.

This morning I made Decadent French Toast. We have finally almost perfected the art of baking it in the dutch ovens without burning it on the bottom. It was delicious. Then we packed up and headed home. We even got home before dinner. And without any mishaps at all! It was a wonderful weekend and I hope you all had fun too!

3 comments:

sally said...

It sounds so fun & relaxing. I would of been worried about the cougar.

Lonita said...

Oh, Baby on a full-fledged 4-wheeler - I bet that's quite a combination! Glad you guys had a great time!

grapeape said...

my dad was the same way about Labor Days...and other major holidays...and doing chores and housework......i have also refused to be that way and do those things now that i'm an adult!!