Day 364: Kid Camping

We slept off the wine party, and narrowly avoided hangovers.  I drove home in the crazy pouring rain last night because I deemed Eric one drink too many, or more so I had just not had a drink in an hour and a half and he had one right before we left.

This morning we took our time getting ready for an awesome day of camping.  This is our third camping trip this summer, and we're hoping to go again at least one more time.  This round was "kid camping" because Jen brought her kids along.  Cameron, Caleb, and Colin hit every mark on the fun scale from crying and pouting to giggling and playing.  Campers included Brian, Jen, Cameron, Caleb, Colin, Heather, Seth, Phil, Eric, and me, and camping *visitors* included Hackey, Paul & Deb :p  We'll get them on an overnight camp trip eventually!

Activities included swimming in the lake, sitting in the poison ivy conversing, and cooking steaks, potatoes, corn, brats, hot dogs, burgers, and tons of marshmallows.  After the kids went to bed and Paul & Deb went home, the rest of sat around the campfire discussing A..., B...., Cars, Dogs/Divorce, Eggs/Eves, Fantasy/Fiction, Gambling, Hell, Ice cream, Jokes, Kites, and Leprechauns!  Eric and I missed the A and B topic starters.

All day today the weather app said we had a 40% chance of rain on the hourly forecast.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky until after the sun went down, then we started feeling a few minor sprinkles as we were cleaning up before bed.  As soon as we got into our tent, the sky split in two and dumped torrential rain on the campsite until nearly 5am.  Luckily, our tent held up really well and we were totally dry!

The boys took up wood chopping as a hobby.

Hackey speared his steak on a stick he cut off of a tree, then cooked it medium-rare on the fire!  What a man!

Eric and I shared a HUGE (and delicious) steak

And baked potatoes!

Caleb, Colin, and Cameron roasting marshmallows - and I finally know all of their names and can tell them apart without thinking about it, haha!

Awe!

Swimming at the lake - totally dirty water, but fun.  Cameron kept finding tiny snails and floated them around on her floaty ring.

Caleb was enthralled with the Jiffy Pop - he probably ate half of the bag.

Day 350: Motorcycle Oil Change

As I was just looking through these pictures I had to ask Jess, "was this really all today?". It was a very long, but very good, day. We were camping with friends last night, and this morning they decided to go swimming again, but we had more plans for the day so we packed up and headed home.

When we got home we saw our new pharmacy next door to the gas station was having an opening day barbecue. Jess and I will take a free lunch any day, so we checked it out for a bit and had a cheeseburger.  They also had a 50% off special on vitamins, so we bought 4 bottles.

After lunch we did a little research on getting an oil change for the motorcycle, but the one shop we could think of in Eudora wanted to charge us $65 to do it. So instead we drove back into Lawrence to get my O'Reilly's discount on oil, and bought the filter at a Kawasaki shop. We took everything home and changed it ourselves, and ended up saving about $35! It went surprisingly well for a first time, self taught (via a YouTube video) deal; we did hit a roadblock or two, though. The oil filter was the original factory part, and so was tightened pretty well to the bike. We ended up having to whack a screwdriver through the old filter to torque it off. And then after the oil change was complete and we were dumping the old oil into the jug, we found a single washer... Luckily it was an easy fix as Jess put the washer back on the oil plug while I blocked the drain hole with my finger.

After the bike was all good to go, we decided to pack a backpack and ride out to Steven and Leslie's for the night since we'll be going to Grandma's birthday party at Smithville lake tomorrow anyway. Time to wrap this up, we just finished watching a Kevin Hart standup and we're about to go swimming to bring this busy day to a close!

A slow start camping.

Campfire breakfast.

Pharmacy barbecue.

Lunch at the pharmacy.

My rides.

Prepping for the operation.

Mystic laying down on the job.

Jess worked on cleaning her melted boot marks off the pipes.

Soaking the melted boot sole.

Pulling the plug.

Jess screwdriver hammering a screwdriver into the filter.

Our handiwork on the stubborn filter.

Jess stood the bike up while I refilled the oil.

Me re-assembling while Jess bottles used oil.

Jess eating Wendy's on the way to Steven and Leslie's (only a block away from their house).

Day 349: Trains & Fire

The highlight of this work day was taking my nanny kids and Andrew to see Thomas the Train with Mom and Papa.  Unfortunately Eric was at work for this, and had to miss chasing kids in 95 degree weather, haha!  Bryson didn't have much fun, until we got to a table where he could color.  Jack and Andrew seemed to love it all.  And the grown ups, well, we enjoyed seeing the kids have fun.

Then after Eric got off work, we picked the motorcycle up from Mom & Alan's house and rushed home to pack for camping.  I added Eric to the insurance today, and he raised it from $148 to $300/year (almost $100 of that because of his speeding ticket in August).  We packed my car with the camping gear, and then we drove out to Clinton Lake separately so he could ride the bike.

It was an interesting night - cooking and conversations around the fire, partially clothed swim in the lake (others were in various stages of dress, Eric and I remained clothed!), and the annual burning of confidential school documents!  This was a really fun event with Steven and Leslie last year, and this year our crowd was kind of a buzz kill about it.  The burn didn't exactly go smoothly, and instead of having fun with it, they just called us various names and moved to the other fire pit.  Lame x a really big number.  We headed to bed, and spent some time looking at the starts and using a sky map app to help us find constellations - very cool.

Andrew with my stuffed hippo - Mippo.

Andrew, Me, Bryson, Sit Toppemhat, and Andrew.

Bryson, Me, and Andrew on the train!

Jack, Mom, and Andrew on the train!

Bryson, Me, and Papa on the Thomas train!

Finally, something Bryson enjoyed!

Andrew's first (?) time in a bounce house, he loved it!

Mom and Andrew going down the slide.

A year of work up in flames!

Oops...it fell over...

Burn, baby, burn!

The papers were so scrunched together, it took forever to burn through.

Very cool to watch it burn!

Day 330: Camping Part 2 (and Finishing Moving Papa!)

Our weekends seem to be busier than our week days!  We had a nice slow morning - eating donuts, marshmallows and breakfast burritos around the campfire.  Nursing the boys' hangovers.  Packing up the campsite.  That would appear to be enough to fill a day - go home, shower, and go to bed...  Not for us adventurous folk!  We showered and rested for about 30 minutes, but then we drove out to Olathe to finish getting Papa out of his apartment.  Now that the apartment is totally empty - his house (which is over twice as big as the apartment) is brimming with boxes.  So now our goal over the next few weeks is getting Papa UNpacked. -deep breath-

Eric had a two major wipeouts - one where he fell over the fence cable (about thigh high, dividing the camp site from the road), and one where he was running toward the lake and clotheslined himself with one of Chris and Daniel's tent cords.  This picture shows the damage from the latter - he had gross oozy bleeding for quite a long time that night.

Goodbye camp site 11!  We'll be back to visit you and sites 12-13 some other time!

Our awesome group photo, but Brian was in his car...oops!

The picture + Brian didn't turn out as well, but he was there too!

I was happy to see the kitties when we got home.  I think they were happy to see me too, because they didn't fight about being held at the same time!

On our way to go  move Papa, we took our first load of recycling over to the middle school in Eudora - our closest recycling pick up.

Eric preparing for the afternoon/evening of work with his 5 Hour Energy!

Papa and the last item to leave apartment 321 - a cow planter with a half live flower plant!

Day 329: Camping...Part 1!

We went camping today for Jen's 35th birthday, and it was a blast!  A little bit cold for our liking, but we survived!

We're going camping!!!

I had our tent set up straight away so I could start in on the beer and marshmallows!

Oh, and falling out of the hammock...not related to drinking!

Jen got tired of pumping up the air mattress, so she took a break and Brian finished!

Deb started up a nice fire for us.

Aaaaaand, I fell out of the hammock again.  Still not alcohol related!

Home Sweet Home for The Green's


Chris & Daniel's abode - big enough for all of us and then some!



Brian & Jen's tent is nice and big, with a screen porch!

Chris falling out of the hammock, probably alcohol related.

The dam looked awesome when the sun set - the entire lake was shadowed and the dam looked like it was glowing.

Paul, Deb, Brian, and Jen - everyone drinking and sharing stories.

I'm not sure if Chris fell or Brian flipped the hammock...definitely alcohol related.

Eric showed up around 9:00 - tonight was his last night working at the Checker's Deli!  This means we are burning his greasy ass pants!

Burn-baby-burn!

The hat had to burn too! 

Goodbye greasy chicken work, hello greasy car parts work!

It's not drinkin' 'til the men lose their shirts!

Ah, so happy to be drinking (and photobombing!)!

Awe...so in love...

 We all know Eric is a floozy...even Brian has his eye on him.

Hi Chris!

Oh yes.  The Hump Walk. Gooooood night!