Excerpts of the Craig Chronicles: Current Creek 2021

Current Creek was at the end of July this year. July 26th-30th.

July 26th:
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I left home fairly late in the afternoon. So it was evening when we got to camp. Its like a 2 and a half hour drive from my home. We had to stop and Take pictures with these beautiful wildflowers on our way to camp. Before we left home I french braided both girls hair that way it would stay cute and out of their way for the whole week. Packed the car, and it was stuffed to the brim. Our stuff was everywhere.
Lizzy always loves it when we see cows on our trip. We got to see a buck too.
We get to camp, and get our tent set up, and all the crap out of the car, except for the scooters and outside toys, and all the craft stuff. Which means just the bedding and clothing come out.
Had dinner. Walked Uki a little bit, and then got the kids ready for bed. After the kids were all asleep, I headed to the bathroom, and because by this time it's past 10 pm, I brought Uki along to make me feel better about being by myself.

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The night before, they crashed while chilling with Jake.

She has such a soft head, that she was mad at me because it hurt.

Look how packed the car is.

July 27th:

Cell Phone: *Uploaded last to first*

The kids woke up, and I really try to make the kids get dressed before they leave, to preserve their pjs. So we get dressed, trek to the trailer to find some stuff to make for breakfast. We generally have to be quiet because my kids (at least William) are awake by like 7:30 am. and everyone else is still asleep. The kids eat some cereal, and by the time were done with that my parents are awake. So I start making omelets. The girls helped me with cutting up all the ingredients. Sydney and William love them, but Lizzy, no, not at all. But helping prep, she absolutely loves.

After breakfast, the kid and I sat around waiting for the other people (and by that I mean Lexi's kid: Beckham) to wake up and play. So when Beckham came around we pulled out the building blocks. The kids had fun making all kids of objects. Sydney played fetch with Uki while Lizzy, William, and Beckham played with the blocks.

Dad was getting Sarah's tent set up for when she arrived later.

And around 1ish, I headed out of camp, and drove for like 20ish minutes to find a spot with cell service so I could call Jake. Took Uki with me and he always enjoys just wandering around while I talk to Jake for like 20 to 30 minutes, before I head back to camp. So I was gone about an hour and a half. And I stopped to take some fun macro shots or scenery shots on my way back to camp.

I get back to camp only to find the chaos that my children are in. Lizzy and William and Beckham took water bottles and put bubbles in them and filled them with water and were running around trying to hide them beneath their clothing. Lizzy was laughing like crazy. It was all kind of funny.

I asked my dad if he would take me and the kids fishing. So we got prepped, Beckham came along.
Got packed up in the the van and drove down to the dirt pile. Which is five minutes from D loop down the dirt road. Got their and started to unload our stuff while waiting for my dad to come. While we were waiting, Lizzy got silly, which lead to Beckham and William being silly too. She started to put her chair in the water and then sit in it. Sydney started joining in, which surprised me because she HATES getting wet. She didn't go all in like the other 3. I mean, Lizzy was basically swimming their near the bank. Luckily, where we were at the moss was at a minimum and so were the reads. My dad eventually came along, and He and Sydney moved farther down the bank to start fishing. Well eventually Lizzy and William go cold, and wanted non wet clothes. So I left them playing on the bank with my dad, and drove back to camp to get more clothing. It took the whole rest of the day, and some time by the fire for those clothes to get dry. We did have to check the kids from head to toe for leeches, which are known to be in the Current Creek Lake water.

When we got back to camp, Sydney wanted to do a craft, so I pulled out the stitching project she picked out. I really need to practice basic stitching with her, because she struggled.

For a time, while I was helping Sydney, I let Lizzy take my camera. Even though it's my really expensive one, the kids and I have certain rules they have to follow, and like a five minute time limit. I am way to much of a control freak with my camera (I have I mentioned it's expensive) to let them have it for more than a few minutes. But she got some really good shots, some with me in them, one of Shawn and one of Grandma Arnold, and one of William, but I think my favorite is the one of the shoes next to the fire pit.

The kids were bored again, so we pulled out the beads and they made bracelets or a necklace.

At some point while William was running around he tripped and fell and scrapped up his knee. So I had to digging around in the van for the first aid kit. My Dad and I made it all better. (For the last while, he has been really dramatic with getting hurt. He didn't used to be, but now he cries so hard and for so long over scratches and cuts you'd think he broke a bone or something. But I also kind of love it, because he loves to cuddle for a while afterwards. And I know sooner than I think or want, that won't happen anymore.)

The kids played in the sand playground area for a little while. It's gotten to the point where they have an area limit, and as long as they let me know where they will be I let them wander off without following. Just checking in every so often.

Before dinner, William and I go for a walk to look for fire wood. We brought back a whole tree log. He had so much fun helping me drag that back to camp.

After dinner, Sarah and the kids showed up. My kids are always excited to see their cousins. We played some games with them before it was time for bed.

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July 28th:

We started off with breakfast and lounging around. The kids were playing. I was taking some pictures and reading a book. Then after lunch, the boat was free. So Gary and Sarah and Dad took Lizzy and Oaklee on the boat. Gary drove everyone down in his truck.

While they were on the boat Shayla gave out one of the things she bought for the kids. Water guns. Sydney and William and Beckham played for a while. Then Sydney got fed up with being shot at so we took the water guns and Kash to the dock. They had fun filling up their guns and shooting out into the water. They had so much fun throwing rocks in. Trying to find the biggest ones they could carry to drop. Sydney even got some smaller rocks for Kash to drop.

We walked back to camp and I left Kash with my mom and took Sydney and William in the van down to the boat dock to met up with Gary and my dad. Sydney and William were anxious for their turn on the boat. While we were waiting I took some fun landscape shots, and then before we got on the boat, I gave Sarah my camera and van keys so she could get back to camp.

Sydney and William enjoyed fishing. We caught only a few fish and only kept two. After we were done fishing dad cleaned the fish with the kiddos.

When we got back to camp, Shayla pulled out these cute umbrellas she got for the kids. And so we went on a hunt for logs for the fire before it started to rain a lot. The kids had a lot of fun helping mom and I drag the logs back to camp.

Shayla had some crafts going. The kids played. We all pitched in to help get dinner started. The kids played some more. Chasing each other around and playing with the dogs. Shayla bought these tie die shirts for us all to wear, so we took pictures with those. Then Shayla started up this lantern craft. The kids had to modge podge tissue paper onto containers. They turned out really cute. They had to dry overnight so the kids could finish decorating them in the morning.

We then played games around the fire until it was time to get ready for bed.

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I love this shot showing off how dirty the kids get while playing up here.

July 29th:
Got up, got the kids dressed. Started making breakfast. While breakfast was being made Shayla was cutting out animal shapes for the kids to glue on to their lanterns.
The kids ran around playing for a long while after breakfast.

In the early afternoon (like 1 pm) Dad and Shayla headed off to go fly fishing, while I got my kiddos ready to go swim in the lake. Even though you're not supposed to use the dock as a jumping off point, we have for the last couple years. I am honestly waiting for our luck to run out and for the forest rangers who keep the campground clean to come yell at us.

The kids love swimming in the lake though. None of them are quite brave enough to jump off the dock though. Uki loves to swim. And he always enjoys when Sarah brings Copper because he will jump off into the water to; but not Sienna, she'll just splash around, but when Shayla came over in the float tube she tried so hard to get to her.

Sydney brought along her swimming flippers and snorkel mask, and after only wearing them a couple minutes, one of the flippers fell off. Luckily we could see it from the surface. Told Sydney because they were hers she had to dive down and get it. She tried 3 times, but could never get close enough. So eventually I took off my shirt (luckily I was wearing a sports bra and short jean shorts-so it looked like a swim suit) and put on her mask and dove down. It was pretty deep, I had to really push against the water to get down there. But I was able to get the fin. So after that, I had her take the fins off.

My mom got involved in a water fight with the kids. They all had such a blast. I was actually pretty impressed with my kiddos, because normally water anywhere near their face makes them cry. But apparently water fights bring out the competition in them.

After we were done swimming and the kids were cold, we headed back to camp to dry off and get dressed.

The kids ended up taking turns helping my dad cut up logs for firewood. They enjoyed helping with that.

Then the kids played around until it was dinner time. I sat and read a book. But eventually I got up to take the younger kids to the dock. William was riding Oaklee's non-peddle bike. And he was speeding around that bend so bad, it recalled memories when Andrew crashed and broke his collar bone. But my kid is a speed demon and didn't care that I kept asking him to slow down. At the dock the kids started throwing rocks.

We had dinner and played games. William ended up falling asleep in his chair near the fire. That was fun to get him up and in his jammies so he could go back to sleep. It's not like at home where I can leave him dressed. Nope, while camping the nights get super cold so he needed his warm jammies.

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July 30th:

Today was the day we packed up to head back home. Got all my stuff packed up and my tent taken down before the rain came. The kids helped a little, but mostly I do it myself to make sure everything gets packed and put in the car the way I need it to so it all fits.

While I was packing the kids and adults were making the big breakfast. We took some group pictures.

I got on the road as it started raining, but didn't have any problems getting home.

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