Boyds Bear Country- Camping- Gettyburg post 3

We had a late checkout on Monday. After doing all the getting ready to go stuff that we could do early, we headed out.

1st in search of a gas station with diesel. I never realized it's hard to find sometimes. We learned to go to a highway and look there, not bother looking "in town".

Then we headed to Boyds Bear Country. This place is huge and sorta overwhelming, but fun.

They have different theme areas and it's cool to look at all the stuffed items available. Of course, Megan was in heaven (she'd been there before- once when she was very little and then last year when she spent the night camping with G-ma and G-pa), but still loves it.

Megan really wanted a puppy and picked out a yorkie. Kellie got a puppy too, a chocolate lab like Cody- a dog we see on the way to school. Kellie isn't really into stuffed animals, but she seemed to enjoy it. It seemed she thought it was a big playground and not a store. Megan loves stuffed animals and wanted one of everything!

Then we headed back to the campground, finished unsetting up (what do you call that?), got hooked up and headed home. Both girls chose to ride with daddy (he's fun and had the DVD player in his truck), so mommy had a nice ride home all by herself. I bought some wonderfully juicy crisp Honey Crisp apples at the Catoctin Orchard (I also had a yummy raspberry crumb bar!) on our way home.

It was an enjoyable trip.

Below are some pictures- here are more- http://kevginmegkel.shutterfly.com/1449

Land of Little Horses and Gettysburg camping- Sunday

Sunday morning there was hope for better weather so we decided to do something outside.

As I headed to the shower I found out that our site didn't have sewer hookup meaning that either we had to be careful with how much water we used or we'd have to hookup, drive to the dumpstation to empty the tanks and then do set up all over again! Not our idea of fun...

I debated for a while and decided that I wanted a real shower (my showers tend to last 15-20 minutes), so I packed up my stuff and my Lysol and headed to the bath-house. YES, I took a shower in a public shower. But this place has the nicest set up. There are like 4 bathrooms in the bathhouse- each with a door, sink, toilet, shower , with ceramic tile walls and they were clean. They are bigger than our bathroom at home. So after a nice hot shower I felt refreshed.



We headed out to Land of Little Horses. They had horses (miniature and "regular"), donkeys, llamas, emus, sheep, pigs, goats, and some other animals. Kellie's favorite animal was the cat that followed us everywhere. Finally after 2 hours of hanging with us she finally let the girls pet her!
It was fun.
Below are some pictures, to see more go to http://kevginmegkel.shutterfly.com/1401

Camping trip #2- Gettysburg Fri and Saturday

Friday night Kevin, Megan, Kellie, and Emmett and the camper headed to Gettysburg for the weekend. I had to work on Saturday, so I drove up after work.
Kevin managed to get the camper into a not so easy spot in the dark (thanks to a little help from the campground folks and to the girls and the dog for being well behaved!).

They spent some of Saturday morning at the playground, then Grandma and Grandpa came to spend the day (and apparently brought the rain). The girls had a great time with G-ma and G-pa even in the rain and close quarters of the camper.

I arrived at dinner time in pouring down rain and it continued to rain all night. Rain is really LOUD in the camper! Plus we had a wooded site, which was surrounded by walnut trees with dropped walnuts every time the wind blew- that was loud too!

We spent the evening catching up and resting. And the sound of the rain lulled us to sleep.

Labor Day visit with G-ma and G-pa

We spent Sunday and Monday of Labor Day weekend with Kevin's parents at their log house in WV.
The weather cooperated and it was a nice visit.

The girls love being there and so does Emmett. The 3 of them just ran and ran and ran (well Emmett ambled and rested and trotted a bit). They loved seeing all the deer and Emmett even put his nose to the ground and followed a deer's tracks.
Megan and Kellie enjoyed playing with and being with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma and Grandpa are probably in need of naps today!

It's nice to get away to the quietness of the woods and to not really having to do anything.

BTW_ if you're in Berkeley Springs WV, stop by the Earth Dog Cafe on S. Washington St for some yummy BBQ.

Survived the 1st week of 1st grade

Megan and the rest of us survived the 1st week of 1st grade. They had Friday off so it was a short week.


None of the kids from Megan's Kindergarten class are in her 1st grade class, but she's delt with it like a champ. She has 2 girls that she knew of last year that sit near her and they seem to get along.

The 1st day I asked her who she played with at recess, she said Bindi. Bindi is her invisible friend (Bindi the jungle girl, Steve Irwin the croc hunter's daughter.) Then she said she ate lunch with Amy, her friend from K, so that made momma happy that she and Amy still do stuff together. Amy and her mom are so sweet.

Then I asked her who she talked to in class, she exhaled loudly and said "We're not supposed to talk in class." as if that was a trick question (it wasn't, but good to hear she understands that, in 1st grade I didn't get that concept and got in trouble frequently for chatting- if I talked too much I didn't get to watch Donny and Marie on Friday night).

Her teacher called today to let us know Megan had a good week and that she's monitoring to be sure Megan is in places where she can see well. She even left her home number if we needed to talk to her. How sweet.

Kellie enjoyed having the house to herself and my attention, but by Thursday she was missing Megan. I'm probably going to start taking her to classes at the library to give her an activity and maybe help expand her vocabulary and get her talking!

On Friday we went to a playground with their cousins Samuel, Luke, and Cassie as well as Aunt Angie and Nana. It was fun. The kids always have a good time and expending some energy was good for them!

A photo book of our camping trip

Click here to view this photo book larger

Camping Day 5- Red Deer Farm & heading home

On Thursday morning we visited the Rolling Hills Red Deer Farm.

The owner (who is a character and made everything interesting) took us on a hayride through his red deer pastures. we got to hand feed the red deer (who are in the Elk family). It was very cool to see them up so close and touch them. They are majestic animals and are very soft. Apparently they make good eats, too- high in iron and protein, low in fat and cholesterol. Megan and Kellie enjoyed feeding them and the owner even took them into the barn to see a baby red deer up close, as the babies didn't come up to us on the ride through the pastures.


Then we headed back to the camper to finish packing up. Of course, it started to rain so poor Kevin got all wet doing the outside unhooking and putting away. I got muddy undoing the stabilizers and such, but it had stopped raining by then.

We had a safe trip home, some rain that was sorta heavy but nothing like the ride up!

Emmett, our dog, seemed happy to see us, but was well cared for by Nana. Maybe next time, when we will be at the campground more, we'll take him with us- although he doesn't like to ride in a car.

Kevin asked me when we were going camping next and I'm actually looking at my schedule to see when we can go! And I'm perusing the Camping World catalog (man that thing is huge) for things I can buy for our camper.

Thank you to Terry (and a few other ladies I know) who shared their experiences and helped me take this step into this new experience. Terry, I owe you a big thanks for giving me the courage to do this and for encouraging me with your positive words.

The fact that Kevin did most of the cooking and gross stuff while we camped helped a lot too! Wonder how long that will last?

But, I'd still like a hotel stay once in a while!