Tank and Terror Go Camping - Part II

The week prior to the Fourth of July, my entire family and I packed up for a week-long camping adventure up in Ludington State Park. My parents had just purchased a camper this spring and we were excited for Lil Man's first camping experience. We crammed five adults, a toddler and 3 dogs into a pop up -- battled torrential downpours, freezing temps and a cranky toddler -- but it was a great time together with family.

Decided to give camping another go before the end of summer. Last week, Brody, Zora and I hit the road after work Thursday to meet up with my parents and siblings in Cadillac at Mitchell State Park.

Thank God this site was more rocks and grass than dirt. Especially since it rained Thursday night, trying to keep Brody clean during that 2 minute walk from showers to camper is quite the challenge. Plus Brody thought this rock bed between the camp sites was the cat's meow. Brought all his diggers and that's pretty much where we played for 3 days.  

With everyone's crazy schedule, it's always a special time when we can get all 6 of us in the same place. So glad Ashley and Adam were able to come up for at least 24 hours. It was a huge bummer that Dan was still at drill that weekend... would've been wonderful to have everyone all together.  

There were a lot of aspects about camping that made me slightly horrified to tackle with a two-year-old... not running off, staying out of the road, keeping out of the fire pit... but Brody really surprised me. If anyone has ever been in public with Brody, you know what I mean. "Free-spirited" is an understatement when it comes to him. 

We all thought it was funny how we went from wearing every coat packed and mittens last month camping to 90+ degrees and zero wind this time. Oh Michigan... you're hilarious. But seriously... I walked around in my bathing suit bottoms the entire time because, let's face it, wearing pants is tough enough let alone when you're sweating your balls off.

And with that heat comes a lot of problems when dealing with a toddler...

1. Men are cranky when hot (regardless of age).
2. Too hot and stuffy in the camper to nap during the day, so we went 3 days without a nap. KILL. ME. NOW.
3. Can't zip up the camper at night when it's that hot still, so Brody would lie there from 7 PM to when I went to bed around midnight just chit chatting with the neighbors and being his typical nosey self. 

So to recap... 3 days of no naps, 6-ish hours of sleep a night (when he's used to 10-12), and incredibly hot weather... there was a very real struggle of needing to drink water to stay hydrated and alcohol to get this mama through the day. The meltdowns.... oh God the meltdowns!!! Parents, you know what I mean.

But anyways, in between tantrums, we enjoyed going on some bike rides, playgrounds, walks and lovin' on every dog in that campground. Lake Cadillac was the grossest, thickest, greenest muckfest I've ever seen in my life. When I saw Brody put water in his mouth, I was convinced he was a goner. At the very least, I expected to start mutating any second. If that was the case, I was hoping for an extra set of hands. May as well make the best of it...

Any time spent with family and having new experiences with Brody is very special to me, but it was a rough weekend. I'm not going to lie, going back to work Monday was the biggest reprieve ever. Tired toddlers can be the biggest buzzkill ever. Hopefully next year he's a little bit more mature and able to handle the heat/sleeping adjustments/boundaries better. 

Or else I better learn to pack stronger booze. Right? 

Washing and Weeding Wild Weekend

What's a woman to do when she's left child-less and boyfriend-less for an entire weekend? Sleep in, party hard and drink a ton of wine!!!!

Wait, no. Crap. None of those things happened.

Damnit.

Instead, I spent two and a half days conquering my "long-term house project to do list." Yeah, totally not exciting. I came home Friday evening and immediately jumped into full on haul ass mode. Grabbed the hose and a bucket of a laundry soap/bleach concoction and washed the entire exterior of my house with a scrub brush. Three hours later and smelling like bleach, I wrapped up and slipped into a coma at some point during my dinner. One minute I'm bingeing on green beans and Oreos (balanced diet?), and the next, I'm crawling into bed at 8:45 on a Friday night.

Like I said, I party hard.

Saturday, I declared war on my weed bed-of-doom bright and early. Landscaping has been the most drawn out process ever, but it's finally starting to take shape. Last summer, I put down the edgers and started planting an assortment of flowers, plants and blueberry bushes. I had let the grass and weeds just continue to grow until I was ready for landscaping fabric and rocks. Welp, that time is now.

Six hours later, I made it 2/3 of the way through one of the two soon-to-be rock beds. Productivity came to a screeching halt for two reasons... 1.) I lost all motor function in both hands, and 2.) I filled my yard waste bin with so much dirt, there's no way even the mechanical arm on the garbage truck will be able to lift it. You wanna know how I know this? Welp. I've gotten myself into this predicament before.

Way to go, derp.

And although adorable, Zora is zero help.

So the rest of the weekend consisted of catching on up freelance work, Etsy orders, invites and decor for Baby Bear Schelhas' shower, and more green bean bingeing. (I think an intervention is needed for my sautéed garlic and cheese green bean addiction this summer. Yikes.) And maybe a little bit of time was spent moping around... Dan's gone at drill for the next three weeks and I kinda miss him. Like a lot a lot.

Brody was at a cousin's birthday party this afternoon, so I got him back a little later than normal, but we made the best of the few hours before bed time. So I also have to quick share these two incredibly sweet recent Brody moments. On Friday, a friend's daughter started at Brody's daycare. They had only met one other time, but I received a couple texts sharing how gentlemanly and sweet Brody was being towards Ava. Proud mama bear! 

And then Brody serenaded me with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in it's entirety while we rocked before bed. He's never sang me an entire song before, and I may or may not have started to cry. He grinned so hard the entire time and was so proud of himself for knowing all the words (more or less.) My little boy is growing up so fast! You Are My Sunshine and Twinkle Twinkle are the two songs that I sing to him every night and it was so special to hear him sing it back to me. 

Parents, you know what I'm talking about. :)
(No visual, but listen to the audio... it's super cute.)

Anyways, have a great week everyone. Semi-short week for me... taking Friday off to head up North for #TankAndTerrorGoCamping part 2.

Weekend Wonderland

I figured the best way to come back from a 3-month blogging hiatus is to sum up the incredible weekend I just had up in Pentwater meeting Dan's family. Suppose I should back up a tiny bit... Dan and I met about a month ago. We actually had our first date up in Ludington when I was up there camping with my family and he was in town visiting friends for the Fourth of July. He's pretty awesome. ;)

Anyways, so we hit the road after work Friday to spend time with a handful of Dan's family. Enjoyed a delicious dinner and great conversation around the campfire overlooking Pentwater Lake. Already a great way to kick off the weekend.

Saturday, slept in (which I haven't done in FOREVER) and was surprised with an hour long massage at Gayle's Spa. I'm pretty sure I walked outta there wishing I was in a 3-way relationship with Dan and the masseuse. ;) 

An amazing massage was then followed by a little bit of shooting. Two great ways to relieve stress, right? Lol. Dan, his dad and I went back to the spot where we had our first date and did some target and skeet shooting. I actually didn't do as bad as I anticipated... had a ton of fun! 

Spent the rest of the afternoon pontoonin' and swimming in Pentwater Lake. It's been forever since I've been out on a boat, let alone a weekend of zero plans, beautiful weather and awesome people. Did I die and go to heaven?! 

We also are like 99% sure we ran into Kid Rock out on the water. No joke. He waved, we all awkwardly waved back and then watched several other boats chase him down and start cheering. Way cool.

After we were good and pruney from floating around in the water, we headed back to the house for dinner and some quick shopping downtown. We all then went back out onto the boat to enjoy a sunset cruise out on the Big Lake.

We said our goodbyes Sunday morning, but before heading back into town to pick up Lil Man, we drove up to Ludington for brunch with his mom. Good food, great company... just not enough hours in the day. Looking forward to the next weekend getaway to spend more time with Dan's family.

Decided to spend the remainder of Sunday at my parent's house with Dan and Brodster. I'm pretty sure I could watch these two play together all day. (Total mommy porn... single moms, can I get an amen?) But for reals, this makes my heart smile.  

So anyways, sorry for the absence world... it's been a rough last couple months, but I'm back now. I'm happier than I've ever been and life is amazing. Brody and I have been embracing a summer full of new adventures, I'm coming up on my 5-year workiversary at Gentex next month, mom is healing wonderfully from her back surgery, dad's kidney disease is in remission, my sister is kicking ass with school, and then there's this incredible man who places me on this mythological pedestal that I've only ever heard about.

So yeah... life is pretty awesome. xo