A Camping Weekend

This past weekend, Big Monkey, Little Monkey, GrandMom and I went camping. We went to a park that is about 30 minutes from our house. Once again, not a big trip but good to get away and get our feet wet with the use of the camper some more. We headed out around lunchtime on Friday and got set up for the weekend. Little Monkey and GrandMom went “fishing” while Big Monkey and I hung out around the campfire. It started to rain and I was tired anyhow, so I went for a nap. Once I woke up I learned that Big Monkey and GrandMom had been discussing moving the location of the camper and they were considering doing it with me inside! Thankfully they didn’t but once I was up, they did move it (without breaking everything down). I would not recommend this method even though it did work.

Little Monkey enjoying an Oreo in his camping chair.

We knew another group was also camping there the same weekend, although they were all in tents! We hung out with them some and played volleyball and hung out around the campfire making smores and talking. Little Monkey had a great time with one of the kids that was there with them too. Big Monkey and I played Scrabble Express each night (and I won every time!). We also played Battleship one day by the fire. I was sure he would win but we both won one game each.

Bacon cooking for breakfast! Yum!

Overall it was a good weekend and mostly relaxing. While we were out camping, Roland was staying with some family members and Little Monkette was with her Grammie, Pops and Mimi at the beach. Currently our next camping trip is scheduled for April and EVERYONE will be going for the first time (Me, Big Monkey, Little Monkey, Little Monkette and Roland!). It should be interesting. Big Monkey would love to take another trip before that one if we can and we are looking at February for a possible trip with Big Monkey’s family. Of course they will have to sleep in tents!

Little Monkette sporting her Halloween outfit at the beach house.

More Camping Fun-

After staying up pretty late on Friday night (11:30pm), everyone (in our camper) managed to sleep in until about 9am. I heard later that the others were not so lucky to sleep in so long! We got up and had some muffins for breakfast, while Little Monkey ate his dry cereal. Little Monkey was very eager to get out and play with the other kids. He seemed to think that he was just as big as they were, except that he was the youngest kid there. The other kids did a great job helping to keep an eye on him and entertaining him. They rode bikes, went fishing, played soccer and just hung out.

We were watching the weather and it looked as though some rain was headed across the lake. I went to get Little Monkey and make him go to the bathroom. Then we were going to head back to our camper for lunch. By the time we got out of the bathroom, it was already raining. Big Monkey was over at another camper getting the firewood out of the truck and under the big trailer so it would hopefully stay dry. Little Monkey saw the truck over there and took off running. He ended up staying in their camper while it was raining. I was at our camper holding onto the awning that had fallen down, waiting for Big Monkey to come back and help me get it fixed. We were both pretty drenched by the time we were settled. We got our lunch together and it was barely sprinkling. We went over to our friend’s trailer to hang out for lunch. The kids ended up watching Hannah Montana’s new movie for awhile and the rest of us just hung out outside. We did a lot of NOTHING. I must admit it is kind of difficult to do NOTHING (Supposedly this is what Big Monkey likes about camping though.).

We ended up having an early dinner at our friend’s trailer. They had some family come out to the campsite and they brought some pork sandwiches out for everyone. I was wearing down and Little Monkey really wanted to watch Nemo (we had told him he could after the girls had watched Hannah Montana.), so the two of us went back to our camper for some “rest” time. After a while, it was raining again and we took the movie back over to the other trailer so everyone could watch. The night we had a fire and made smores. I think Little Monkey really likes making them; well he at least likes putting marshmallows in the fire! And then he VERY slowly eats the marshmallow. Everybody made it a rather early night and had showers and went to bed. Little Monkey got to watch Toy Story in my bed while I showered and then he and Big Monkey went off to take their showers. Little Monkey was not too thrilled about turning off Toy Story but we told him that he could watch it once he got back.

Little Monkey watching Toy Story in his bed

We only managed to sleep in until about 7:45am Sunday morning before Little Monkey was peeking out at us from his bed. (I’m sure this also had something to do with the coffee pot having turned on and making coffee too.) We got up and moving and Big Monkey made us some pancakes. We hung out with the others for a bit before we starting packing everything up. We actually found it pretty easy to get packed up and we had lots of storage in the camper to leave many things inside. Once we got home we opened the camper back up and wiped it down inside and out. We also washed the sheets and towels and got them packed up for next time. It didn’t take too long before everything was put away and the camper was back in its parking place behind the gate. Overall the weekend went well. I’m sure we will get better at it once we’ve done it a few more times. We realized a few things we would like to get and a few things we probably don’t need. I had a good time, although I think camping would be more fun if it didn’t rain and if I wasn’t eight months pregnant. (It’s just HOT (Although not in our camper, the air conditioning worked great.) and hard to sleep really comfy when you are this pregnant!)

Proof that Big Monkey made breakfast!

Somehow I didn’t end up taking many pictures, so I do not have pictures to prove that our friends were there or that their friends were there too! Oh well. It was a good weekend, even if it was short and didn’t go quite the way we had planned. Our next trip is not scheduled until April but we may look at going sooner…it will all depend on the baby girl!

We’re Back

Setting up the camper in the rain

We have survived our first family camping trip! I think it went well for the most part. We were planning to leave on Friday around 3pm…but just as we were finishing up the packing of the camper and the truck, the clouds opened up with a monsoon. We decided we would hang out at the house and wait out the rain. Thankfully after a bit it lightened up and then quit. We had to make a few stops on our way out. We got to the campsite and found that we were the first to arrive. It was sprinkling when we got there but Big Monkey was determined to go ahead and get the camper set up. Little Monkey hung out in the truck while we worked on getting things put together. Once the camper was ready to have people inside it, Little Monkey came in and hung out with us.

Little Monkey playing hide and seek in the cabinets

Since it was still raining, we worked on getting the inside of the camper set up and putting things in proper places. (Little Monkey thought this meant he should play hide and seek in the cabinets.) We found plenty of storage places for our dishes, games, towels, etc. We also got the beds set up.

Riding his trike down to the lake

Little Monkey was excited to see his Cars sheets (just like the beach!) on his bed. After we got things set up, we decided to go exploring a little bit. There was a lake very close to our campsite and we had Little Monkey ride his trike over to it.

While we were at the lake, we found a gator in the lake. It is a VERY friendly gator.

(The ranger said they will probably have to kill it.) He headed right over to us to see if we were going to feed it. When we were hanging out on the dock, we found out that our friends were going to be later than they had planned. Originally, half their family was going to arrive with their trailer and set up around 6pm but thanks to the crazy rain we had had early in the day, they were delayed. The dad got called into work thanks to a lightening strike.

Friendly, Hungry Gator

They finally all got to the park together around 9pm! They also had other friends who were coming and they made it there while we were setting up. We met them on the dock. They had two kids and two dogs. Little Monkey was very excited about the dogs.

Eventually we decided it was time for some dinner, so Big Monkey set up our grill. (I mean literally had to put the whole thing together. I wish we would have thought of that before we got there…then we could have had dinner MUCH sooner! But oh well, you learn as you go!) We had burgers for dinner that night. It was interesting because Big Monkey eats regular burgers, I eat turkey burgers and Little Monkey gets special low protein burgers made from portabella mushrooms. We were also going to have baked beans but the can opener I got was not working well and we couldn’t get the can open. Big Monkey threw away the can opener, complaining about smart people buying odd things. (I bought that can opener for two reasons. 1. It was compact so it would take up less space in the camper. 2. It was cheaper than the bigger version.) Now we will be getting another can opener before our next trip! After dinner we headed over to our friend’s friends’ campsite to have a fire and make smores. Our friends arrived in the meantime and got set up. Even though they had been home, they did not eat dinner, so they cooked hot dogs in the fire. Finally, around 11:30pm, we all headed to bed. (Yes Little Monkey was up all day and never had a nap!)

A Camping We Will Go-

This weekend we will be on our first family camping trip. Little Monkey is excited (everytime he sees the camper he says, “There’s the camping!”). I’m sure we will have a fun time, but it is bound to be interesting. Thankfully we have a pop up camper, so we will not be sleeping in tents on the ground. We got most of the camper packed up the other day and will finish the last minute stuff before we leave.

Stock Photo of our camper

We are going camping with some friends from church (and some of their friends). They are all experienced campers, so if we forgot anything, I’m sure they will have whatever we might need! Hopefully this will be the first of many good camping trips. We will probably not be taking another trip for awhile since Baby Girl is on the way! We also will not be going very far from our house, which should be good for our first trip. Although I have been informed that I am not allowed to go home if it is raining.

Next week I should have some pictures for you and a post or two about our trip.

To The Beach!

Today we are headed over to the beach for a bit of time to hopefully relax some! (We are taking lots of craft show stuff with us, so we will still be doing some work.) We will be spending time with members of our family for a good portion of the week. I’m sure it will be a nice time. Hopefully there will be good weather. We should still have some blog posts for you….(I’ll try!)

The Day After Christmas

Today is the day after Christmas…Amy and I will be heading down to West Palm Beach for the night and tomorrow. We plan to see some of her friends and also spend some time at the salon getting our hair done and nails done. Little Monkey will be heading to the beach with his Grammy and Pops.

We will possibly also be doing some shopping…you never know what you might find after Christmas on clearence! I know Big Monkey would be happy if I could find some more LED lights for cheap for next year. Other than that…I don’t know that I’m looking for anything specific yet, although I would like to get some stuff for my new sewing machine. (Hopefully we can get it working and figured out!) I also have a few more Christmas gifts to pick up…so maybe I can find something  for that too!

Tag…somewhat voluntarily

Amy posted this on her blog and to help ensure that she gets some response, I figured I would fill it out.

Ten years ago I was…
1) a senior in high school;
2) very busy with multiple groups in choir;
3) working at Publix, where I met Big Monkey;
4) raising our dog Amos to be a service dog (he failed);
5) trying to figure out where to go to college.

Five things on my to-do list:
1) laundry;
2) dishes;
3) more laundry;
4) fold towels from a couple days ago;
5) write some blogs.

Five snacks I enjoy:
1) anything with chocolate and peanut butter;
2) ice cream (especially with chocolate and peanut butter!);
3) Little Debbie’s snacks;
4) icing;
5) candy (especially with chocolate and peanut butter).

Five things I would do if I were a millionaire: (this would depend on how many millions…)
1) pay off outstanding debt;
2) travel to Australia (at least);
3) give money to some charitable organizations;
4) have my crowns re-done, again;
5) go shopping!

Five places I have lived:
1) House in Sanford (twice-same one);
2) House in Lake Mary;
3) Multiple Dorms in Jacksonville;
4) Apartment in Sanford;
5) House in Minneola.

Five jobs I’ve had:
1) Cashier at Publix;
2) Receptionist at Seminole PowerSports;
3) Assistant Manager at Blockbuster;
4) Accounting Clerk at Seminole PowerSports;
5) Mom.

I tag Joe and Holly and anyone else who would like to do it too!

Sunday-Day Nine-Cruise Vacation

I woke up Sunday morning at 6am but stayed in bed trying to sleep a bit longer with no luck. I got up, got ready to go and finished packing up all our stuff. I turned on my phone to find only one message on my voicemail. It was from Little Monkey’s Doctor, reminding us we had an appointment with them on Tuesday. Right at 7am (10am EST), Little Monkey called me! That made me miss him even more. He sounded so cute and told me that he was hanging out with Pops at the beach.

We got some breakfast and sat outside waiting for our colored luggage tag to be called so that we could to to immigration and then get off the boat. Big Monkey called United to see if it would be possible for us to get on the 2pm flight out of LA but they claimed it was totally booked. There was another flight leaving at 4:59pm but it was a connecting flight and only got to Orlando 45 minutes earlier than our flight that was leaving at 10pm. Big Monkey asked if we could upgrade to First class or Economy Plus but they said we would have to pay for it and we could not use our miles so we decided to leave things be. Looked like we’d be flying the redeye flight back home as originally planned.

We made it through the Immigration Check point easily and then we waited a few minutes but decided it was okay to go ahead and get in the line to get off the ship. We were in line with Alex and her mom from our dinner table. We found our luggage right away in the warehouse and headed out to find a taxi. There was a taxi that could take up to seven people to the airport for $53+tip but they would not allow us to split the fee with anyone else. So we took a van company that charged $17 per person. There were four other sets of people in the van that also had to be dropped off at different places. First we went to some neighborhood to drop off a lady. Then a couple got out at the Hilton near the airport. Finally we got to the airport and dropped two people off at Delta and the rest of us off at United.

We headed in the airport with our bags to check in. We had to wait in a LONG line even to do self check in. We got through the process and wanted to see about flying standby on the earlier flights but the computer told us there were no flights available. The computer also wouldn’t let us check our bags in because we were too early. Our flight wasn’t until 10pm and apparently you cannot check your bags more than four hours before your flight. We had no idea that this could be an issue. We then got sent over to another line where we could actually talk to a person.

We waited in that line for almost an hour. When we finally got up to the counter, we were told again of the four hour rule (which is not posted in the terminal and was not listed on our reservation). We explained our issue about how we couldn’t go eat because we could not get through security with all of our bags. They told us there was a place in Terminal 4 where you could eat without going through sercurity. (The problem is that Terminal 4 was three Terminals away and we had four bags of luggage to take with us.) We asked if we could fly standby on the 2pm flight (which would allow us to check our bags and our bags would get on that flight and to Orlando whether we did or not). The clerk gave us a hard time saying that if we got to Denver (the 2pm connecting to Orlando flight), we’d be on our own trying to get from Denver to Orlando and she would make that in the computer on our tickets so that no one would offer us extra help of any kind. We really didn’t care about the standby flight at this point; we just wanted our luggage checked and on a plane to Orlando. Finally after talking to another clerk, they decided as a one time courtesy to us that they would go ahead and check our bags onto our flight at 10pm. We just had to hope that our luggage really did make the flight and they didn’t “accidentally” loose them.

As they were checking out luggage, they asked if we were checking any alcohol/liquor. We were, so we told them yes and they asked to see it. Apparently alcohol must be packaged in styrofoam a specific way, not just in the box, so out came two bottles of Crown that we had bought duty free on the ship. The clerk told us there is only one place in town that would package it for us and/or ship it home for us but they are closed on Sundays. Of course they are. (You know if we had been able to get through self check in, this wouldn’t have been an issue I’m sure.) So the options were: 1. Give it away to someone. 2. Throw it out 3. Drink it or 4. They would confiscate it. Well great…there is no way we are drinking two liters of Crown before getting on a plane, so Big Monkey ended up pouring it down the drain. He figured that if he couldn’t drink it, no one else should be allowed. So we poured $36 of Crown down the sink. (I wrote Royal Carribean about this later on but not much became of it. They only called to apologize and said they would pass that information on to the appropriate people. You would think they would know how things need to be packaged to fly home with it. Even Joe told me on his Royal Carribean cruise, they packaged everything for a flight even though he wasn’t flying. They did not do this for us and we had no idea it would even be an issue.)

After all this craziness, we were able to go through security. This was not a well set up operation at all. You go up the escalator and find security immediately on your left but then you are told that you must go to the right, where the line begins…way down the hall on the bridge that crosses the stree back over to the parking garage. We waited for a long time but once we got through security, we breezed right through. We got over towards our gate and stopped for lunch at Wolfgang Express. We both had pizza. Then we headed over to our gate to wait. It was now about 2pm. Only eight more hours till our flight!

I read my book, looked through the newspaper ads that were laying around and we did some walking around the terminal. We had dinner at a little sports cafe and sat and waited some more. At some point, we checked the boards to see if our flight was showing up yet. It finally did and the departure gate had changed. So we headed over that way but it was very crowded with no where to sit. We went back to where we started out and sat around some more. We decided to get Cinnabon before getting on the plane so that we could have a snack and breakfast in the morning. We bought them and headed back over to the gate we had last seen the flight would be at. We got there (it was quite a walk back and forth between these places) and found out that our departing gate was now back over near where we had been sitting all along.

We got back to our gate and had our Cinnabons. About ten minutes before boarding, about fourteen young (middle/elementary aged) Chinese students came running into the area, with no adults. A little odd, but later they were joined by many more young students and a few adults. Since it was a redeye flight (for us) we hoped they would be quiet on the plane. One ended up sitting next to us and he fell asleep before take off! Nice! He did wake up later but most of them were all very quiet the entire flight either sleeping or playing video games. Big Monkey and I were able to sleep a little bit on the plane.

We got back to Orlando around 6am. Our luggage made it to Orlando in one piece! We got our stuff and headed out to the parking garage. We found the car quickly (thanks to GrandMom and Uncle K for dropping it off) and headed back home. We came home and napped for awhile. Then took the rest of the day to mostly relax and start our laundry.

It was a good trip, even if we did have the issues with the LA Airport. Sorry it was so long but that’s how it is!

Saturday-Day Eight-Cruise Vacation

We had room service for breakfast before going to our massage. Our massage was good and we were very relaxed afterward. We just ended up hanging out until lunch. It was a bit chilly outside so there was no sunbathing or swimming. We did go to the photo center to go through all our pictures and decide which ones we were going to buy. We figured we should get some of them because we don’t have any real formal pictures of us from recently. We finally decided on the two you see here.

For lunch, we decided to go to the dining room for the first time. We sat at a table with this older couple, along with a Chinese family. This lady had gotten up in the middle of dinner the night before and sang Happy Birthday and some other song as Marilyn Monroe. Apparently this is what she does and somehow some family found out and asked her to sing to their Grandma who was turning 90. It was very weird. At lunch she would not shut up. Very annoying but oh well. While talking, we discussed our anniversary (it was also their 1st or 2nd anniversary) so she ended up having the staff bring us a slice of cake and sing to us. It was rather embarrassing. I guess we should be glad we didn’t sit with her all week or that they sang to us at dinner.

After lunch, we went and took a long nap. It was still chilly outside so it wasn’t like we could hang out at the pool. We also packed up most of our stuff so that it would be easier to get out bags our the door later that night. We showered and got ready for dinner. Before we left, we got a call from guest services saying that we should have received a letter from them (we hadn’t yet) and we needed to go talk to them.

While Big Monkey was in the shower, I decided to go handle the situation. After waiting in line for a bit at guest services, I found out that our credit card company would not authorize the full amount of our bill on the cruise ship. I’m not really sure why because there should have been plenty to cover it on that card but oh well. I gave them another credit card to pay the difference. I stopped at the shops get some cologne for him for our anniversary but I wasn’t sure which one of the two we had finally settled on that could be an option if I were to ever buy him something.

Once all of that was done, we headed to see the Farewell Show. It had some singing and dancing, magic and comedian. Overall the show was not that great. We had a little while to wait before dinner and we ended up running into Mark and Liz. They were not planning on going to dinner and that was the last we saw of them. Everyone else showed up to dinner. I ordered a pasta dish with salmon but after having one bite I knew I would not eat any more of it. I ordered a chicken dish instead; it was much better.

Dinner was FINALLY over…(it seemed to take FOREVER tonight) and we went to check out the casino to see how the craps table was. Big Monkey decided to play and had he cashed out at his peak, he would have turned $100 into $140 but he didn’t and instead turned $100 into $97. Not too bad. We played a few slots but did not win anything there either. Still with Big Monkey’s winnings from the other day, we were “ahead” in the end (not if you count all we SPENT on the cruise though!). After the casino, we went back to our room, found this guy, finished packing and put our luggage outside.

Friday-Day Seven-Cruise Vacation

We slept in, had room service for breakfast and finally got to the pool deck around 10:30am. There were no chairs left, so we watched from some tables to see if anyone came back to a couple of chairs within 30 minutes. The “rule” is that you cannot hold chairs and personal items left for 30 minutes will be removed. Of course there is no one enforcing this rule, so we watched to enforce it on our own. We finally were able to get two chairs and hang out by the pool. We ate our lunch at the chairs and watched the pool games and the belly flop competition. The belly flop competition was quite funny. Each guy went twice, once for style and technique and second for splash value. There was every a rather old man in the contest (He was easily over 70.)

The Captain of the ship came on for his daily announcement and let us know that they were able to finish the cleaning of the ship and we left port at 11:45pm (almost 6 hours behind schedule). It turned out to be a good thing that we were stuck in port because someone had a medical emergency before we left and we would have had to go back to port to get them off the ship. The down side for the cruise line of staying in port was probably a bit of lost money since they were not able to open the casino or shops until we left the port.

Second Formal Night

Around 1:30pm, we headed back to our room to take a nap. I was tired from being in the sun so much and I didn’t want to get burnt since we were having a massage the next morning. After our nap, we got ready for dinner so we could go take some pictures first since it was formal night again. Once we had taken enough pictures, we went to the nightly show. Tonight’s show was Broadway Rhythm and Rhyme. This was the first time the singers and dancers had performed this show on the ship. It was mediocre. Definitely not as good as what we have experienced on some other ships.

Once the show was over, we still had a little bit of time to kill before dinner so we headed over to the Battle of the Sexes game show. We didn’t stay very long though because it was pretty boring. Everyone showed up at dinner tonight and the boys were happy that it was lobster tail night. Big Monkey had three lobster tails I think!

After dinner, we went back to our room to change clothes and headed to the casino. I ended up losing $20 on slots again, but Big Monkey turned $45 into $210 at the craps table. I wanted to go to the Love & Marriage game show but he was still playing and wasn’t ready to leave the tables. If he had quit when I told him to, he would have had $300! Oh well! The Love & Marriage game show was funny. Once couple was crazy and had off the wall answers for everything. (One example-Where is the craziest place you have had sex together? They each answered first with….Oh my, well there’s so many! LOL) Right after the Love & Marriage game show was another late night comedy show. We stayed for that and then went to bed. This guy was on our bed when we got back: