So, we went camping again this week. It was as amazing as last week, though SS got to do the falls this week with her new life jacket. It was a bit harder this week. I think because we planned it. Planning is such a Normal thing to do that I think it threw us off. We got out late. The kids were all over the place. It was fun and beautiful, but more work this time. It didn't help that it was cooler. The fact that we are above 5000ft in elevation up there, makes the river a very brisk and cold thing, if the sun is not strong enough. Thankfully, it was today, though yesterday, the clouds would NOT go away. I won't go into huge detail this week, as I did that last week, but there were some great highlights.
Like I said, we got up late. This threw us all into a crazy spiral of weird moods. We were hungry and trying to get out the door. Eventually, we got there, but at that point, JJ was in a terrible mood. After about an hour of driving and 300 questions about breakfast in the most annoying agitated tone, from JJ, I told him to stop asking like an Asphole. Yes, yes I did. Thankfully, he found it absolutely hysterical. We laughed about it until we found the little place we wanted to stop for breakfast at, that we had seen last week.
Deer Ridge! I could say that and you should totally be drooling. You should be drooling RIGHT NOW at those words. It is this tiny little place (used to be a house) with a tiny, old fashioned bar in the next room. We walked in and the tables were all mismatched. The owner greeted us with all his rural charm, and introduced us to his wife, the ONLY cook in the kitchen. They are one of those places that serves breakfast and lunch until 3, then shuts down and let's their bar bring it in. The menu was two sided, and at first glance, it didn't look like much. As we are ordering, he tells me that if his wife has it in the kitchen, she will make it. I absolutely loved that.
We ordered. SS got regular pancakes and sausage. JJ ordered oatmeal with raisins. Puck decided on the blueberry pancakes. I on the other hand, couldn't decide. I ordered their omelet special (a tummy no no for me), and Flo's French Toast. OMG! JJ's oatmeal came out with the milk in a teeny little carafe. The brown sugar and raisins came in their own separate containers. He could make it how he wanted. It was like the picky eater's dream. SS's pancakes were fluffy and perfect. The syrup was REAL. Her sausage was a fresh patty. It wasn't frozen. Puck's blueberry pancakes were made with FRESH blueberries. The eggs were perfect. The toast that JJ and I had was fresh baked. My french toast was the best stuff I have had as long as I can remember. The omelet was all fresh ingredients, as were the country potatoes. It was the best breakfast any of us had had in years. As a matter of fact, I have NEVER seen SS eat that much, that fast, in my life. Needless to say, if you are ever come across a little place called Deer Ridge in the mountains, stop! I promise you won't regret it.
We got up there in a decent amount of time after that. Yes, we still discussed the crazy mountain cows. Yes, we laughed at the Stego-store-it again. It's funny. Yes, the weird tree was there, though did not come greet us. Turns out, he had his kids with him. One of which had Asperger's. No, the boys did not play with our kids, but that is ok. JJ helped me set up the tent, which is good. Next week, we are gonna try to get the kids to do it alone. It is a super easy tent and will help with team building and strength. Puck went to pay, only to report that we could not go to the falls that day, as there were 25 teenage girlscouts up there. FANTASTIC! Just what we need. We were concerned, though they all seemed rather mild mannered and other than their walk back to their campsite, WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY over on the other side, we didn't see or hear them at all.
Since we couldn't go to the granite falls yesterday, we chose to go swimming in the little swimming hole right off our campsite. NOPE! It was infested with caddisflies in their larvae stage. Now, we have since been home to look up what these things might be, but at the time we had no idea. All over the rocks into the water were these things that looked like debris with legs. Yes, they do in fact spend their early times as aquatic larvae. JOY! NO! We went back and started the fire, determined that we would do all we wanted today. We built the fire, made Puck style grilled cheese (like 4 or 5 cheeses), and had s'mores. JJ called me an ash hole because the fire would not stop spewing it at me. (payback for telling him he was acting like an Asphole, I guess.....I laughed.) As we are settling in, we start to play a game.
I told SS to give me a sentence and it would go around, one sentence at a time through all of us. The following is what transpired (roughly):
Once upon a time, there was a unicorn. It had a bald spot on it's butt. The bald spot was magic. When you rubbed it, magic things would happen. There was a man who wandered in. He wanted the magic to build himself a new factory. He pulled out a bow and arrow. He tried to go after the unicorn. His factory was for unicorn meat. The unicorn ran to it's friends. The unicorns ran over him pissed off (an adult chuckles and mutters "And pissed on"). He crawled away. What the man didn't know was that unicorns are made of rainbows and skittles. So he shot his bow and was suddenly in a canoe. The canoe was capsizing. The man, with only one arm, was paddling in circles. His canoe reached a waterfall into the ocean. It was going over the cliff. As he was falling, he hit a unicorn in it's magic bald butt and a raft appeared under him. When he landed, all the sea monsters in the world were coming towards him. He hit one on the nose. The sea monster started to cry. He saw the unicorns on the shore and went to them. As he was running after them, he fell in a pit. It was dark and he felt around him. He felt fur and soft stuff, until he reached behind him and felt something....bare. It was a manticore. Down into the dark, a blue light came. It was the unicorn. It said, "You were mean and I am not going to help you. Bye Bye." The manticore ate the man.
Yeah...that is about how it went. It was probably the best family activity we have had in a long time. It required attention and interaction, as well as planning. If you did it right, you could set the person on your left up for some seriously funny crap. We went to bed after that. None of us really slept, but it's camping. We got up, ate breakfast, had a meltdown or two, then went to the falls. The water was freaking COLD! Did that stop us? Nope! No little weird bugs. Both kids went off those falls with no fear. The adults enjoyed it. The kids repeatedly went up and down until lunch. After lunch, a few other boys showed up, so we decided it was time to head for home. We took one more trip down the falls and got in the car.
All in all, we had a great time. Next week, we are going to try and entice the parents up. THAT will be interesting. Sometimes, they are a little uptight...LMAO!
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