MidWeek Mommy Camping Part2 aka The Mosquitos carried away BabyJ

July 24, 25 & 26 were spent camping at the

Three Sisters Campground just outside of Canmore Alberta!

Okay so it is my goal to actually register our site in 28 minutes flat one of these times. It always seems that with two little "HELPERS" it can take a very long time to get the tent and chairs laid out on our site. It also might help if I were able to pick the camp site in the first go not the third! http://www.bowvalleycampgrounds.com/b-valley/cgrounds.html

I love these signs, they are great for reinforcing the message to children about being tidy, putting away all the food and walking to the garbage often. Pleasantly despite the hot hot weather there have not yet been any bear sightings around this campsite so we were not to worried.

Tuesday we arrived in the mid-afternoon and after only two drives around the site found our ideal campsite. First I set up the requisite "Helper Distracters" like the MiniTent for placing assorted stuffies camping tents, hot wheels, books etc, the horseshoes and then the soccer net. After a week of soccer camp BeaverJ was keen to show off some of his new skills.

This always keeps them happy until I take out the rubber mallet to drive the tent stakes into the ground. What could be more fun to do than to try and make off with the rubber mallet to bonk your sibling, after all they run in terror, Mommy turns a funny colour and runs really quickly!

It turned out that they would be a great help when I realized I could turn the tent on the ground sheet to achieve a larger area for our shoes and the excessive amount of personal space a 2 & 5 year old need to get their shoes on while sleepy in the middle of the night! It turns out that they are fantastic at caring things by quarter turns from all of the "Parachute time at Gymboree". As a reward for their truly helpful help I broke out Red Crystal Light!

Veiw through the trees from our site

The beginnings of the worlds longest to light fire. I was sorely disappointed to have spent all of the effort fanning the flames when our neighbouring campers brought out the lighter fuel and had their campfire roaring in seconds.... Good thing DaddyJ(aka PyroBozo1) was not present!

Some evening shots of the Bow River

I have found the people are very nice when you are camping, especially if you are camping alone with two small children. On this evening's adventure I realized I had some very smelly garbage that I did not want to store in the car overnight for fear of oozing, so naturally I popped over to the neighbours to ask if they would mind cloths-lining the kids should they wake up and exit the tent while I literally ran the garbage to the big bin.Interestingly the neighbours had a huge bottle of GlenSomeone on their table and a cooler full of ice which they were sharing with the neighbour on the river next to the above pictures. So they are all chatting away in such a friendly manner that you feel like all is well in the world. Perhaps it is because camping is like being on your front porch, you watch the world, smile at strangers and are relaxed enough to think the best of people.When I mention that I need to leave my site and children unattended for a minute and would they mind keeping an eye out for pop-out children everyone starts talking at once. The Lovely grandmotherly lady of the GlenSomeone bottle tells me that the kids are so wonderful, "they are like little dumplings" a particularly cute comment since both are small but slim. The mans who's site they are sitting at offers to take the garbage out for me and they all want to know if there is anything else they can do to help. Ahhh I love the comradery of it all....

Wednesday

Wednesday morning we woke up to an alarming number of mosquitoes on the tent. It was as if they were all hovering waiting to see who could suck our blood first! There is nothing like one hundred mosquitoes swarming you to make you hustle through breakfast. After breakfast we headed out for a walk on the campground trail along the Bow River where the kids enjoyed floating some dry wood and throwing rocks into the rapidly moving water. After that we were off to Canmore....

Eating breakfast

Contemplating the tree sap, its affect on the soccer ball,
what happens to sap if you poke it with a stick etc....

While this campground lacks the dry slow riverbed areas of Beaver Flat, it does make up with some spectacular mountain views.

Off on an Adventure walk

The requisite nature photos after years of visiting the night time Ampitheater Edutainment

The Bow River

By this point I was seriously considering buying the 27% DEET not for children under 12 as the possibility of blood poisoning, neurological issues etc just to save our little bits of exposed skin! In the end coming into town was fantastic as there were almost no mosquitoes to be seen and more importantly it reset the mosquito irritation meter.

As always while visiting Canmore the three of us did our two most favourite activities; having lunch at the Grizzly Paw our all time favourite family restaurant The Grizzly Paw http://www.thegrizzlypaw.com/ and going to the Centennial Playground for a few hours of fun. This made for several hours of fun at the park...which led to a trip to Knit and Caboodle for some Baby Alpaca for mitten knitting http://www.knitandcaboodle.ca/

Peek-a-boo BabyJ

The Great Slide Caper began with BeaverJ teaching BabyJ to build up momentum before flinging yourself down the slide! Thankfully both are so grungy from sunscreen and bug spray that they can not get going too fast.






Wednesday evening we had the pleasure of having our wood carried into the site and stacked by the very nice Bow Valley Campground caretaker, a visit from our new neighbour to chat with the kids and generally be sociable. Ironically a single young male elicits less friendliness from me than elderly couples, despite how sweet he was with the kids. The next morning I felt badly that I had not been more friendly ... That evening I sat around the fire watching all of the evening stars arrive like little fireworks.

Thursday

Thursday morning we all slept in very late. It was time to have a little bit of breakfast, head out for another walk and pack up the site. Hilariously there were already people hovering for our campsite!
Okay now for those of you how do not know, I am the WORLD'S Coldest Camper, I must sleep with a winter hat on pulled down to my nose and the blankets pulled up to my mouth. Needless to say this has prompted the children to sleep with their hand knit winter hats on despite being tiny little infernos who wiggle out of their sleeping bags they are so hot. As you can imagine in the mornings when people walk past our camp site and se the three of us walking around in out winter hats it sparks a little curiosity. Never Fear soon I will be sleeping with some lovely new baby alpaca violet mittens too LOL

Best Wishes for your own Camping Adventures from

The Toque & Polar Fleece Crew

Camping with the W's 7/19~7/22

July 19th to 22nd found us camping at Beaver Flat Campground with out dear friends the 4W’s!

http://www.kananaskiscountrycampgrounds.com/elbow.html

I headed out to the campground with BabyJ on the Thursday to ensure that we were able to secure our two coveted sites of 35 & 36! http://www.kananaskiscountrycampgrounds.com/campgrounds/Beaver.jpg BabyJ and I had a very relaxing time setting up camp, playing with rocks and walking along the Elbow River. She even managed to roast a marshmallow all on her own for the very first time. Needless to say the smores are always a hit and even more delicious when you make them yourself.

Roasting her own marshmellow for the first time!

On Friday morning we headed back into town to pick up BeaverJ and DaddyJ post soccer camp and work. It was a quick turn around and we were back to the campsite lickety-split.

Eating breakfast by the river watching the birds and dragonflies

The afternoon was spent with the kids playing with some lovely other children asking us every two minutes how much longer until BeaverW arrived. You can imagine our relief when the W's arrived at dinner time.

Spending a few hours waiting for BeaverW to arrive playing at the river

Friday Evening with the 4Ws was an excellent abdominal workout as we all laughed until our bellies ached. The Picture that earned them the title of Senor Bozo (like the clown) and El Bozo because how many Bozos does it take to set up the tent if is no wives are helping?

First there was dinner where we were all relieved that DaddyJ was going to get his fix of HOT DOGS which we had been hearing about since Beaver camp in June. I even managed to convince our dear friends to try (and enjoy I dare say) the Maple Baked Beans which brilliantly DaddyW thought to eat with his potato chips. After all as much as I try to push the fruits and vegetables there has to be a little fun…..

Friday Night Menu:
~Hot Dogs
~Maple Baked Beans
~Vegetables and Dip
~Potato Chips
~Baked Bananas with Marshmallows
& Chocolate Chips

While eating dinner and starting the evening fire we started to notice a very amusing parade of men who appeared to be setting up a Cold Beer Store in one of the end campsites in our section. The endless trips from the 6 assorted vehicles (for 7 men) proceeded to become even more amusing as we watched fully inflated air mattresses being portaged down the path. At one point I realized that we were all being rather rude as we stared slack jawed, mouths agape at the sheer volume of things these 7 had brought with them. Keep in mind I’m camping with two small children, it took me two loaded car trips to bring everything and I was put to shame. I think we were just waiting to see them carry in the oak barrel hot tubs and saunas! The Daddies were horrified, I’m not sure if it was more so because of the number of them who were getting away for a boys weekend or lack of apparent “manly camping” sense with fluffy down comforters, air mattresses ect.

For those of you who have completed the St John’s Ambulance first aid this picture will remind you of the picture of “what not to do with an axe”, I believe DaddyJ went to start the truck shortly after witnessing this and MommyW sequester the children out of ear shot less things went wrong while using “A LOG” as the chopping block.

The Beaver Buddies

The highlight of the evening was DaddyJ crushing a metal can with his foot without missing a step in his trip to our camp site to check on the Little J’s. We are all quite certain that if all else fails in life DaddyJ will make an excellent elephant impressionist and none of us will look at a hot dog roasting stick without laughing for many years to come.

Mini Bozo's in training?

Senor Bozo the "Crusher of Cans"

MommyW and I particularly enjoyed my having to use my “MOMMY TIME OUT VOICE” akin to the “BIG VOICE” from the Chicken Little Movie to tell the man playing his guitar sitting in the middle of the road after visiting the “MAN-CAMP” beer store to get off the road. In return for saving them from the sure death of being run over we were instead greeted with a red laser pointer targets on our persons to and fro the outhouses.

Riverside Breakfast Menu ~Saturday morning
~ Choice of Mini Cereals
~ Strawberries
~ Mini Apple of Cherry Danishes
~ Hot Chocolate or Coffee
~ Juices and Water

Again the Bozos attempt to set up the umbrella in the light breeze & bright sun of several adult sunburns and distinct wind burn!

Saturday we did absolutely nothing other than supervise the kids, eat lunch on the river and direct them on how best to build a Beaver Dam, Nap with BabyJ and relax!

All of Saturday’s efforts resulting in the moving of one large log for the purpose of diverting water flow down the lovely rock channeled river bed to the “swimming pool”

Saturday Night Blue Plate Special:
~ Steak
~ Fire Roasted Baked
~ Potatoes
~ Corn on the Cob
~ Smores

Saturday evening was a repeat of Friday night without the antics of the “MAN-CAMP” or people playing guitar in the middle of the road!

Sunday Morning was quite and peaceful as the soccer net stood unused, the horseshoes on the ground and the little campers safely in their tents.

We ate a delightful breakfast of English Muffins with Fried or Scrambled Eggs, Cheese, Sausage or Back Bacon, and hash browns before packing up and heading out to Elbow Falls and Bragg Creek for Ice Cream.

The ¾ of W’s and ¾ of the 4J’s

The 4J’s and 2/4 of the 4W’s

Our very best impression of bumps on a log!

The beauty of Elbow Falls despite dirt bikes, quads, people swimming to close to the falls and other assorted activities which made you realize Darwin’s Law of the survival of the Fittest is still appropriate today!

What an absolutely outstanding weekend. We hope it is the first of many annual 4WJ Camping trips! Even the cars enjoyed their together time!

But Was it all together too much together time for the W's?