The Powers’ Crew went camping.
Since school started last week, I’ve completely cut out sugar from my kids’ diets. So imagine their complete and utter shock and delight when I let them each pick a treat of their choice at the gas station. This is what I like...it was special instead of just an everyday occurrence. They were grateful and savored every bite.
For the long ride to the camp, I gave the kids these clipboards with roadside Bingo games on them. They spent a good 15 minutes crossing stuff of their boards. I though it would last longer but it wasn’t long before they were announcing that they should just cross off all the things that they knew they’d never see. It started with windmills and pretty soon it was horses. We were driving through the country at the time. Whatever. Thank you
i heart organizing for these great printables.
Our friends have some land near GlennAllen and we often go there for camping with machines. They also let us borrow these side-by-sides. I’ve been wanting to go four-wheeling FOREVER because it has been two years since my last trip. I was a little hesitant about using these beasts because they are different and I don’t like new things. But they made a lot of sense for us because there was room for all our kids without having to bungee them to us on the back and front of actual four-wheelers.
I cruised around camp and learned how to drive it. I had to learn what it was capable of so that I wouldn’t be scared of driving it through rivers or straight up and straight back down a mountain.
Hubby did some showing off so that I could see that the machines wouldn’t flip over.
There is a cabin being built at the camp and with all the spare wood and logs, the kids had a blast building forts and making “camps”.
One of the main reasons we wanted to come out here was because both Darrin and Jake received new guns this year and this is a great place to shoot some rounds.
But first, we had a very serious talk about gun safety with all the kids.
This .22 was a gift to Jake from Peepaw. It was his gun when he was little. We told Jake he could have a gun when he turned 10 years old but decided that he was capable of having it this year (almost nine years old) instead.
He learned how to load it.
He learned how to hold and sight it (it was a little bit long for his short arms so after this shot, we found something to rest the barrel on).
Darrin shot a few rounds with the 9mm
This worked much better for Jake.
He hit the target! (About 50 fee)
Meanwhile, up the track, Jordy and Josh were busy building forts.
And fake campfires.
After shoot-fest, we built a real fire for S’mores.
Jake played light saber battles with the sparks.
We had an impromptu music party.
Then we let the kids play with the camera. These shots of us were taken by Jake.
Joshua took this shot of Jake
Then Jake took this shot of Joshua.
Then Joshua took this shot of all of us.
And Jake requested a silly shot. The whole time, Jordan was standing next to the photographer prompting poses and smiles and acting like, well, me and Tracy when we are out on a session.
The next morning we prepared for our big ride in the side-by-sides. This was Joshua’s very first time ever going out on the trail. He was nervous.
The first leg of the trip takes us to the top of the mountain.
Family photos with a timer.
Everything was going very well. I was impressed with the side-by-sides because we all rode comfortably and they went anywhere. It was cold out and the seats are above the engines so that was a toasty bonus. And then...
I was told that these machines are “unstickable” but just in case, one of them has a wench on the front to use to pull the other one out. This only works if they don’t both get stuck at the same time, right next to each other. Thirty minutes of frustration, prayer and engineering genius later, Darrin managed to get the big one out, around and hooked up to the smaller one. Then we were free.
(Trying to find SOMETHING to tie the wench to)
As you can see from the photos, there isn’t anything anywhere at all to hook the wench to. Darrin actually hooked the wench around a tundra head (a ball of mud with grass on it) twice and tried to pull the big machine out. Predictably, the tundra head was decapitated and we didn’t move at all. Jaycob started getting pretty upset and went up on the hillside to pray. When he came back down, Darrin was in the process of tying up to yet another tundra head behind the machine, hoping to pull it backward out of the mud. Well, long story short, it held, we pulled out, drove around pulled out the other one. Thank you LORD (and Jake).
Then we rode on for 20 minutes and stopped for lunch and to relax. I admittedly had a mini meltdown after we were all unstuck and back on our way. We hit a point where we had to turn around and go another way and I lost it. I was so done. In my defense I was sick with a raging sinus headache and a fever but I definitely pulled a big baby moment. Mostly because I had no idea how much farther we had to go and I was worried about being stuck again. Hubby talked me through it and after about twenty minutes of riding on, I was recovered.
In the end, it turned out to be a great trip. There is a huge swamp valley at the end of the trail that is really hard to maneuver through on four-wheelers. It takes a couple of hours and there is a lot of getting stuck. With the side-by-sides, we were through it in about 15 minutes and only the small one got stuck and only once.
