Camping and TICKS!!

Our first camping trip of the season (and hopefully one of many) and Mykelle had a tick!  I remember when we first moved here I thought it was bizarre to see tick warning signs up in parks and to receive a notice in the town newsletter to watch for ticks.  I guess NJ is one of the leading states for people with lyme disease... SCARY!  We came home from camping and when we bathed the kids Adam saw this on Mykee's leg:

Yeah, that's a tick alright!  Terrible memories of having had a tick myself as a child came flooding back. I remember my parents acting freaked out and blowing out matches before they stuck them on my head, and then seeing the biggest tick ever when they finally got it off.  I had been scared and could see that Mykee was scared too.  Adam and I kept pretty calm and talked to Mykelle about what was happening, but she did NOT want us to touch it!  Adam had to hold her down while I pulled it off with tweezers.  It was over in no time, but Mykee kept telling us the story of how the bug had to bee pulled off with "pinchers" and how she was so strong :)  She still wants to go camping again so I don't think it scarred her too badly!  Fortunately, I read that if the tick has only been attached for 12-24 hours or less, it is very unlikely she'll contract lyme disease.  It was easy to tell this bug hadn't been attached long, so we're keeping an eye out for symptoms but she'll probably be okay!

  Thursday night Adam and I were sitting around talking about what we'd do over the weekend when Adam suggested we go camping.  I was a little hesitant at first, thinking of stuff that needed doing, but thought what the heck.  The kids will love it!  So I posted on Facebook we were going camping and did anyone want to come.  The Avery's agreed to come along (I love that they were spontaneous enough to come with us, even if they only had a two-man tent for a family of four...) and we were off to Swartswood State Park by 2:30 Friday afternoon.

Check out the TINY tent all 4 Avery's slept in!

And now check out the GIANT 8 man tent I bought on sale!  It's huge!

We set up camp and went exploring through the trees and down to the lake.  Supposedly there's some pretty good fishing there but we didn't catch anything off the dock with our Buzz Lightyear pole and Powerbait... But the kids had a great time!

Wes was working and came up a little later that night so we had our dinner pretty late.  We made it really easy since we'd done it last minute:  Hot dogs, chips, grapes, and juice boxes.  Delicious!  The only problem was that Adam made the fire humongous, so we were burning our hands and faces when we roasted the dogs.  At least I don't have long hair to singe off!  :)  Of course we also had S'mores- Mykee had two and wanted another- she told me I was MEAN because I said two was enough!  I am SUCH a mean mom... I thought the name-calling didn't start until they were teenagers??

The night wasn't too bad, we were pretty warm in our tent and the kids didn't wake up until about 6:30.  The Avery's I don't think fared as well...  Melissa said she had to sleep at the foot of their queen blow-up mattress because Wes and the two kids took up too much room across.  I have a feeling they'll be getting a larger tent for the future and maybe more than the ONE sleeping bag they had!

Breakfast was really good for being such a last-minute and easy meal: "Roasted" bagels with cream cheese, yogurt, and grapes.  Mykelle and Evan had a good time roasting their own bagels.  Then we packed up our things while we were lightly rained on.  After packing we went to the lake again, played on the playground, and ate PBJs for lunch before we took off for home.

This was just behind our campsite

You might be asking, "Where's Evan?"  He threw a fit and stayed at the campsite (don't worry, I could see him!)  When we got back we saw that he'd eaten quite a few grapes and emptied the bag!

My husband is such a MAN!  I love him.

These are Mykee's flowers she picked for me... Root and all!

The kids have already been asking if we can go camping again!