We spent the weekend camping with our homeschool support group. It was great fun - this is our third trip together and we have one more planned for next month. We had 5 families, 10 adults, 9 kids and 3 dogs! On Friday we set up camp and ate a taco salad potluck dinner. We of course followed it with smores (one family had never roasted marshmallows or made smores - so it was really fun) with the kids new marshmallow roasters. One family bought marshmallow stick that you push a button and they rotate the kids loved them and were even great about sharing. Most people turned in early that night but I stayed up alone until the campfire died down crocheting a blanket I'm working on for one of the kids in our group. I loved working by the fire and looking up at the stars, it was peaceful.
Saturday was a very full day. We got up early I took the kids over to the playground while Serona made breakfast. The kids and the dogs and I walked down to the playground and made some friends there. After breakfast all the dads took the kids fishing (even our kids went down with them though are vegetarians) and spent the morning by the river. When they returned we had lunch and then a group of us went for a hike. I had Rhiannon and Ciaran with me and the dogs, Serona kept Sirah at the campground. Ciaran had a meltdown and I ended up stopping with him and the dogs then we spent the remainder of the walk alone. I had to carry him most of the way on my back - we stopped and explored and enjoyed some mom and me time. The dogs walked with us.
When we got back we all went to the beach. It was Sirah's first time at the beach. They had a sand bottom pool with a shallow section so the kids could just explore and play - they had a great time. We were there for a few hours and Serona helped teach Rhiannon to float and explored the shoreline with Ciaran. I played with Sirah and made all the bathroom runs. After the beach we headed home and had a dinner of veggie dogs. Then it was smores time again and then the kids used hammers to open some geodes we had purchased. After that they headed to bed and for a brief moment we had three sleeping kids.
The adults sat around the campfire and played Taboo and Run-Off (presidential trivia) and headed off to bed in dribs and drabs - with the last group of us heading to bed around 1am. It was fun to chat, play games and get to know one another more and build on our shared history. I really enjoy all the families in our hs group and we seem to be a good fit together even with all our differences.
Sunday morning we woke up and cleaned up the tent and then had breakfast. We then enjoyed a nice slow morning around the campfire with all the parents and the kids running around playing nearby. We had a nice big section of several campsites put together that gave the kids lots of space to run around. Then everyone packed up and headed home.
I think everyone enjoyed themselves, I know our family did and just two more weeks until our next trip!
Peace,
Tenn
August 30, 2004
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Hmmm...Vegetarians fishing - I never thought about that before. Catch and release, I assume? Did the other families eat their fish? Did your kids want to? Just curious, the vegetarian thing is so foreign to me. Would you take your kids fishing if it was just your family camping? I fish and eat them and love it, but I am guessing if you are veg you probably don't think it is very nice to catch fish, even if you do let them go. And you don't want to know what my brother and I did to fish when we were kids!! (There were a lot of brain damaged perch swimming in circles when we were done - if there is reincarnation it will serve me right if I come back as a fish!)
ReplyDeletePersonally I would never fish and I am uncomfortable with even catch and release. Serona wanted to take the kids since everyone else went and they actually did not like it very much and Rhiannon and I had a long discussion about what the point of it was and she did not feel it was a nice thing to do either, and I don't think she will fish anytime soon - Ciaran I do not think is old enought to fully understand it one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteThe group did catch and release, no one ate their fish. No there is no way that we would fish if it was just us and actually the other times these families have fished we did not take the kids - this time we did and now I think they understand it better. Just as they understand what it means to be a vegetarian after we went to a dairy farm and we talked about how some people eat cows, chickens and other animals. I think it really sunk if for Rhiannon when we went to the zoo to see the piglets and the next time they were gone and we talked about the various things that happen on working farms.
Personally I do not feel comfortable with fishing and do not think I really ever have. But I do not come from fishers and never really enjoyed it even before I was vegetarian (I became one in high school).
Peace,
Tenn