RV Camping

I've been telling myself forever that I should return to blogging; even if it's just once a week. Well, Marla has inspired me to get back to blogging because she, too, has returned to blogging. So, we'll start with our camping trip this weekend.

We recently purchased a used RV. Our goal is to flip it, make some cash and buy a nicer one. But we couldn't stand staring at it every day and not using it. So Waylan has been working on it and getting everything up to snuff and we took out to Purtis Creek this weekend.

We aren't camping rookies but we are RV camping rookies. Let me just say how nice it is to be able to cool off whenever you want, use the restroom in a potty instead of a on a pile of leaves in the wilderness and wash your hands with running water before preparing a meal. And having a full kitchen was the best!! We haven't been camping since the kiddos came along so not only are we RV rookies, we are "camping with kids" rookies too.

Our trip was just about a day and a half but we had a great time. There are, however, a few things that didn't quite go as I had envisioned them. For starters, the shopping trip that I had planned to take Friday night, so we didn't have to do it on the way, didn't happen due to some seemingly overly tired children who chose to test my patience. No way was I taking them to any public place in that condition! So we shopped Saturday morning on our way out.

As with any trip, there were some items that didn't get packed that I needed and items that we did take a long that we didn't use.  For example, I packed all the swimming and beach stuff, but no beach towels. Waylan packed our good, WHITE bath towels. WHITE towel, RV, and CAMPING don't belong in the same sentance! A few minor kitchen things were omitted like foil, silverware, steak knives, and containers for left overs. And you would think you didn't need blankets when the temp is predicted to reach 92 degrees but turns out, that's not true. And make up...why in the world did I even bother packing that?? And another very important item that I will reveal later.

Saturday was a good day. We arrived down there just before lunch time and arrived right about the same time as Waylan's brother Travis and his wife Jodie. Good thing Waylan made reservations because they were booked. We got everything set up and were playing some games outside. Ethan and Justine went on a rock hunt right away. For some reason we waited way too long to get lunch started and I've forgotten how long it takes to cook when you're camping. Somehow campfires don't get started as quickly as the stove and microwave. Imagine that. So the kids got mighty restless but we survived. And to get things started off on the right foot...Ethan had a tick on him within the first hour of being there! That's my boy!

Then we decided that Ethan needed a nap. Napping in an RV is an entirely different experience than napping at home. Putting him in his room and leaving is obviously not an option. So I stayed with him while everyone else went fishing. It took him FOREVER to finally give it up so his nap turned out to be more of a cat nap. At one point I had to physically restrain him to keep him from thinking the bed was a trampoline. He wasn't too much into that idea. And of course I wasn't surprised.

After he woke up, or should I say was awakened by the returning troops, we got our swimsuits on and went to the "beach". Be careful not to confuse "beach" with "Bahama blue water". You couldn't see past the surface and the sandy area much more resembled mud. But we didn't really care. We went with it. I decided to take some pictures before joining everyone else in the water. That's when I discovered that I had run out of room on my memory stick. So not cool!! I deleted some pictures that weren't so great to make room for some new ones then joined everyone. The water was freezing to say the least. I am a bathtub temperature swimming kind of girl so I didn't even let the water get up to my waist. Ethan and Justine loved it and I was amazed that Justine even got her hair wet. So we swam a little, tossed a volleyball around, ate watermelon and played at the playground nearby. And in staying true to eating way past "eatin'" time we headed back to camp after 7pm and still needed to get a new campfire going so we could make fajitas for dinner.

The kids weren't going to make it to our newly revised dinner time, so after baths (yes, I said baths!!), they ate earlier than we adults in the bunch. But still got to stay up past bedtime. We finally ate dinner around 9 something and boy was it worth the wait. Somehow, camp food always seems to taste great no matter what it is.  Then the kids went to bed and we adults played a few games of horsehoes. We decided on girls against the guys and I'm sure it didn't take long for Jodie to regret choosing me as her partner. I'm TERRIBLE at any and all sports. Even horseshoes! Needless to say, we lost 3 out of 3 games but had great laughs anyway.

Now, on to bed time. Our sleeping arrangements were like this: Justine on the top bunk, Travis and Jodie on the bottom bunk. Me and Waylan in the "master" bedroom. And Ethan on the pull out couch. This was, of course, after Ethan went to bed originally in our bed. Justine fell asleep on the couch and was sleeping so well that we moved her with no problem. She actually fell alseep way before Ethan and with lots of activity going on around her. After much delay, Ethan fell asleep in our room as planned and we moved him to the couch when we went to bed. That's when all the ruckus began. There is a design flaw, or two, in the pull out couch. First, after pulled out, the "bed" sits at 2 different levels so sleeping in the middle is not an option. Second, after being pulled out, there is gap left at the back side of the bed. We discovered that this gap is just the right size for Ethan to fall into and get stuck. Which also resulted in some mighty loud screaming. So after this happened about 3 times in a row, within a short time frame, I decided to sleep with Ethan. This is when I learned that you need blankets, even in 92 degree weather. I was blanketless and that's not how I roll! Poor Ethan continued to fall into the gap over and over, even with me there to keep him out of it. So neither of us was sleeping. So the game of musical beds continued. I put him in bed with Waylan and went back to bed on the unlevel couch. At least I was too big to fall into the gap. And I found a sheet to cover up with so I was satisfied...for the time being.

I should mention that pretty much the entire day Justine had been coughing off and on. I gave her Benedryl at bed time thinking this would help matters. Not so much. It got worse and the girl coughed ALL NIGHT LONG. So, basically no one got any decent sleep. And her coughs began sounding more like gagging. About 6am she crawled into the unlevel bed with me but managed to stay free of the gap. But not free of the coughing. About 6:30am I began thinking that we are going to end up at CareNow or the ER with her because she was in serious need of a breathing treatment. The very important item I didn't pack...it was the nebulizer, or purple monster as we call it. After this weekend, I will never leave home without it! I got on my phone and looked up the closest CareNow and it was an hour away. I even contemplated going to a fire station to get a treatment. She was doing some serious coughing! And after that coughing turned into throwing up practically in my lap I thought heading home right away was going to be necessary. The worst part about her throwing up wasn't the fact that she covered the seat at the table with it...it was that Uncle "weak stomach" Travis joined her! And then "weak stomach" Daddy who walked in on it also joined her. Yep, that trait is shared among brothers. Thankfully, they took their business outside so I only had to clean up after one, not three.

So that I could get things cleaned up inside the camper, I had Justine go outside with Waylan. Somehow, she stopped coughing. Then after returning to the camper she started back. So we figured out that the warm air helped her. Strange considering I've always heard that cold air is what helps someone having breathing problems.

She seemed to be doing okay so we decided to go about our day with looking for a Geocache and taking a paddle boat out on the lake. Myself, Jodie and kids are who took the boat out while Waylan and Travis went searching for another Geocache. Well, in keeping with our "camper's schedule" this just so happened to occur during what would have been Ethan's lunch and nap time. Not a good combination. He wanted to steer the boat which put us going in circles and headed towards the bank a few times. Then he wanted to walk around and do his own thing on the boat. Not gonna happen! Life jacket or no life jacket this was not going to be a good idea. So that physical restraint he experienced at nap time he got to experience again. I figured a screaming Ethan was better than a sinking Ethan. I guess the screaming in disagreement made him tired so he began to fall asleep. We rented the boat for an hour and this was 25 minutes into our ride. We called it quits and headed back to the shore. Then we had to wait another 30 minutes for the guys to return to pick us up. I sat Ethan down on a picnic table and he fell asleep on my shoulder. That was a LONG 30 minute wait!

After that we went back to camp, hooked up the trailer and left. We were going to stop for lunch on our way out but both kids fell asleep right away. And they slept all the way home! Better than the sleep they got the night before. And Justine didn't cough at all.

After we got home tonight and the kids woke up Ethan was full of energy and hungry. Justine was back to coughing, wheezing and refusing to eat. We gave Justine a breathing treatment and she relaxed and watched TV. The rest of us ate a late lunch/early dinner. Then Waylan caught up on some sleep with a late nap while Ethan played and Justine watched TV. Justine was doing alright but it seems her treatment only did her good for about 2 hours and she was back to wheezing again. She finally ate then it was bath time and bed time for them both.

Ethan went right to sleep without a peep. Thank goodness! While I was getting Justine dressed for bed I decided to take her doctor's advice and listen to her breathe with a stethoscope so I could learn what wheezing sounded like. I've decided that's a creepy sound! In doing that I discovered that her heart was beating extremely fast! I took her down to Waylan so he could listen and he couldn't even count her heart rate it was so fast. So although she needed another treatment we knew that would speed up her heart rate even more so she went to bed without it. We are hoping it will slow down after she has been sleeping then we'll give her another treatment.

She's had more of these breathing episodes than I can count so with the ongoing encouragement of our nurse friend Hannah, we will be making an appointment with the Pulmonologist this week. Perhaps we can learn how to stop these episodes before they start.

Well, apparently I didn't get all my words out today because this post is mighty long. If you stuck around till the end, bless you! And thanks for doing so.