"Hello? I'm in the Carousel of Progress.."*UD1/13pg74"All Good Things...*

[mommytothreeboys]

Awww, I totally enjoyed the family pictures. So cute!

And your GG looks so sweet! How nice that you are able to still have her in your life. My dear beloved "Nanny" passed away when I was six months preg. with DS4. I still miss her terribly some days. Enjoy her!!!!

I really am blessed to have her in my life! She is really a dear lady and I love her a lot! It's hard to see her so frail and confused sometimes, but she's a tough one!

I absolutely love tent camping and have been going every since I can remember. I've slept, well taken cover, in our tent many times during thunderstorms. Just remember.....don't touch the tent or it will leak! Learned that one the hard way.

The family pictures are absolutely adorable. Has anyone ever told you that you look like your grandmother? I think you do.

We love tenting as well! Bring on the rain! We can handle it!

No worries, Missy. Your faithful readers will be here whenever you got an update ready. Just enjoy your camping trip with your family, you deserve it. I for one will be praying for decent weather for you guys.

VBS can keep you very busy! I wouldn't touch the Director's job with a 10 foot pole, there's so much work involved, so don't worry about us.

Thanks for the pictures of your extended bunch. What a great looking group of kids and how sweet that you got to spend time with grandma. My grandparents on my dad's side are 90 and 95 and still going strong and I feel very blessed.

Have a great trip!!

Thanks for the prayers Christine...very much appreciated!

Now that I'm back I can focus on VBS.....what a job!

I was thinking she looked like her grandmother, too!!!!

OK...funny story! Now that two of you have mentioned that I look like my grandmother, I have to let you in on a little secret. Long story..stick with me! My mother divorced my alcoholic abusive biological father when I was 6. When I was 8, a wonderful man married my mom and adopted both my brother and I. That picture is of HIS mom. LOL! So no blood there....but it gets better! When my dad (not bio father) was 4, his biological mother died suddenly and the woman you see in my pics is the woman who remarried his father and adopted my dad and all of his siblings! SO....no blood twice removed!! But thank you all for the compliments!

Awww...what wonderful picture you have. We have 9 all together too (with my sister's 3, my brother's 2, and my step-sister's 1, plus my 3) and time all together is so precious! The ones with your grandmother are wonderful! Moments to treasure for sure!!

Have a great time camping....my idea of camping is a Hampton Inn, so I give major kudos to anyone who will tent camp! I hope the weather is great for you!

We took a very similar picture last summer (the oldest who was 13 didn't get in it and my step-sister wasn't there, so it's just 7 kids) but it is one of my favorites....

We'll be here when you get back! Have a great time!

Sara

Thanks Sara! My SIL won't camp either, although I keep begging her to join us! Oh well...it's not for everyone!

Great picture!

Missy, it's great to "see" you!

I know you're excited about your camping trip and I'm excited for you. Can't wait to see pictures from THAT when you get back.

I love your family pictures. Isaiah is totally taller than both his brother and his cousin. What are you feeding that boy?!

And I thought Jonah's hair was dark for some reason but it looks kind of reddish/light brown (almost like my Will's). Am I seeing it wrong in this picture, or am I just remembering it wrong.

I'm looking forward to your next installment, but I can totally wait. We leave for World Series next Thursday and we'll be gone for almost a week too, so I'm with you on being behind. We'll all catch up. And we'll all be here. Gotta love the DIS!

Have a great time!

Jonah's hair was darker..good catch! At the beginning of the summer, he wanted to "go blonde" so we let him lighten his hair a bit!

And Isaiah is definitely the biggest of the cousins! I have trouble keeping that boy in clothes that fit!

Of course, we'll be here when you return.

I love the pics of the family especially the one of them in the circle. It will make a great gift.

Take care and have a great time

Thanks! I can't wait to get it framed!

Hi Missy

It looks like you all had a great time over the weekend!! Such wonderful pictures!!! I especially like the one with all of the kids faces in a circle--so cute!!! Ahhh...what a sweet picture of you and your GG.

Camping...What a fun thing to do!!! My parent's got us a new tent and sleeping bags for Christmas so we are hoping to bring the boys sometime this summer. But with all the rain we've been having....hmmm...I don't know. I will keep my fingers crossed that you have beautiful weather all week!!!

Have a great trip.

Camping is so fun! Your boys will love it! But do try to avoid the rain...tenting in the rain is not really fun for anyone!

I loved your non-UD! The pictures are fantastic - especially love the kids in a circle picture and the one of you and your grandma

You are a braver woman than I to go tent camping for 10 days! Grumpy knows full well that if he could ever convince me to go camping that it would be necessary to get our truck sleep-ready

Of course we'll be here when you return!! This is a great TR!!!!

I grew up camping so it's just a big part of my life. You should give it a try!

Your Non-Update update was great! Your kids are so cute - btw, I like that in your family you only have boys OR girls

Yep...we don't mix the genders in my family! LOL!

Love that pic... definitely frame it (and keep one for yourself!!)

I think the DIS always slows down a bit in the summertime...

Kathy

Oh good, because I am SO behind!!

Great family update! Love the pics!! the one of the kids faces in a circle on the ground that is a keeper. I agree w/pp you need to frame one for yourself, that would make a great gift for you 2 brothers also . Hope the camping trip is fun and not wet for ya'll. Temps sound great for everything but swimming! I also love the pic of you and your grandmother!!!

I'll have a mini camping update up soon! Thanks for the compliments!

Yes you do look like your grandma! And does your oldest son look like your brother? The brother with the liberty bell shirt.

Very observant! Yes, my Dan looks very much like my brother....whose name is also Dan!

LOVE the family pictures. The cousins pics are so precious. Good luck with camping and with VBS. What a busy lady you are!

Ugh..I sometimes wish I could stop the world and get off just for a bit!

Awesome family photos! Isn't it funny that you and your brothers all have kids of the same gender.

I hope you guys have a fab time camping and I can't wait to hear all about it.

Thanks Carissa!

What precious family pics!! WOW! The cousins come in sets of 3--and either all boys or all girls--how fun! Praying for good camping weather!! Hope you're having fun!!

Thanks for the prayers...we had a FABULOUS week!

Great family update Missy!! That must have been so much fun. I hope you are having a fun time camping & the weather is cooperating.

Thanks Amy!

Hope you are having a good time!!!!

We did have fun..update soon!

hi Missy hope the camping is going well....

i don't know how I missed the non-update...but just loved the pictures...your Grandma looks SO SWEET! how lucky you are

love the cousin shots...

I have 11 1st cousins on my mom's side of the family and when you include my brother and sister and the great grandkids there is 22 of us total for my Nana...it is a fun group when we can all be together...it has been awhile since we had a total group shot, almost 3 yrs ago. I was pregnant w/ Naomi then.

so cherish those precious times together

Yeah..unfortunately they are too few and far between.

I hope the weather held out for your guys!!




I love this picture...it is definitely a framer. We have one like that of our boys from Sears.

We had a little rain, but not bad. I'll have some pictures up soon if Photobucket will cooperate!

 

[carissanboys]

Welcome home Missy!! Can't wait to hear all about your camping trip.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Welcome back Missy! Glad to hear that your camping trip went well. If you are like me, whenever we go somewhere I come back and wash everything even if we didn't wear it. It just has this "packed away" smell. I hope to hear more about your Disney trip as well as your camping trip. And, went you get a minute (which I realize will be a while) come catch up on my trip report. I've done quite a few installments. It suddenly hit me that I'd be going to Disney in just 2 weeks and I had to finish up.

I can not believe that there is no blood relation between you and your grandmother 'cause ya'll really do look alike.

Lisa

 

[nu2wdisneyw]

Welcome Back Missy!! Can't wait until you are all settled and ready to DIS with us again!!

 

[cjackearl]

Missy!! Glad you're back and had a great time. Looking forward to hearing more about it when you "dig out". Our VBS is next week, and one of my best buddies is the director. It's stress time for her. My part is much less stress inducing so I'm helping her where I can, but its a big job. I'll pray for your sanity!

 

[Angies1274]

Welcome Back, Missy!! So glad to hear that you had a great time camping!! Can't wait to hear all about it!!

 

[ladybugmom]

Welcome home Missy!! Glad you had such a great time camping!!

 

[scottny]

Hi,
all caught up again. Looks like a great time.

Sorry for the arguement, glad it was only one, I think.

about the wallet keep falling out. I had that happen.

Great she was able to get the cellphone back.

boo to standing room only for Fantasmic.

 

[hhockman]

Hey Missy! back!

Glad you had such a good time. We went "camping" for the first time this past weekend (we were actually at a campground, but it was about a mile from my house). We had a good time.

I can't wait to hear about the camping...and I'm looking forward to your next Disney installment soon.

I know you're busy. We'll be here when you're ready!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Well, I‘ve been back from our camping trip for over a week now and, although I still feel overwhelmed with all of the things on my plate, I wanted to post a mini-TR for all of you to enjoy. I miss DISing with you all....UGH! Vacation Bible School is the next big project on my radar and once that is over, I will feel more free to spend time catching up on TR’s I am subscribed to as well as getting a Disney update posted! I am the VBS Director and so the few weeks before the actual program are the busiest and most stressful for me trying to be sure everything is planned, staffed, purchased, etc! It’s a HUGE job, but I really do love it....don’t ask me right now though...I’ll tell you I’m NEVER doing it again!

Anyway....on to the mini-TR from our annual camping trip.

We camp every year in Brooktondale, NY, just outside of Ithaca. It is about 2 ½ hours from our house and a gorgeous area of New York State. Our church district owns a campground there and every year there is a Family Camp in July. Kind of like a camp for kids or teenagers, but this one is for families. Families from all over our Upstate New York District gather together on the grounds for the week. We have been going for about 8 years....Jonah has practically grown up on that campground! We love all of the people and have good friends that we really only see during camp. It is an awesome time and a priority for our family every year.

We tent camp, so you can imagine that getting a family of 5 (plus my nephew Josh and Isaiah’s friend....so 7) ready to live outdoors for 10 days is no small feat. The weather forecast was not promising so I was fully expecting a few wet days.

We finally got all our gear packed up and we arrived on the campground at about 2:30 on Saturday July 11th. We knew that the forecast was calling for rain, but we seemed to have avoided it so far. We decided to set up our canopy first as that way, if it did rain, we would have a place to stay dry! We got that set up and no sooner did we start unloading the tents from the van when it started to RAIN!! UGH! We tried to wait it out, but it was just a light rain and the clouds looked ominous. It was obviously not going to get better, so we figured we better take the opportunity to set up the tents. We have 2 tents..one for Jeff and I and one for the boys. Now the boys’ tent is actually 3 tents...2 small tents connected by a screened-in room in the middle. We LOVE this tent and it has served our family well! We got our tent all set up as the boys worked on theirs. Everything was going as smoothly as possible considering the rain, when we realized that the zipper on the boys’ tent (one that attached the tent to the screen room) was broken. Now...had it been dry, we may have been able to fight with it and fix it, but at this point the rain was beginning to pick up and there was no fixing this zipper. Like I said, the tent is fairly old. One of the rain-fly poles was also broken and it wasn’t the most watertight tent around. SO....with more rain in the forecast for the week, we decided it would just be a better idea all around to scrap this tent and head to Wal-Mart and get a new one. It would be worth the money just to be dry all week and not to fight with the stupid zipper in the rain!

Now...this little side trip to Wal-Mart could have been avoided if the boys had done what they were asked to do while we were still at home. They had been told to set up the tents in the yard to air them out and to be sure everything was working. They did set them up, but didn’t connect the 3 parts of their tent.....kind of defeated the purpose, don’t you think?? But I digress.....

So....off to Wal-Mart we go...in the rain...with our camp not even close to being set up.....to buy a new tent.

Not the best start to our trip...but we were on vacation and we all really tried to be upbeat. The rain did stop while we were on our shopping trip, so we were able to come back and finish setting up camp. Now, I don’t feel at all settled until all the tents are set up with the air mattress, sleeping bags, pillows, etc, and the “kitchen” is set up with the picnic tables, stove and dish area. It’s kind of like not feeling settled in the resort at Disney until the luggage is unpacked and stowed. We were WAY behind schedule, but it all eventually got done. Whew!! Time to enjoy camp!

This is a pic of our little “compound” with our tents and “kitchen” area.

This is how Jeff transported our picnic table to our site. I told him it was a bad idea, but he was insistent....and don’t you know it worked! I hate it when he is right!

Our circle of chairs around our fire pit. This is my favorite place on our campsite!

I’m not going to go through each day, but we did some really fun things. We took a trip to Taughannock Falls State Park one day and walked the gorge trail and went swimming in Cayuga Lake. (Of course, this was the one other day all week it rained!) Here are a few pics of us at the park.

Isaiah enjoying the falls.

Silly husband!

This is what the pic was SUPPOSED to look like!

The falls are absolutely beautiful. We walk the trail along the gorge until we get to the falls and then we walk in the gorge on the way back. It’s so fun to walk over the rocks and cool off in the water!

The beautiful Taughannock Falls.

The gorge.

The group walking in the gorge.

There was also a Horseshoe Tournament one day that Jeff participated in with his dad. His parents didn’t come for the whole week, but they came and spent the day with us. It was cool that they could play in the tournament together. Here’s Jeff taking his turn.

We also spent a lot of time just relaxing and enjoying our friends. Here are a few pics of some of our camp buddies!

Hanging out around the campfire.

Playing the Washer game.

Jeff is very relaxed!

Isaiah and his best camp buddy Isaac. These two are like two peas in a pod!

The other thing we always do is visit a little swimming spot called “the Mill”. It’s just along the street and hidden by the trees. There is a swimming hole and a cool waterfall with a deep natural pool below it. The boys like to slide down the waterfall into the pool. We love it here on a hot day...we didn’t get too many days I would consider hot, but we had to go anyway!

Jonah enjoying the cool water.

Isaiah “riding” the falls.

Although this was supposed to be “family camp”, Dan spent as little time as possible with his family! Here is a picture of about all we saw of Dan all week...his backside as he headed off with his friends!

And here are a few final pics of Jeff and Josh getting the bike tied on the roof of the van to head home (the other 3 went on the bike rack) and the family in front of the campground sign.

We had an awesome time, and in spite of the scary forecast, only 2 days with any rain. The temps were cool (in the 70s), but the sun was nice and warm. It’s always nice to go and just relax with no agenda or list of “To-Do’s”!

I hope you enjoyed my little mini-TR and that it will hold you over till I can get back to the Disney trip!

Thanks for reading!

 

[penguintux]

It looks like you all had a fantastic camping trip!! I've never been camping outside of the backyard, but now maybe I'll have to look into a trip to the local state park...

And I just have to say that sliding down that waterfall looks like so much fun!

Good luck running VBS

 

[longing2Batdisney]

that really looks like a fun family trip!
Beautiful scenery!!! would love to visit the area some day

it almost makes me want to pitch a tent...really I was telling Danny we should go to FL and camp at one of the state parks(can't afford a condo at the moment)...I really don't know if I would like it; unless we hook up a redneck A/C


have a great time at VBS!! read you when you get back!

 

[Planning fanatic mom]

Great Mini-TR!! The only thing I think of when I read it was RELAXING! Ok maybe not the part with the tent.

Would you ever consider tent camping at WDW?

I used to work at a summer camp and one week a summer was for families. It was always one of my favorite weeks.

Good luck with VBS.

 

[Angies1274]

What a fun and relaxing camping trip you had!!! Well...relaxing except for the time it spend getting things ready and setting things up, right? Ahh....it sounds like you had a wonderful time!! I'm so glad that the weather was nice overall, with only a couple days of rain.

The waterfall pictures were just beautiful!! and what fun to be able to slide down one--wow!!

We are planning to do some tent camping this weekend near my parent's house. The boys are very excited!! I'm excited too...but mostly to be able to cook smores over an open fire!! Yum!! We usually make them in the microwave.

Good Luck with VBS!!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

It looks like you all had a fantastic camping trip!! I've never been camping outside of the backyard, but now maybe I'll have to look into a trip to the local state park...

And I just have to say that sliding down that waterfall looks like so much fun!

Good luck running VBS

We really love to camp! This is always our longest trip, but we are also doing a long weekend at the end of August.

Sliding down the waterfall is fun! I've been in the pool and gone behind the waterfall, but never gone down it. The boys love it though!

Thank you!

that really looks like a fun family trip!
Beautiful scenery!!! would love to visit the area some day

it almost makes me want to pitch a tent...really I was telling Danny we should go to FL and camp at one of the state parks(can't afford a condo at the moment)...I really don't know if I would like it; unless we hook up a redneck A/C


have a great time at VBS!! read you when you get back!

The Ithaca area is really beautiful. The gorges and waterfalls are breathtaking.

We've gone some years and been UNCOMFORTABLY hot...but this year the temps were really nice. A bit cool in the evening, so the fire was nice! In years past we have been sitting around the fire sweating wondering why on earth we were sitting around a FIRE! But it's what you do....camping isn't camping without the fire and s'mores!

Great Mini-TR!! The only thing I think of when I read it was RELAXING! Ok maybe not the part with the tent.

Would you ever consider tent camping at WDW?

I used to work at a summer camp and one week a summer was for families. It was always one of my favorite weeks.

Good luck with VBS.

The RELAXING is what we love most about camp. There are activities available, but for the most part it is very chill and all about the relationships built around the fire or sitting around the picnic table. So nice!

I don't think we'd ever take the tenting production that far on the road! I might do the FW cabins, but probably not the tent. It's just a LOT of stuff to transport! Plus...I'd never get Jeff to drive to Florida!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

What a fun and relaxing camping trip you had!!! Well...relaxing except for the time it spend getting things ready and setting things up, right? Ahh....it sounds like you had a wonderful time!! I'm so glad that the weather was nice overall, with only a couple days of rain.

The waterfall pictures were just beautiful!! and what fun to be able to slide down one--wow!!

We are planning to do some tent camping this weekend near my parent's house. The boys are very excited!! I'm excited too...but mostly to be able to cook smores over an open fire!! Yum!! We usually make them in the microwave.

Good Luck with VBS!!

The setting up and tearing down are definitely the worst parts...that's why we like to take longer trips. It seems like too much work for just a day or two!

MMM..s'mores are the best! I'm kind of having s'more withdrawal! Have a fun weekend!

 

[cjackearl]

Thanks for the camping trip update, Missy! You've got me motivated to check out camping sites around here so we can do a camping test run. How fun to go the same place every year.

We're on Day 3 of Crocodile Dock. I love this VBS! I'm the Sing and Play Swamp Stomp leader and the Firefly Finale leader. The music is just awesome!! Good luck with your finale preparations.

 

[shebaxric]

It looks like you had such a wonderful time! I grew up camping as well, with a rocky formation that we made into a waterslide too! I think camping is a wonderful family vacation, besides Disney, of course!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Missy:

I loved the mini-trip report of your camping trip. I've been tent camping every since I was a little girl and love it. When I got married, I took my husband camping and he fell in love with it too. Then, when the kids came along, we took them. Nothing compares to lying in a tent listening to the sounds of nature all around you. Peaceful!

The campground you stayed in was absolutely gorgeous. What I wouldn't give for something that pretty being just 2 1/2 hours away. We have to drive at least 4 hours to find a campground that's pretty.

Our church has an annual family vacation too but it's in Florida in August and they rent out condos. By the time we pay for our Disney vacation, we can't afford the costs. Oh well, at least we have Disney.

Thanks for the report and good luck with vacation Bible school.

Lisa

 

[hhockman]

Wow! It was really beautiful there. Maybe one day we'll graduate to a real camping trip rather than just a day and a half a mile from the house.

We'd need a tent first though.

It looks like you guys had a fabulous time. It's so nice that you can go back and see the same friends every year. And I know it's fun that you know the area so well.

Thanks for sharing your pictures with us.