Happy Fourth of July!
OK, so what's everybody doing today? We're just goin' down the street to a neighbors house for a dog & burger cookout around 4:30 then everyone will go to one of the local fireworks. Fireworks are illegal here so we couldn't even get sparklers for the kids. DH drove to VA yesterday thinking he could find some but didn't run into any stands....so the kids just get glow necklaces
my kids have never touched a sparkler. darn drought! I don't think we'll even see fireworks tonight. Hard to beat Disney!
So, I stopped at
Walmart yesterday & bought some more camping stuff before all the seasonal stuff sells out!

('Cuz you know they'll start putting up Xmas trees next week now that it's July 4!)
Yeah, Hallmark is having an Ornament Preview Weekend, I think it's next weekend. School clothes are already in the stores. It's kinda hard to get Cassie excited about trying on long pants and long sleeved shirts when it's 80 degrees outside I'm such a mess! They only had 1 pack of (4) "good" tent stakes. And I wanted to get a battery powered fan.
Now, I'm far from a camping expert, but who goes camping with a fan? Well, so I couldn't decide WHICH one (not only am I anal I have a problem making decisions) - they had 4 to choose from. So I bought 3 of them so I could put batteries in them & try them out at home then do the return thing!! One is larger which is probably good, but it takes 8 'D' batteries! YIKES! The other 2 are much smaller - one is a Coleman that attaches to the roof with a magnet or something - and was the most expensive...but only uses 4 'D' batteries.
I'm just gonna leave the whole battery thing alone. 'Cuz that's just the kind of nice girl I am (be quiet Betsy) The other one is a little bitty thing...but less than $10!! Then I bought a cookstove & a battery powered lantern (YIKES! 8 more 'D' batteries)! (I remembered those fuel lanterns with the mantels being a pain...)
DH is is giving me grief now over buying stuff to use once! I know it will drive me nuts to smell everyone elses breakfast cooking tho so that's why I bought the stove! But if we just eat donuts then we won't have dishes.
and Jared will sing the "MY Mom is Great!" song all weekend....now I'll have to get a dishpan & take a pot to heat water too!

One thing always leads to another doesn't it?!
don't forget the wine
ANYWAY, so now with DH giving me grief over buying stuff to use once, I'm thinking

OK, we could go camping at the BEACH!

Then he can't complain that we only used the stuff once, right?! So I called the DE state parks (they have one ON the beach near Rehobeth and another one up at Cape Henlopen). (I stayed at the one on the beach WAY back when I was in college & took a summer water color class at the beach). Anyway, I was thinking we could do a trial run before our rafting trip NEXT weekend but they're all booked up of course. They DO however have a few openings for Labor Day weekend.
That's amazing. Our state beaches and parks are filled the day reservations are opened - 365 days ahead. Phone lines are busy for hours. No sites with hookups left tho....the problem with Labor Day is the traffic. It's about 145 miles from here I think & takes about 3 hrs w/o traffic. But on a holiday weekend the travel time can easily double here!!

There is another campground (private) in the Rehobeth area that has openings for next weekend but it's 2 1/2 miles from the beach - so you have to either take a bus (runs on the hour) or drive & pay metered parking BUT it also has a pool and water & electricity....Hummm....I have not run this idea past DH yet

What do u think? Which would you do? Am I INSANE?! I must be huh?!
you will fit in quite well. good luck with your decisions. me no likey da drive for a weekend, but that's just me. We can blow a weekend in the backyard bbq'ing and in the pool (yup, spoiled, we are - and very thankful!)