Tales From the Minivan

What a weekend!  I was seriously sad to pack up the tent!  Camping with a family of six takes a lot of prep work, so tearing down the tent after only two days is always bitter sweet.

This past weekend we loaded (I mean stuffed things into every open crevice) of the minivan, and headed towards our destination of Prince Edward Island.  Our home for the weekend- Twin Shores Camping Area.

This place was amazing and HUGE!  I really could have stayed for a week, as there was just so much to do.  If you ever consider camping on PEI, I’d highly recommend it!

Here’s a little recap of the weekend.  Our departure time was a little delayed, as I wanted to make sure I added my submission to the FSL consultation website, everyone was still sleeping so with a clear mind I added my 3 page thoughts. We finally got on the road around 11:00am and stopped at the Big Stop for gas and a quick bite to eat and we were out on the road again and didn’t stop until we hit Borden, PEI.  The kids were amazed at the Confederation Bridge.  We had been over before but the boys were too young to remember it.  While in Borden we stopped at Gateway Village a little shopping area and information centre to pick up a map, have some Cows Ice Cream and let the kids burn off a little energy at the playground.

We arrived just after 3:00pm and headed straight for our site to get things set up.  I was a little nervous as we had just left 2 days of thunderstorms back in NB, and it looked as though they had followed us.  The sky was covered in eerily dark clouds on one side.  Getting the tent set up was first priority to allow for shelter in case of rain.  A fellow CPO’er  Tricia (QuiltingMum) who had arrived earlier stopped by and said hello while we were setting up and we made arrangements to get together the next day. We got the tent set up and beds inflated and headed for the beautiful beach.  I grabbed these shots of the kids on the way down while the sky was still blue.

The kids played on the beach for a bit, and when the skies started to get darker we decided to head back to the site ad have dinner before it started to rain.  On our way up we ran into Kelly- Miscouchemommy , when she saw the imminent rain she also decided to head backup.

For dinner I made a Thai dish.  I know it doesn’t sound overly “camping friendly” but it actually was very simple.  I tried to take as many canned goods as I could.  I grabbed a can of Thai Curry Paste, and can of coconut milk and a can of sweet potatoes.  We has some left over chicken from the night before, so I had that in the cooler along with some precooked jasmine rice.  I heated up the paste, coconut milk and sweet potatoes and chicken together on the camp stove and once it was hot I added the rice for a minute or two to warm it up.  It was really good!  Of course it started to rain just as I started to cook, but I was in a fairly sheltered area so it wasn’t too bad!  Here’s the gang enjoying some Thai “camp style.  Look how dark it got!

After dinner we took a walk up the the General store and the huge playground as the rain seemed to have settled. We got ready for bed and all piled into the tent.  Once Finn was asleep, we took turns telling stories and Andrew and I attempted to play a game of Cribbage. The boys were getting a little restless, so we decided to turn out the lights and finish our game once they were down.  We all fell asleep though!  Well I should say, that Liam and Ciaran were down, but Mackenzie, Finn, Andrew and I were up quite a bit through the night.  We got hit by a torrential rain storm with high winds.  I’m sure it was pretty scary for Finn, I know I was a little scared of getting drenched.  It bought back memories of previous camping excursions before kids when I awoke to a leaking tent dripping on me!  Luckily we fared quite well, there was only one area that was wet and that was because we had some things pushed up against the tent on that side. We again woke to cloudy skies, and light drizzles every so often.  Once again when I started to cook breakfast, more rain!

We took a walk up to the playground for the boys to play and we ran into another CPO’ers daughter!  Chantelle’s daughter Caitlin was there with her grandmother.  She was really helpful and told us of some things that were going on at the campground like a rodeo, and Mussels & Music on the Beach later that evening!  We took the boys up to the rodeo and again ran into Kelly.  Of course the boys protested the whole way there, but were entranced once they saw what was going on.  This is them in from the the corall.

The sun finally came out and the later part of the afternoon was spent down at the beach.  It’s so nice to actually swim in the ocean.  Here on the Bay of Fundy, that water is numbingly cold.  I’m not exaggerating either, it only changes 5 degrees in temperature from summer to winter!  Here’s a few candids from the beach.

Ciaran so proud of his Crab Leg find!

Finn playing with Tricia’s little guy Andrew

The bathing beauties, Tricia and Kelly

That evening after Mussels on the beach we took the kids up to Tricia’s site  for a bonfire and some Cayman Coladas (Pina Colodas with a splask of Chambord- a black raspberry liquer) and Lobster Rolls.  Kelly brought her Nutella for some S’Mores!  We didn’t stay for too long as Finn was just not being himself, but the all the kids had a blast exploring Tricia’s trailer, and palying in Andrew’s bed!  It was like getting together with longtime friends!

Here’s a shot of the three of us, and a couple of family shots of the girls (minus Kelly’s Braeden…where was he? I didn’t get to say goodbye!)  They all stopped over while we were packing up to leave.  This was one time I was actually not anxious to go home, It really is so beautiful there!

Tricia and Family

Kelly and Fam

Farewell Twin Shores!  We’ll be back!

I have so many more photos from the weekend, so here’s a Smilebox I made with some more:

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 8:37 am and is filed under Family Travels, Scrapbooking and Smilebox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.