Camping is for the Ducks...and the Bears!

We had a LOT of rain at Algonquin the past 10 days.  We did manage to spend 2 afternoons at the beach.  But by yesterday we were all getting frustrated at the constant rain.  They lifted the fire ban going on in the Algonquin park as the temperature was dropping too.  Good thing Bruce brought the space heater along, or the tent would have been damp and cold all week.  I just ignored the heater for the first couple of days he had it in the tent.  It came from Bruce's dad, thus full of ocd.  Fortunately I'm good at ignoring the elephant in the room.  When I finally asked Bruce if he cleaned the heater, he said yes, he did.  So all the things touched by the cord were still ok...That is if he wiped the cord down too.  Haven't asked that question. :)

Wednesday we had face painters from the area come down and do all our faces.  It was fun for everyone.  Unfortunately tho, that was one of the few sunny days, so they got washed off pretty quickly when the kids went swimming.

This year i did not put up a basin of water at the camp site for all my extra handwashing.  There was a jug of water and some soap if needed.  Having a basin full of water last year made it easy for me to just quickly give them a wash.  It didn't waste water.  This year i didn't feel i needed that crutch.  After all camping is living in/ with dirt!

It is pouring hard outside our house right now and I 'm grateful I'm in a warm, dry house and my food isn't a campsite away!  A rainstorm at camp is fun,  if you have tarps over the tents, a fire going and lots of company to while away the time.  It gets less fun if it drizzles and rains and storms day after day until the day we packed up.  My brother-in-law undid his tarps first, and when the storm hit us this morning, all their family's stuff was soaked.  Our tent was wet too, so we have to set everything up at home and let it dry out...whenever the rain stops.

The kids had a great time.  They didn't mind running around in the rain.  They made boats and sailed them in the river behind the camp sites,  did flower pictures with my dad, ate lots of ice cream and fed the chipmonks.  Katrina lost 2 teeth at camp!

My sister took a holey tarp to the garbage bins and the next time I saw her, she was helping with taking down our tarps.  I'm guessing she didn't wash her hands between the activities, but instead of getting upset, I just let it slide off my back.  I'm sure by next year any germs will be dead in the bin!  I also let black garbage bags touch my legs as i was carrying them to the garbage bins and didn't change my clothes.  I did  wash my hands.  I left a rubbermaid bin we were using as a garbage bag holder by the garbage as Ididn't want to take it home without cleaning it, even tho I probably should have.  Ocd won that one.  Bruce said I didn't have to bring it home, tho. :).

Our pictures show us laughing and having fun, so it wasn't all rained out.  Better luck next year!!

PS.  Tom took the dogs home after 2 days so they missed the really rainy, dirty ground.