Kentucky Lake

For our maiden voyage in the Four Winds, we decided to meet friends at Kentucky Lake.  It's about a 4 hour drive, or maybe 5.  I get confused because that's the Central Time Zone and yes, adding and subtracting an hour is too much math.  The friends we were meeting up with, the Wendels, would be driving up from Arkansas.  Mark and Kristen would be bringing their two oldest, Noah (almost 9) and Elaina (almost 5) as well as their nephew Joey, who will be entering 8th grade.

On this trip, we were joined by Andrew, our 18 year old cousin who will be starting at UK in August.  You won't see him in many pictures because, you know, teenaged boy. Andrew sat in the cab with Rob while I sat in the back with the kids.  

We got on the road pretty much as soon as the kids woke up.  It was nice that they were able to watch their cartoons on the iPad while eating breakfast, which kept them on their usual routine.

For the most part, the ride went really well.  I was able to make lunch for everyone, then we decided to stop to ride out a thunderstorm.    It was a nice break for Rob, he was able to come sit on the couch for awhile and use the restroom.  When we got back on the road, the most magical thing happened...

This picture is worth all the hard work of getting the camper ready! It's also another advantage of traveling with the kids in their car seats.  They are comfortable in their car seats and used to napping in them.  This happens on longer flights too.  Ah, bliss!

The kids woke up with 20 minutes left in our drive.  Hooray!  

We stopped at our good friends Tricia and Lonnie's house on Lake Barkley and spent an hour or so catching up.  Unfortunately the kids were a little wound up after napping and sitting for so long, so I have no pictures to show you.  But it was a nice visit and they have such a beautiful home and view.  

Then we hopped back in the Four Winds and drove about 15 minutes to the campground.  I also have no pictures of us setting up camp because while Rob and Andrew were leveling the camper and hooking everything up, I was cooking dinner and doing the usual mom stuff, bug spray, sunscreen, don't touch that, etc.  But here's the finished product.

Isn't she a beauty? And look, there's Andrew.  From the tilt of his head, I'm guessing he's texting.  If you look really closely, you can even see our dinner on the grill.  Tex-Mex Chicken in foil.  This is a great first night dinner because I mixed it all up at home (diced chicken breast, corn, black beans, rotel and a tablespoon of taco seasoning) and I put it into a bag.  Then while the boys were setting up camp, all I had to do was start a fire and put my mix into foil packets.  

This is our first dinner in the RV! 

Then, it started to rain and thunder.  Boo.  We got the kids settled into bed just before our friends arrived.  So Rob and Andrew helped them set up their rig in the rain while I had all the kids in our dry camper.  The storm put a damper on socializing that first night, so we all went to bed pretty early.  

Andrew had the over cab bunk.  He is a full grown teenager, but had plenty of room up there.  It's not as cushy as his dorm next year though.  Don't get me started on these new fangled dorms.  Kitchenettes? Full sized beds? Bring your own Keurig?  Non-sense.  

Here's the view from our bed, that's the lake! 

And here are A&R watching Zaboomafoo in Ryan's bunk.  No, they didn't spend the whole trip watching tv, but this is 30 quiet minutes while I drank my coffee.  It was the only screen time they had all day.

After coffee and shows, we joined our friends for breakfast in the great outdoors.  This is part of the beauty of camping with friends, division of labor.  We took half the meals and they took half the meals, it really cuts the work in half!  

Then it was time for... nothing.  That's the joy of camping, right?  The kids got right to work, digging, catching frogs, building frog houses and becoming best friends.  This was cemented when Elaina gave Anne a Doc McStuffins necklace.   

There is a frog in the cup holder of Ryan's camp chair in this photo.  I love how brave my kids are right now when it comes to frogs and insects, so different from me.

Lunch was our meal, and since it was too hot for a fire, I cooked the hot dogs the old fashioned way.  You know, on the gas stove in my air conditioned RV.  Hahaha.

Hot dogs and baked beans, can't get more camping than that.

​By this time, the older kids were getting a bit squirrelly, so we all went over to the lodge for a swim.  

I tried to get one of all three littles jumping into the pool at the same time, turns out that is impossible. 

After swimming all the kids needed a nap.  Unfortunately, my two did not actually take a nap, which would eventually result in an early bed time. 

This is me, drinking that sparkling wine I packed.  Hehe.

Working together to hammer a stake into the ground.  One would hold it while the other swung the hammer.  Yes, it ended in a smashed thumb and lots of tears.  

The Wendels did dinner the first night, burgers cooked on a camp fire, awesome.  Then my kids were done for the day so they went to bed and fell right asleep.  Another great thing about the camper is putting the kids to bed and going out to cook s'mores and fire pies.  Very nice.

Breakfast day two was our turn and we had an oatmeal bar (which I totally forgot to take pictures of, bad Kristina!).  I made overnight oatmeal in my crockpot and we had brown sugar, maple syrup, nuts and raisins so everyone could dress is up as they liked.  

Rob brought along a real treat, an MRE.  If you aren't familiar, these are meals ready to eat, the things that soldiers live on when they are deployed and out in the field.  I think all military kids have been treated to an MRE at some point in their lives.  

Rob, Joey, Mark and Noah discuss the finer points of MRE preparation, which involves pouring water into a bag that contains a water activated heat source that cooks the food.

This is Joey opening the travel toilet paper that comes with the MRE.

It also came with this gem.  I hadn't eaten a Pop-Tart in years. This one was about three years old and tasted just like I remember.  Which means that Pop-Tarts are the Twinkies of breakfast foods.

​After breakfast there was just a lot of kids playing and grown ups talking.  Which I guess is how camp-outs should go.

The Wendels had to leave after lunch (walking tacos, yum) which left us alone for dinner (sausage, potato and green bean hobo packets).  Then we made s'mores again.

She did this in every picture, not sure why.  But she's still pretty cute.  

I toasted the perfect marshmallow, and Griffey looks like he wants it!

Look!  It's Andrew with no cell phone!

Once we got the kids all sugared up we had to get the energy out of them, so we played a game of football. 

Football really wore everyone out.  We called it an early night and started home the next day after breakfast.  It was a great camping trip.  We learned a lot, the kids had fun and made friends, we caught up with friends we don't see very often, and a lot of good food was eaten by all.  

Until the next time, Happy Trails!