Fall Camping with the McCarthys

 

We logged our final camping trip in the books in early October.  We had a very long camping season this year!  Our first trip was the eclipse in southern Illinois on April 8th and our final trip took us to Skillet Creek with the McCarthys the first weekend in October.  That means, this year we camped for 7 out of the 12 months.

We couldn't have lucked out with a better weekend for the last trip of the year either.  First, the weather was amazing!  The last bit of summer - with the temps on Saturday in the low 80s.  And on top of that, it was the campground Halloween weekend which meant that all of the seasonal campers had their sites decked out with decorations and there were tons of activities planned for the kids.

I just wish we'd have known to pack for it!  We'd have come ready with costumes and candy...but it's nothing a quick trip to Walmart couldn't fix.  The kids did a great job of letting me pick out simple costumes that didn't cost a million bucks and they were great sports at making what we had work. 

Abby won third place in the pumpkin carving contest and the kids loved the freedom of trick or treating for however long they wanted to be out for.  They free ranged all over the campground and us adults loved the quiet that was left behind.  LOL!

We couldn't have picked a better way to end the season!  The camper is all put away and winterized for the winter months but we've already started booking sites and trips for next season!  It feels like it's forever away, but we'll be back on the road again with our house in tow before we know it.

Hazel's Ear Piercing (a first!)

 

For years and years now both of these girls have said they were too scared to get their ears pierced...then all of a sudden this spring Abby decided she was ready.  Just a few short months later Fran was asking to have hers done as well.  We had to wait until swimming season was behind us, but in just two short months this one will be accessorizing with earrings just like her sister!

The review:  It didn't hurt at all!

Devil's Lake Tri

 

You'd be hard pressed to tell from these two pictures I took over the weekend, but we had a nice big crew there to cheer Ryan on at the Devil's Lake Tri this past weekend.  Mom and Dad and Erin came to spend the weekend camping and race watching.  We'd planned to have Jamie and Zach and family join us too but the McGrath's have been slowly recovering from some bad colds and contrary to this photo, Hazel was still feeling pretty under the weather this weekend after missing 4 days of school last week.  So Jamie opted for healthy kids and they dropped out of the weekend.  Totally understood!

We hiked a new hike along the river near Prairie Du Sac - nice to try something new but I don't know that this will be a hike we do again...and grabbed refreshments at the Vintage Brewing Company that is right there in town. We did scope out some ideas for when we're up there again in a few weeks with the McCarthy's though!  After hiking we stopped at the Ski-Hi Apple Orchard and grabbed caramel apples, apple donuts, apple cider and even some cider rye which I'm excited to add to a future old fashioned!  

This trip was the type of camping we love most!  We hike a little, play some games, make a fire, sit around and chat and generally take things slow!  Abby made tonka pizzas for everyone and we had a big meal of spaghetti and italian sausage for dinner per Ryan's pre-race request.  

Ryan raced really consistently with where he's placed in years past.  He finished in 1:34:59 and came in 129 of 607.  I did the math and he placed in the top 1/3 for his wave (age range) and over the past 3 or 4 years (I can't remember how many he's done now...) he's finished each year within a minute or two of that same time.  Not bad for the only race of the year!  I'm sure it was the spaghetti dinner that did it :)

1 Family x 12 (Sept)

 

Another camping trip and Ryan's first and last tri of the year is in the books!  It felt very summer like this past weekend with temperatures near 90....we're not quite ready for summer to be behind us, but we are looking forward to cooler temperatures.

Packers Pre-season

 We had such a good time last year (and missed Mom so much) that we decided to do it again this year and this time we brought some friends!  Packer's pre-season is a fun weekend.  The game played on Saturday at noon (best timing!) and the tickets didn't cost an arm and a leg so we decided to give it a go one more time.

The weather was HOT this year - much different than last year.  It was nearly 90 and we were sitting right in the sum...so I have to give these kiddos some credit.  The lasted most of the game and didn't complain (too much).  

Mr and Mrs. Ware joined us too - I'm so mad I didn't get a full group picture!  We camped at the Brown County Reforestation park again - a short drive from the field.  I'm not sure if we'll do pre-season again next year or not, but I know Ryan wants to go back up to this campground to explore some of the hiking and biking that leaves right out of the park and I'd really like to do the hall of fame and stadium tour sometime (which doesn't run on game day weekends).  So, long story short, I wouldn't be surprised if we find ourselves up in Green Bay again next year...just maybe not tailgating a game.

We also did a MUCH better job at tailgating this time around.  We had a fancy Bloody Mary bar (thanks Mr. and Mrs. Ware), Mimosa (thanks Mom), pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns...and we even remembered seasons salt and pepper, and garbage bags this time!  It's clear that tailgating is it's own whole routine to pack for and we just quite aren't there yet.  We still have some work to do before I'd call us expert tailgaters :)

This is when we knew it was time to start packing it up and heading to the cars.  We were starting to loose then by the end of the third so we called it quits and started heading toward AC.

First Day of School

 

I say it every year - and I mean it every year.  I can't believe the summer is over.  I can't believe it's back to school today.  And mostly, I can't believe I have a 7th and 4th grader.  

I loved this summer - the combo of the kids being pretty self-sufficient and having Sammi here for the summer to play with the kids - I feel like I finally found the right combo for us.  The kids enjoyed being home and not at camp all day, and I loved the whole vibe of "less" this summer.  We found the perfect groove and I'm sad to see it end...but I'm also looking forward to getting back into a routine and fall is just around the corner!

We somehow missed the bus today for the first time EVER!  (I truly believe the driver didn't even go down our street somehow)...but luckily I was home to deliver the kids to school this morning.  The kids thought it was a very entertaining way to start their first day back.  Hazel said "I've never been driven to school before".  She must have forgotten about that entire COVID year where I drove them to school every. single. day.  LOL!

Here's to not missing the bus tomorrow and a year full of friends, new memories, and very little homework (I hope!).

Acadia - Part 3 (The trip back home again...)

 

Our trip out to Maine included all of the private campgrounds and hiking and national park stamps we could find on the way...our way home was filled with friends and family time!  We left Maine on Monday morning and our first stop on the trip home took us to Rhode Island.  Talk about a state I never thought we'd check off our camper map!  But, earlier this spring Ryan found out that his college friend Brownie and his family were moving to Rhode Island this summer from California.  They are a military family so they are often on the move.  We visited them last summer in Cali for Brown's promotion ceremony and now just a quick year later we planned to visit them on our return trip.

I did a terrible job - I didn't get a SINGLE photo of our time with the Browns.  What a miss!  We so rarely see these families...I'm so bummed.  We did have a nice evening with the Browns though.  We arrived around 3pm and hung out for the evening.  The kids played nicely and I know Abby and Hazel were super excited to have a new set of toys to play with after over a week of living out of the camper.  They were excited to have a basement to play in (and us adults were happy for the separation of space and noise - lol!).  

Being a weekday, the Browns were in the middle of kid activities and trying to get school kicked off (they are homeschooling this year) so we didn't stick around for too long on Tuesday morning.  We grabbed breakfast and hit the road around 8:15 the next morning so it was very much a quick trip in Rhode Island.  We didn't get to explore much, but we had a great time catching up with the Browns.

Tuesday took us from Rhode Island to New York where we stayed with my friend Lindsay and her sister, Sarah, at their lake houses.  The drive was right in our sweet spot - 5 to 6 hours.  Lindsay was working (darn us vacationers messing up the work week) and Sarah was coming from their home in New Jersey so we ended up having some time to spare on our drive that day so we stopped at a brewery for lunch along the way.  Turns out breweries that are open on a Tuesday are hard to come by in New York - I could only fine ONE that was open for lunch that day, but it was great.  They had good beers, great wings, really great fries and it was nice to sit down and eat lunch.  For the majority of the trip we'd eat breakfast in the camper (or the girls would eat in the car while we drove) and then we'd make lunches in the camper when we stopped for gas.  Abby being gluten free has really helped us say "no" to fast food stops, saving us money and helping us make better food choices.  Unintended (but good!) consequences for sure!

We spent Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday hanging out with Sarah and Lindsay making crafts and letting the kids be kids!  It was cool and rainy - which honestly was welcome after so many hot, humid days on the trip.  So the kids stayed inside most of the day.  Us adults caught up on life, shared stories and laughs, made cocktails in the afternoon and mostly just supervised a massive craft haul. 

The kids made custom jean jackets, custom sweat suits, cups, hats, notebook holders, bracelets...I'm sure there was more but I can't even keep track now! They had the time of their life and I'm sure they are going to be expecting me to up my craft game now.  I have a feeling there are going to be lots of requests for iron on patches in my future.

We also got to meet Nanny Amy - Lindsay's summer nanny for the last three years.  She was great with the kids and was so sweet and fun to talk to.  She even gave Abby a cool new hairstyle.

We left New York on Thursday morning and continued our trek back toward the home front.  We made it all the way to the east side of Cleveland Thursday afternoon where we explored lake Erie for a few hours.  A huge storm blew through a few days earlier and had knocked out the power in the entire town until a few hours before we arrived.  We were bummed to find the brewery we planned for dinner was closed but the kids were all too happy to just play at a little beach we found and eat Smashburger Tacos right at our campsite.  

We so often find ourselves traveling in a big herd of people, with friends and family in tow for these vacations, it was so strange to be by ourselves for the last part of the trip.  We traveled home solo for the last 4 days and while we sure missed being with everyone, we really loved being just our small family too.  We could pivot plans on a dime, move quickly once we had a plan and really enjoyed hanging out with the kids in a more focused way.  Thursday evening we planned ladder ball and threw the football with the kids (Ryan decided he wants to teach us all how to throw...me included - LOL!).

It's funny - we drove all the way to the east coast - all the way to Maine and it wasn't until we were sitting on a tiny little beach at Lake Erie that I felt like we were actually at the ocean.  Of course, we weren't...but it sure felt like it.

A standard deep lunge picture because we wanted Erin to know we missed her lots on this trip!  (The kids even joined in on the lunge).

All in all, here's my quick recap:

• We drove a lot (see the photo below for our trip total).
• We figured out that we prefer driving for about 5-6 hours per day - 350 miles doesn't seem like a chore and we still have time to explore when we arrive at our destination for the night.
• We love a road trip - but we can't do them every year - we need to every other, or every three years them....
• The kids are really good kids - they get drug along to a lot of places they wouldn't pick and they are good sports.
• We love a destination - something to do when we get to a place...a hike, a swim, a lake...hell, even a brewery!
• These long road trips aren't REALLY camping.  Sure, we sleep in the camper, but we're really tourists...doing tourist things.  Not usually just sitting around a campsite during the day.
• We love games - we played games almost every night.
• We liked Maine but it felt like Wisconsin...and we can get to the north woods in 6 hours.  We didn't need to drive 20+ hours to get there.
• We want to visit Vermont again - I wished we'd had another day there!
• Lake Oquaga (Lindsay's lake) was beautiful!  We could live in that area of the world...hilly and full of trees.  It was one of our favorite areas to drive through.
• There are lots of strange names on the east coast that we can't pronounce.  LOL!
• I love lobster - hot or cold.  Ryan, not so much!

If you've read this far, you might be wondering "so where are you guys going next!?!" and the answer is, we don't know!  We have a Ritterbusch family trip planned to the Florida panhandle area next year (which we'll fly to) and a wedding in Mexico next spring...but outside of that, we don't have our next big family trip planned.  2026 will be a Ritterbusch family reunion year and that might send us on another big road trip but the location and date haven't been set yet!  We've been causually talking about the Ozarks area, or maybe doing Isle Royal next...but we don't have anything in the works just yet!