Sunday, July 22, 2007

Marc & Sharon's party and Indian River camping

Indian River 2007

Well, the annual Wagner Family camping week is upon us. We left for our trip on Friday July 13th. We headed towards Stanton. What? Stanton you ask…thought you were headed to Indian River. Yes, that is our final destination, but we must stay 2 nights at Sharon and Marc’s. They are celebrating turning 40 this year. Haha! I can smile and laugh as I’m only going to be 34 this year! I love being the youngest sister in law! Anyways, we spent all day Saturday with family and friends. We all had a great time. Sharon and Marc have some very nice friends and well, if you’ve never met a McVicker family member…you’re missing out. You can’t run into a nicer family. All of Sharon’s sisters are so nice and fun to be around (her brother Mike is pretty cool too!)

Sunday morning arrived and we departed in a traditional wagon trail style. Jeff and Tracy lead our way to Indian River, followed by John and Cindy and finally us bringing up the rear. There are 11 families camping this week. Wow! A friend of mine said “that’s way too many people for me”…well, just about all of them are family, so there’s not much we can do about that. We have a great time doing activities together and having our kids play together. I can only hope that some day Cam, Anna and Julia want to camp with their families and hopefully with their Wagner cousins. Grandma Mac loved camping and so we think it’s an important Wagner tradition that we want to continue. If only she were hear to see what her family does now!

Wayne took the kids to the pool today (Monday). It’s shaped like the state of Michigan. Pretty cool. It’s a bit cloudy due to a filter being broke; I hope that they get it fixed soon! Tracy, Lori and I (plus Kristen and Jess) went to Petoskey for a few groceries and things. John and Cindy also went to Petoskey, but they went to the hospital. Cindy’s back was giving a lot of grief, so she went to get checked out. Apparently, she got some good meds; she seemed to be ok tonight. Thank goodness.

Tuesday…what did we do Tuesday…we went rafting down the Sturgeon River. We really had a great time. Wayne, me and the kids all went in one raft while the rest of our group (we had 29 people total!) grouped off. I won’t lie. It was a struggle to this novice rafter. I mean…I’ve never really rafted, let alone with the dead weight of 3 kids who are all fighting about who is sitting where and about whose going to help mom and dad paddle. It was frustrating, but by the time we got to the 2nd stop, everything was smoothed out and I think we got the “Most Improved” vote. Anna wanted to go again. Guess that means she had a good time. After rafting we came back and just hung out with everyone. Like always I joke that I need a vacation from our vacation. It’s tiring. LOL!

Wednesday I took the kids to Burt Lake State Park. The kids had a blast playing at the beach and in the water. I never saw Cam. He went out and never came back in. John had the boat out and took the kids tubing. Apparently, that’s Cam’s new favorite thing to do. Anna played with Lauren and Julia the whole time. The girls really get along pretty well and so they just floated on rafts and made sand castles. I on the other hand, got burnt! Well, it was kind of on purpose. I was trying to even out my “farmer’s tan” that I had going since soccer. There’s nothing like having white arms bands! So, yesterday I didn’t put sunscreen on so I could get a little sun. Heh. I got A LOT of sun! My back is a little mad at me. Nothing else got burned, but my back. Not sure if my farmer’s tan got evened out. Wayne went golfing with Bob Ribarski and Dan all day. Yes, I was the nice wife. I have to be pleasant as Wayne is letting me go to Chapel Hill, NC for a conference in September. (Well, umm…I am presenting at that one, so it’s kind of important that I go…. ;-) )

This morning (Thursday) has started on a rainy note, so we are headed out for a little shopping. We went to Petoskey (again). Had lunch at Applebee’s and then went to downtown for a little shopping. Anna wanted to hit Claire’s (the place that has everything for the budding 'tween goth girl) and get some new earrings. We also took a stroll through Penney’s and Anna won out again as she was the only one who got anything. It continued to rain on and off for most of the day and our campsite became a mud hole. Not much you can do about it.

Friday was another golf day for Wayne (remember, I’m earning cool wife points for my trip to NC!)…he had a good time and me the kids stayed behind. We ended up at the pool with Uncle Eric and the Johnson kiddos. For the most part it was a hang around the campground day. This trip (compared to last years’ trip to Mackinaw City) is pretty calm. Last year we seemed to be a bit more on the go; this year is a bit slower and I think I’m ok with that. It’s seems like we’ve been busy non-stop since late March when spring soccer started! And I’m certain that we’ll be hearing from AYSO for fall soccer soon. (Shhhh…kids go back to school in 45 days!!!)

Saturday we spent most of the day in town at the art fair and some little shopping. Woohooo….what a perfect day! After we got back, we took some time to tidy up our camper and camp site to get ready for our departure tomorrow.

All in all, the trip was fun, there was limited fighting between the kids and well, we all survived. Sounds like a good time, right??