After two days at
the place in Columbia we decided to go over to the State Park on the
lake to check it out. Whoa! It was beautiful! I didn't want to wait
three weeks to get into this place so I decided to go into the office
to explain our situation. I was still on her list, but she said if I
started working already then we could surely come in now. What?!
Awesome! She did have one stipulation & that was we had to move
over one row during their weekend Halloween celebration because she
had a full house & our spot was already reserved. We were ok with
that and said we'd be back the next day to hook up. Happy dance! The
only downfall at this place was it didn't have full hook ups, but
Amazon had a deal with a poop truck who would come out once a week to
pump us out. We knew that wouldn't be enough so hubby ordered a
portable poop tank that he could haul with the truck. It was all
falling into place & now I would only be about 12 minutes away
from work. Whew! That made me feel a little better. On top of that
good news this place had 2 playgrounds, a beach area, 2 big bath
houses (2 for men, 2 for women), 3 laundry areas, a storm/tornado shelter, wifi, smooth roads
for bike rides, a huge wide open grassy space with a stage, and
hello….. kids to play with. Score! Things were looking back up
again for the Bergmarks. On top of all that I made a new friend &
in a couple weeks she would be hooked up right next to us & we
would car pool to work. Same shift, same job so this worked out
perfectly.
We were parked in
the area with no trees around, but since there weren't a lot of
campers in the park it wasn't a big deal since we had space between
us. We wanted the tree lined area, but would have to wait until after
the Halloween festivities. Being in the trees is so relaxing &
makes you feel more in tune with nature, but we only had to hold out
for a couple weeks. No biggie & it would be worth it. Turns out
in this first space there was a 4 yr old girl staying in a spot
diagonally from us. She had a 10 yr old brother & a 2 yr old
sister as well. The mom was working at Amazon & said it was her
3rd or 4th year back. Wow! I don't know if I
could come back year after year like that, but the season was new so
who knows. So this little 4 yr old girl came right over & the
kids got to playing and played almost daily. They all brought out
their bikes & rode back & forth, which was pretty much a daily thing. There was a slight slope
from the road & Annika would zoom down & fly past our spot.
It made my stomach knot up because I worried about her falling off.
Of course what Annika does, Emry has to do. That girl has no fear! I
had to tell her not to go to the top of the slope & to use her
brakes. I could just picture the road rash from her falling. Gah
makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it. Thankfully no one had
any accidents….well not until a week or so later. Dalton finally
got motivated to learn to ride his bike so I would run behind him
while holding onto his shirt. He figured out that he could easily
coast down that slope & balance like he used to on his Strider
bike, but simply peddling and riding straight seemed difficult for
him; therefore, he would walk his bike up then coast down over &
over again. I was just glad he finally wanted to ride, but as a mom I
still worried about him falling as a new rider. One afternoon hubby
and I were standing outside when he said “watch me” and there he
went down the slope with his legs out to the side balancing. I told
hubby “I hope he doesn't fall” and what happened next? He
literally ran into a post & flew off his bike. I'm not
exaggerating. The one time I didn't have my camera recording & I
missed it. He had his hands straight out like Superman & he was
airborn off that bike and went several feet onto the grass. I was so
glad he had his helmet on and after a full body check he was fine. He
left a nice chunk out of that post. I can look back & laugh about
it now because he flew like a super hero, but at that moment my heart
sank into my stomach. No more slopes for him until he mastered the
simple riding part. My heart can't take it!
How about a not so
dangerous sport like fishing? Yes fishing is so much better. You
can't get injured from fishing….well technically you shouldn't, but
you haven't fished with my kids. They only had 2 fishing adventures
during our stay at this park & there's good reason. It's simply a
lot of work. From constantly putting the worms on their hooks
(hubby's job) to helping cast out over & over again while dodging
their hooks. On their first adventure they fished off the side of the
lake near the boat launch & it was a rocky area. You really had
to cast your line out in order to not hit the rocks. Annika got
really good at casting & was a natural. The other two kiddos
tried their best & it was pretty entertaining watching them. No
one caught any fish on the first adventure, but Dalton did manage to
catch his hat. He tried to cast out but apparently forgot to let go
of the lever & that hook just came right back at him & hooked
the rim of his hat. Yikes!! I could only imagine if that would have
gone into his eye. Hey it could happen. As always I was on high alert
the whole time because Dalton decided to move to a spot off to the
side & no surprise it was a sheer drop into the water if you
missed your footing. Why must my kids give me a heart attack? His
response “I won't fall mommy”. Well I sure hope not. We had to
cut our fishing experience short that day because I had to go to
work. Mama's bringing home the bacon now!
On our second
fishing expedition a couple weeks later (Emry's birthday) we went to
the opposite side of the park near the tent camping area & fished
off the beach area. I'm happy to say I caught a fish & Annika
caught 2! As we neared the end of the worms, for some reason my kids
got all sentimental & didn't want to use the last 3 worms to
fish. Instead they wanted to keep them as pets because they were so
cute. Uhhh what? I could have sworn I saw Emry kiss one of those
slimy worms. Ick! I told them we couldn't have pet worms & that
they should just put them in the sand so they could create their own
home. That idea wasn't good enough for these precious worms so
instead my thoughtful children created a little house out of rocks
and leaves then put their beloved worms into their new home. As we
walked away they waved & blew kisses and said their many good
byes to their new worm friends. It was quite entertaining and every
day for about a week they asked if we could go check on them. I told
them that the worms were probably deep in the sand keeping cool, but
we did take a trip or two over there and sure enough there were no
worms present. I love how sensitive & thoughtful my kiddos can
be. It's sweet.
Whether it's riding
bikes, fishing or just playing outside with friends. I hope my
children grow to love the great outdoors as much as hubby and I do.
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