Connecticut Camping 2024

With Sarah, Sean, and Evie away in Alaska for the summer, we engaged in what I was thinking of as "camping lite" at Odetah Camping "Resort" in Connecticut. Nathaniel took this so literally he didn't weigh himself down with camp chairs, towels, toothbrushes, or half of Friday night's dinner, but that's okay--we were three families, we had lots of fun swimming and cooking and making fires and pitching tents, and we weirdly managed to stay dry through the overnight rains, win battles with squirrels, and avoid getting eaten alive by bugs. A few highlights of the weekend follow.

Trying the wacky s'mores flavored Cup Noodles I bought for the occasion, Samantha declared it "Shockingly pleasant. The broth tastes like watered-down cocoa, but not in a bad way, and the mini marshmallows just immediately dissolved, so basically you're eating regular ramen in chocolate-flavored broth. With no vegetables!"

 

Setting up the kitchen area at Nathaniel's cabin. He had a cabin mostly just for himself, while Shin had a cabin around the corner with her kids, and we had a tent site slightly further up the hill with our big tent for us and the girls, plus a smaller tent for Marcus, Logan, and Andrew.

 

Campsite fun.

 

The pool was newly redone and very nice, and the little and middle kids had lots of fun in it, while the big boys horsed around in the lake.

After the pool, we split up, with dads taking big and middle kids to the beach to get started on our creation in the sand castle contest, and moms taking little kids back to the campsite to bring down sandwiches and fruit and snacks for lunch.

There were assorted activities to keep us busy after lunch: a salt dough ornament craft, horseshoes, and a DJ taking requests (including Logan's for that song from "Despicable Me 4."

Sadly, this was the winning sandcastle, and it wasn't ours. Samantha would like to point out that their bricks weren't even even.

Drowning our sorrows from losing (by only eight votes! The winning site had eighteen votes for it!) in the playground, Robert discovered the merry-go-round didn't have the normal frictiony base to slow kids down. He pushed the 12 and up crowd with wild abandon.

 

Afternoon trip to Dairy Queen.

Walking back, very satisfied, from tie-dying on the pool deck. Both Helen and Everest had another tie-dyed tee shirt with them, so they decided to overdye theirs.

 

Starting a fire to cook dinner, and big boys playing "Skull."

 

We finished the evening with marshmallows and glow sticks and bed, though Nathaniel was woken up in the middle of the night by squirrels trying to steal the covered container of peanut butter brownies. They had failed in opening it, so they decided to try to wrestle it down off the picnic table and hide it away in their lair until they figured out how to get it open, but Nathaniel surprised them in the act.

 

Sunday morning brought with it some awake kids playing games, some sleeping big boys, and then some pancake-making and wood-gathering. Seriously, having two eight year olds around to fetch wood and water was pretty luxurious--I could get used to that!

Samantha made all the sausages and Marcus was of course the pancake chef.

We missed you, Sarah, Sean, and Evie--next year all together! Meanwhile, Marcus will make you pancakes anytime.

 

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Created: 8/12/24. Last Modified: 8/12/24.