Monthly Archives: June 2007

June 15 — June 17, 2007

This was the last of our three weekends at Otter Lake Camping Resort in the Poconos – and it was wonderful once again!  The weather was actually a little chilly and we had a few thunderstorms pop up out of nowhere (we had some crazy hail with one of the storms), but we still had a great time.

Emily and Kathy went on a fire truck ride, then the kids and I rented a boat again:

Kathy was on the shore with Daisy who was finally brave enough to go in the water – resulting in a very wet doodle…

She was quite the center of attention at the campground this weekend – even more than normal.  SO many people stopped us and asked what kind of dog she is.  And I guess she was just ASKING for attention when she stood at the edge of our campsite wagging her tail at everyone who walked by. 

Matt and Emily brought their scooters and had fun riding up and down the hills (and speedbumps) in the campground.  There was only one minor injury (a skinned knee on Matt) which is remarkable for as fast as they were going! 

In fact, we enjoyed the campground so much that we tossed around the idea of perhaps getting a seasonal spot there someday.  Certainly not this season, but maybe in a few years.

As soon as we got home, it was so HOT that we broke down and put our window air conditioners in – this is the longest we’ve lasted without them.

Now we’re home for a few weeks until we camp again at Big Timber Lake for a whole week in July…

June 8 — June 10, 2007

We just got back from another weekend of camping at Otter Lake Resort in the Pocono Mountains – the weather was GORGEOUS! No rain for the Torrences this trip – how unusual…

We did get a really late start on Friday night because both Matt and Andrew had baseball games Friday evening- we didn’t arrive at the campsite until 11pm! But everyone slept in late the next morning, so we were well-rested and ready to go on Saturday.

The boys found some new friends and played basketball for a while on Saturday morning. We also swam in both the indoor pool and the lake – the kids really enjoyed seeing the fish in the lake swim right up to them. We also rented a pedal-powered boat in the afternoon – everyone got a turn…

Except for Daisy who sat not-so-patiently on the dock, watching us intently…

She did dip her feet and nose into the lake at one point – she looked really silly with a really fuzzy body and a narrow, wet head and paws!

Speaking of fuzzy – check out this photo of Matt with Daisy…what is it they say about people starting to look like their pets (at least in the hair, anyway…)?

On Sunday, all the boys went hiking early in the morning at Bushkill Falls. They completed the Red Trail – 1,267 steps in all! Matt even got a T-shirt to prove it. The girls stayed behind at the campground – the family hiked the shorter Blue Trail at Bushkill Falls last year and it was really hard for Emily to keep up with her little legs. So this year, we decided to just let the boys hike while we had a leisurely morning at the campsite.

The falls are so beautiful!  We saw the Bridal Veil Falls, Pennell Falls, Bridesmaid’s Falls along with the main falls at Bushkill.  Our favorites were the Bridal Veil Falls, you can get up close and they are much less traveled.

We also brought a new horseshoe-type game played with large washers – the boys loved it! We saw some other campers with the game last year and bought it ourselves to try out this year.

The caterpillars were still out in force. But this week, Emily decided to take a few of them home as her new ‘pets’. We picked up a little bug-catching kit at the Target Dollar Spot this week and she brought home about 4 or 5 of the little caterpillars along with a whole tiny habitat complete with rocks, leaves and sticks – this girl’s not afraid of bugs!

We all can’t wait to go back again to Otter Lake next weekend. It’s hard to believe that it’s not actually summer yet and that everyone has to go back to school and work tomorrow morning. Sure feels like vacation-time to me.

I’m now becoming the managing editor of this blog.  I’ve taken the blog entry from Kathy and edited it to make it specific to the camping trip (removing references to stamping and other crafts :) ).  She’s the one with all the talent and creativity anyway.

We just returned from a weekend camping trip to the Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains – what a wonderful weekend! We stayed at Otter Lake Camping Resort which was great. The campground is really tucked away in the woods – very secluded and close to nature. In fact, the whole weekend was full of nature! We saw a wild bear very close to our campground and Kathy managed to get a picture:

Kathy was more freaked out by the bear than the kids were.

It was also apparently a time of the year when caterpillars drop from the trees by the millions. Check out this rock at our campsite:

Caterpillars covered EVERYTHING – the ground, the rocks, the trees?and by the time we left on Sunday morning, our truck and camper, too. If you sat outside by the fire even for a few minutes, you could count on one or two caterpillars falling onto you whenever a slight breeze went by and shook the leaves above.

And of course Daisy had lots of them and other stuff caught in her fur all weekend. It was really hot and humid during the day Saturday, so the kids took turns squirting Daisy with their water pistols. But don?t feel bad for the dog – she LOVED it and followed Matt around until he squirted her.

Then she would bite and chew at the water – it was really funny to watch! Funny, that is, until we had a wet dog rolling around in the dirt?

So, even though it?s not supposed to be good for her fur, Kathy just HAD to give her a bath when we got home. It?s amazing how little dog is under all that fluffy fur?

The dog was exhausted after our trip! On Saturday afternoon, she, Matt and Kathy hiked for about 4 miles all the way around Otter Lake. At one point during our hike, she just plopped down on the ground and refused to go any further – what happened to all that puppy energy?

Matt, Emily and Kathy also managed to go swimming in the lake for a little bit …

Unfortunately, soon after this photo was taken, they heard thunder and had to leave the beach. It seemed that thunderstorms were popping up right overhead for most of the afternoon. You know it?s not a Torrence camping trip unless it rains, right?