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?

May 18 — 20, 2007 

We went camping for a second weekend in Cape May and just returned – we had another GREAT time!

The weather report was really gloomy, but we ended up having beautiful weather anyway.

We stopped at the beach at Cape May Point again – it was an interesting day at the beach. There was a wedding right behind where we were sitting:

And there was also a large youth group meeting on the beach at the same time:

In fact, Andrew took the dog for a walk and Daisy was quite the ‘chick magnet’ for him with the youth group girls:

Who can resist a cute puppy (and a cute boy)?

We also managed to get a GREAT family photo on the beach – it may just end up as our Christmas card next year.

Daisy loved the beach again…but she did test Andrew’s strength a bit…

And she LOVED the water and sand this time – she kept digging holes and burying her nose in it (can it feel good to have tiny stones in your nostrils?)…

With her eyes and ears, she looks like some sort of a mad dog in that photo! But she was having fun.

I’m not counting CigarFest ’07 as an official camping trip since it wasn’t the whole family.  We’re back from our first camping trip of the season! We went to Beachcomber’s Resort in Cape May, NJ this weekend and had a wonderful time.

This was Daisy’s first camping trip and she was great – just like an old pro! She slept in her crate inside the camper at night and adjusted very well to her new surroundings. She did not, however, like being tied up on the lead very much and tried her best to chew through it when no one was watching. Sorry, Daisy – that’s not happening! There’s a steel cable inside…

We went to Cape May Point (one of the few spots where dogs are allowed on the beach) and let the kids hunt for Cape May diamonds while Daisy dug in the sand to her heart’s content.

I was surprised that Daisy didn’t immediately jump in the water – she seems to like water so much (she even tries to jump inside the bathtub with Emily!). But she was VERY cautious and ran from the waves whenever they rolled in. Mike was determined to get her in the water, but she never went in past her little ankles.

That’s the famous sunken concrete ship in the background (for those not from this area).

What a gorgeous day! And Daisy was quite the little center of attention everywhere we went. Everyone stopped to pet her and wanted to know what kind of dog she was. I went into one store for a few minutes and came out to find Mike surrounded by a dozen admirers – of Daisy, not Mike, unfortunately for him.

But I did tell my husband that if, God forbid, he ever found himself single again, he could sure use Daisy to meet women!

I also managed to fit in some stops to a few antique shops while we were in Cape May. I found it so hard to justify paying ‘antique prices’ for items that I knew I could probably find at a yard sale for less than $5.

But I did make one purchase – a unique vintage sewing cabinet.

I thought this would be so cool to organize my punches, embellishments and rolls of thread.  It has little clear jars and lots of little pockets too.   Best of all, it folds flat for storage:

Only $25 – not bad for something not only pretty, but useful too.

Hope you have a happy day!

October 6 — October 9, 2006

The last camping trip of the season :(. We headed out on Friday in the middle of a nor’easter. Not the best time to go, but we wanted to get out on the road and setup with the hope that the weather would turn on Saturday. We ended up with the best spot in the campground for the weekend, our camper opened up right to the swimming lake. The campground was virtually empty, so it was a relatively quiet weekend. We liked the spot so much, we tried to book it for any week next year. After the folks at the front desk stopped laughing, they did find us another spot right by the lake which is almost as nice (it’s even a pull-through site) for a week next year.

Saturday was also a relative wash-out. While not necessarily raining, it was cloudy and damp and windy all day. We setup a campfire early in the afternoon and the kids played inside all day. Only breaking to head out and fix the flat on the car. Not sure what happened there, but by the time we got to the campground Friday night, the tire was completely flat.

Me-mom and Pop-pop came down on Sunday and we headed out to Cape May Zoo which is right down the road. The weather on Sunday and Monday turned out absolutely gorgeous. Before hitting the zoo, a heated basketball game broke out between the team of Andrew/Me-mom and Matt/Pop-pop. Not sure who won (or even if a basket was scored). I’m sure that Me-mom and Pop-pop paid for that on Monday.