FAMILY IN FLUX

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Posted on by Tara

Soooo…yah know. Right when we arrived, Anna had to go to the bathroom. So Tara took her to the bathroom while Keith continued setting up. Low and behold, without the required team work, waterworks issued. I’m not talking about crying…though there might have been a little of that. I’m talking about the flood in the camper, because our two SMART and INQUISITIVE girls, closed the stopper on the bathroom sink. Not a problem you say? Well, the sink was on and Keith was outside hooking #@% up when Elsa said, “Dad? The camper is leaking!”

Needless to say we were super glad that we were only staying 2 nights because after that, we didn’t have many clean towels left.

Although we had a rocky start, we had a great time. Well…except for the sleeping. The weather took a turn on the cool-side. The heater had not yet been used. So when we turned it on, our fire alarm went off at 3:00am followed by the smell of hot paint and dust that comes from a new furnace after a long winter. After covering all the blinking LED lights in the camper, turning on the vent in the bathroom to exercise the fume demons, and draining our WiFi of GB because Tara needed to finish watching Veronica Mars at 4:00am after waking up 4x, we got about 2 hours of sleep.

I think Keith is the only one faking here!

Fun things we did:

  • Junior Ranger of Cuyahoga Valley National Park achieved!
  • Roasted S’mores and hot dogs
  • Swam in the KOA pool – it was heated!
  • The Brandywine Falls Hike a.k.a. LOTR Hike (Beautiful)
  • The Ledges Hike a.k.a Witcher Hike (Awesome)
  • Made some kick ass roasted peppers, onions, and garlic with grilled chicken and rice
  • Swam in the KOA pool – The girls favorite thing this whole trip.
  • Made fire look like Augmented Reality somehow?
Officially Junior Rangers!
Brandywine Falls (a.k.a LOTR)
Ledges Hike! So many rock formations!
Fake (AR) Fire

Elsa and Anna also wrote their own accounts and stories inspired by the events of this trip.

Translation of above. Left (comic): “The Powerful Bat. There once was a bat, a powerful bat. His name was Cedric. He was also a very naughty bat. ‘Ha! Mom is going to freak when I hide,’ said Cedric. ‘Hee hee hee haa haa haa hee hee hee he’ Once Cedric hid by being invisible. His did Mom did freak out. Once he made himself visible again behind a tree. He scared his parents. ‘Boo!’ he said with a giggle. ‘Ohh Cedric I missed you,’ said his Mom. And so the family was reunited and Cedric had enough pranking for one day. The End” Right (journal entry): “My Camping Trip. I went on a camping trip with my family. We went to the pool. We went on two hikes. One the second hike I saw a bat cave, it was named Ice Box Cave. We had not dogs for dinner. We roasted marshmallows. I had fun on my…”
…camping trip.
Translation of above. Left (comic): “I can’t see.” (said Willow because she is in a cave) “I love this place.” (The four walking hearts are our family.) Right (journal entry): “We went in the pool 2 times. We went on a hike 2 times. We roasted marshmallows. We slept in the camper 2 times. We roasted hot dogs. I did the dunk in the pool. We fed the fish. I made a rock castle. We ate the Cheetos. And we made new friends.”

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