Memorial Day Bike Ride

 We have had a very busy, but very fun couple of weeks. Last week I spent a bunch of time getting my garden in. I got almost everything planted. I do still have a little to go but this week has been so busy that it has been put off.

   To start this week off we went on a little biking and camping trip. Then more fun things that have kept us busy have been going to the state park for birdwatching and plant identification with some friends, beginning a weekly baseball time with other homeschool families and then Tomorrow I have a wedding to do flowers for and my sisters Open house to help decorate for and go to (and yesterday we helped set up and get ready for that). Besides that there is normal housework and laundry and stuff to do as well as a couple of consultations. I have felt the need to really make sure that I stay organized and on schedule but it has been fun.

   Our bike trip was a pretty frugal mini vacation. We left on Sunday afternoon on our bikes from home. This was a kind off spur of the moment trip so I did no extra shopping for it we just figured out food we could bring along from stuff we had on hand. I pulled out the pannier bags that I had made last year and we packed them and half of the trailer (Megan sits in the other half) full of our camping gear.

 By the time we were ready to go at 3 pm in had started sprinkling. Oh dear, what should we do? We decided to go anyway and we are very glad we did! It continued to lightly sprinkle for 4 or 5 miles but then it cleared off and got nice and sunny. Sprinkling and sunny were both fun to ride in and we enjoyed the scenery as we rode around the lake. We are blessed to now have some nice bike trails around our place, which makes riding with kids a lot more fun and less stressful (especially compared to busy highways!).

After riding around 10 miles we made it to the state park. The kids wanted to show me this hollow tree that they had found when going there with some friends. This picture shows just Jonathan's feet as he is up and inside.

  

    We got checked in at the campground and rode up to our site. There Mara started looking at the clover and found a bunch of 4 leaf clovers and then even found this 6 leaf one.

   When unpacking and as I started cooking tuna noodle dish for supper we realized that we had forgotten both the air mattress and spike (which is what we usually use in place of salt and pepper). Oh well. After our meals and our night of sleep I think Ken and I are going to be pretty careful not to forget them again! :-)

After supper we had fun going around the state park and the kids wondered if they could go wading. I was sceptical as how well wading would work (I was doubtful that they could keep their clothes dry). They went wading and sure enough Aaron fell pretty soon and so was wet all over and then Jonathan got pretty wet too but the girls remarkably enough did keep their clothes dry.

Mara had lots of fun looking for shells and pretty little stones.

Megan wanted to go on a walk over a little bridge. It was so pretty out as the sun was setting over the lake.

Back to camp again we got a fire going so we could roast the few marshmallows that I had found in my cupboard.

One thing that I find very cool about the sort of camping where you have to pack all your gear by your own muscle power (whether it be backpacking, canoeing or biking) is finding out just how little you can get by with. I think that way is truly me favorite type of camping. It was fun to make myself do all my cooking and dish washing all using one medium sized pan. For our supper I made the Tuna noodle dish with cheese and then for breakfast the next day I mixed up in the pan some juice (I had brought concentrate) and then poured it in our water bottles (as we didn't bring cups) and then in the same pot I cooked scrambled eggs with potatoes, cheese and salsa in them (and they would have been better with spike and meat!). After each meal I also washed dishes in that pan. On the topic of packing light I found that I could put 7 eggs (out of their shell) in one small peanut butter jar which made hauling and putting it in the very tiny ice chest much easier. I think I could have actually put 8 or 9 eggs in there too.

    

On Monday as we rode home we had to do a bit of riding along the rode (We took a different route home as we were going around the lake on our little trip). We got pretty warm while riding and wouldn't have minded the light mist of the day before.

One fun sight was these families of Canadian Geese. The babies were so big already but quite cute.

For lunch on Monday we had fun going to a small cafe. We enjoyed food that wasn't missing it's salt! :-) As we were getting ready to leave it started raining and so we were pretty sure we would get rather wet. We pulled out our rain gear and headed off but after about 10 minutes the sun popped out again and it was all done raining.

   It was a fun little trip that created some fun family memories and it didn't cost very much either! We hope to do something like that again soon (well as soon as I have a free weekend again which won't be for a while!)

Find more frugal ideas at Life as MOM.