Camping With Our Daughters Family

We have a popup camper and went camping on our daughter and her husband's land they are building on. They have 33 acres, that are full of trees.

This Labor Day weekend the goal was to make a trail to ride 4-wheelers on the property. They got a good start without taking down trees. It was the husbands and two grands who did most of the work. My daughter helped some.

A friend was camping too and had gotten there before the hubby and I arrived. I sat in the sun with their friend and caught up on life. Her children were with their father for the weekend. Her husband had a project he was doing at their house.

She is leaving her camper on the land for now. She got there a night before us and left a night before we did. While she was there we played cards. It was fun even though I lost by a lot.

My daughter posts scores when she wins on her Facebook page. She also keeps score. Some people think she wins too much! Is it her scorekeeping?

A grandson drove up on his motorcycle both days we were there. He is having a blast on his bike. He is learning and doing a nice job. He hung out and went 4 wheeling with his siblings and rode the dirt bike his younger brother was so desperate to ride.

He is riding an older Suzuki Volusia. It brings back memories for both his grandpa and me as we both rode a Volusia in our younger days and loved them. His uncle has my older Volusia now. It doesn't look the same as he chopped mine. Leather seat, no back seat or saddle bags, no shield.

The grandson came and went after eating his fair share of the food. Seems to me he did arrive just in time for lunch both days and his sister and my great grandchild arrived just in time for dinner each day. I think they like their mom's cooking.

They missed breakfast. She cooked bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns one morning, pancakes, eggs, and spam another. She has her favorite Blackstone for cooking large family meals and for cooking everything at the same time.

It is funny how everything tastes so good when camping. All of what was served was great! All I contributed was a couple of onions and a red and a green pepper. We brought a case of water and some snacks.

Winston came out for a day and then they took him home in the evening, leaving the grandparents to keep an eye on the kids. The granddaughter said Grandpa was nice and Grandma was crabby and tired. At least she added the tired part.

In case you are wondering, the photo below is Winston. My daughter's bird that will ride on her shoulder anywhere. He eats and drinks from her shoulder. He will peck at her ear if she is not feeding him. It appears he will eat anything she does and would like to drink everything too.

Joanna had a Frappe that Jani made and she didn't give Winston the coffee but he had the whipping cream on the top of the drink.

When she would leave him in the camper he would fly to the door screen and sit there and squawk while clinging to the screen.

Even though we don't have a regular enclosed bathroom in our camper, we do have a nice porta-potty that the hubby handles for me which is great! If we camped more we may consider glamping. But if we were going south or traveling more we would probably choose to ride our motorcycles.

We brought one 4-wheeler to add to their wheelers. I wasn't interested in riding and Joanna, Jani, and Autumn didn't ride either. But Grandpa did ride and he did work on the trail.

It cooled down in the evening and one day it was very windy. But most of the time the weather was perfect for camping. The sun was out, with no rain or cold temperature until we were tucked into our sleeping bags with the heat on.

They have their electricity on the property turned on and we were plugged in. We had both heat and electricity without a generator. That was much quieter. Nice.

It wasn't the camping per se that I enjoyed as much as the people I spent time with. Being in the woods, smelling the fresh air, seeing and listening to the birds. At one point the granddaughter said a couple of cranes howling was a puma?? I think of Puma as shoes.

Some of us laughed. It is more likely to see Puma on someone's feet than in a stand of trees next to large fields. Other names referred to are mountain lions or cougars. They are not seen often in Minnesota although I have seen them twice in northern MN in my lifetime. And once in the last 12 years.

The 10-year-old granddaughter who thinks she knows everything said the noise was a puma and I said it is a bird. Most of them went to look. I sat knowing I was right. They came back and my daughter said, you were right. The granddaughter said, "That is what I said!"

Oh no, "Your daughter is a teenager already at 10."

It is starting way too early I told my daughter. Everyone knows teenagers know everything. Everyone laughed except my daughter. She knows what she has to look forward to. They have eight children total in their yours, mine and our family.