As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
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Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Camping Adventure
Fri, June 22 through Sun, June 24
Crystal Lake Campground, site 419 which is a beach side site
Campers:
Jason – camping all his life, this is his element
Denise – camping since a child, but prefer a campground with running water and showers
Ariana (4) – Camping since age 1 and LOVES it, this is 7th trip camping
Phoenix (1) – 3rd camping trip, and he loves it as well
Friday, June 22
The morning started off with Ariana running into our bedroom after 6am yelling, “Let’s go! It’s time to go camping!” Ugh, could you let us sleep until 7am please. She wasn’t hearing any of our complaints and of course with her yelling, Phoenix woke up. We are normally on the road by noon as it takes about 90 minutes to get to the campground, but today Jason wanted to be on the road by 10ish. So the morning was busy with last minute packing, food prep, and errands like filling the gas tank, etc. Jason was itching to get on the road and Ariana is asking in this exasperated voice, “Can we go now?” My mom stopped by with some fresh picked strawberries for us to bring with, yum!
We pulled out of the driveway just after 10am and the drive was pretty uneventful. Now let me preface this next section by stating that checkin/checkout is 3pm. Most of the time we arrive around 1-2pm and the campsite is empty. However because we were heading up on a Friday, I thought maybe we’d be getting there a bit early and the site wouldn’t be open yet. Well, I was right. The current campers were packing up, but also relaxing a bit. The original plan was to head to the public beach and swim until we could get into the site. However, Jason somehow decided that it was extremely important to get in now. He drove around the loop twice, then drove around the other loops of the campground, came back past the site and they are still there. He’s starting to grumble, and I’m trying hard not to roll my eyes. I remind him that they have until 3pm to leave. At this point, I’m thinking, let’s just head to the beach please. So we swing over to the beach and let the kids run around for a bit. Jason doesn’t want to change into suits yet. We spent about 20 minutes at the public beach before he wanted to pack the kids back up and drive back past the site. The people are still there. He continues to grumble, and Ariana is crying because she wants to go camping. Ugh, where is the Tylenol? I suggest we go for ice cream.
So we decide to head over to McKay’s, which is a nearby ice cream place. (Very yummy ice cream.) This is a camping tradition in his family, but we were planning on not going to McKay’s this trip. But it passes the time. Ariana gets a bubble gum cone, I get strawberry cheesecake, and Jason orders a black forest cone. He was holding Phoenix who is loving daddy’s ice cream. I offered Phoenix some of my cone and he took a taste, tand wrinkled up his nose. I offered it again and he’d shake his head at me. He only wanted chocolate. I left the camera in the van, so I unfortunately don’t have any photos. They also have a little store that you can buy things at and I realized Jason forgot to pack milk for Phoenix, so I hop in to pick that up along with some pain reliever as my headache is going strong at this point (and ours was packed far away). We put the kids back into the van and head back over to the campground. We pull through the loop and YAY, the people are gone!
Jason gets the camper backed in with some help from me. Ariana is yelling to get out of the van, and Phoenix is wanting out as well. I help with the immediate things we have, and then change the kids into their suits. I take the kids down to the beach while Jason sets up the campsite. Ariana runs right into the water, and Phoenix follows not far behind. They were having a blast!
Jason comes down a while later and says he's pretty much set up and I can get in the camper to get things together there. I head up to the campsite and make our home up for the next two days.
Here is a photo of our camper
And here is the new campsign we bought last summer
We can take the kids' names off if it's just the two of us camping.
I get set up inside the camper and head back to the beach. It's now around 2:30 and Phoenix is in need of a nap. I take him and get him changed. And attempt to get him to lay down. I laid there for an hour with him before he finally succumbed to the sleep fairy. Jason was at the beach with Ariana the entire time, and came back up just as Phoenix was falling asleep. Thankfully he didn't wake and I was able to escape the camper.
Ariana was telling me all about the treasure she found at the beach. Her treasure is rocks and boy, did she rake in the bounty! She wanted to stick around at the beach, but we needed to get dinner started as we were all hungry. The menu for the evening included brats & hot dogs, Suddenly Salad, strawberries, and blue berries. Jason was getting the fire prepped for the brats and dogs while Ariana looked for bugs. I was getting plates, etc set up.
Phoenix ended up taking about a 45min nap, which was way too short for him but not much I can do about it. He was ready to eat too I think. My kids love noodles and Phoenix goes gaga over Suddenly Salad (ranch & bacon).
Dinner was finished rather quickly and sure enough, Ariana was asking to go to the beach again. We put Phoenix in the stroller to contain him while we cleaned up after dinner. And then we headed back to the beach.
More coming soon!
__________________
Denise
Counting down to....
May 2017 - Poly (Grandma's 1st Trip to WDW)
Sept 2017 - DH's bday celebration
Aug 2018 - DCL Family cruise on the Dream
Last edited by wdwlovers; 06-27-2007 at 12:12 PM..
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Sounds like SO much fun! Sorry about the headache though.
The beach and water look perfect for young kids.
I've always wanted a pop-up, but DH is a hotel kind of guy.
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LOL! Your laps around the loop with your DH grumbling sound very familiar to me. Walt grumbles every year when we arrive too early to get into our rental cottage at Knoebels. (Stares down the poor previous tenants and scares them off. )
I'm glad you're enjoying the camping! Better you than me.
Just caught up! I'm so glad you're writing a TR, Denise. I to hear how other people are camping to improve our experiences. Your photos are great! The kids look very happy!! Your pop-up looks very similar to ours. Is it a Starcraft?? Hurry back with more!
I am enjoying your report. I too love to camp. We started out with a tent years ago before the kids were born. Went from that to a soft sided camper, then an Apache (fiberglass(?)sides but folded down), and now have a travel trailer. I have lots of great memories of those camper days when the kids were babies and toddlers.
Looking forward to the rest of your report.
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Okay, I got sidetracked with the events of July and wanted to continue this. I'm going to post highlights and photos of the rest of our camping adventure.
Here is Ariana and I being silly as we sit and enjoy the campfire before she goes to bed. She's all about silly faces lately.
This is Phoenix on Sat. am, sitting on daddy's head. What's hilarious is that he has a poopy diaper.
We spent ALL day Saturday at the beach. My parents came up for the day, and Jason's dad & stepmom stopped for for a couple hours in the early afternoon. My kids LOVE the water and literally cried when it was time for lunch and then for dinner. Phoenix was quite the handful to get down for a nap that day. We had steaks and chicken for dinner with my parents. It was yummy!
Here are pics from the beach:
Phoenix and Daddy
Jason is attempting to ride the orca that Ariana got for her birthday. It wasn't a pretty sight.
Here is Phoenix's footprint in the sand, one of my fave photos from the weekend.
Phoenix and Papa Mike (jason's dad)
Ariana and Grammy Sally (my mom)
My mom was the only one who went in the water. Here is Gammy Nancy (Jason's stepmom), Papa Mike (jason's dad), and Papa Frank (my dad). This is literally where they sat for the time my inlaws were there.
And our family camping photo. We are going to take one each year.
Highlights:
Roasting Marshmallows: This was the first year, Ariana was allowed to roast her own marshmallow and she was estatic. However, she doesn't eat them. Thus, I don't roast any so I can eat hers. What's funny is that she kept telling daddy she wanted to "marsh a marshmallow". I forgot the graham crackers so I had a marshmallow on chocolate. Yum!
Adult only time: Last year, Phoenix was up quite a bit and we basically went to bed early with Ariana so we could get up with Phoenix. This year, both kids were in the camper sleeping and Jason & I got time by the fire! It was sooo nice.
Long walks: We put both kids in the strollers and had ourselves a nice long walk around the campground loops. Ariana was in heaven at all the bugs and kept wanting a leaf from the trees (something she collects when we walk here at home).
Well, that's it. We did go camping again in July, and Jason & I have our adults only camping trip coming up this next weekend. With the two WDW trips next year, we decided to not book a camping trip next year. My inlaws (jason's mom and stepdad) have a 5th wheel, so we'll probably go and visit them while they are camping. And they'll take the kids camping for a couple days like they do every year.
Thus ends the Lang Camping Adventure for June 2007. It was fun, a lot of work, and we'll be back at it again soon.
__________________
Denise
Counting down to....
May 2017 - Poly (Grandma's 1st Trip to WDW)
Sept 2017 - DH's bday celebration
Aug 2018 - DCL Family cruise on the Dream
Last edited by wdwlovers; 08-10-2007 at 10:12 AM..
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Ugh, could you let us sleep until 7am please. She wasn’t hearing any of our complaints and of course with her yelling, Phoenix woke up. We are normally on the road by noon as it takes about 90 minutes to get to the campground, but today Jason wanted to be on the road by 10ish. So the morning was busy with last minute packing, food prep, and errands like filling the gas tank, etc. Jason was itching to get on the road and Ariana is asking in this exasperated voice, “Can we go now?” My mom stopped by with some fresh picked strawberries for us to bring with, yum! 
The current campers were packing up, but also relaxing a bit. The original plan was to head to the public beach and swim until we could get into the site. However, Jason somehow decided that it was extremely important to get in now. He drove around the loop twice, then drove around the other loops of the campground, came back past the site and they are still there. He’s starting to grumble, and I’m trying hard not to roll my eyes. 
I remind him that they have until 3pm to leave. At this point, I’m thinking, let’s just head to the beach please. So we swing over to the beach and let the kids run around for a bit. Jason doesn’t want to change into suits yet. We spent about 20 minutes at the public beach before he wanted to pack the kids back up and drive back past the site. The people are still there. He continues to grumble, and Ariana is crying because she wants to go camping. Ugh, where is the Tylenol? I suggest we go for ice cream.
He only wanted chocolate. I left the camera in the van, so I unfortunately don’t have any photos. They also have a little store that you can buy things at and I realized Jason forgot to pack milk for Phoenix, so I hop in to pick that up along with some pain reliever as my headache is going strong at this point (and ours was packed far away). We put the kids back into the van and head back over to the campground. We pull through the loop and YAY, the people are gone! 
Jason was at the beach with Ariana the entire time, and came back up just as Phoenix was falling asleep. Thankfully he didn't wake and I was able to escape the camper. 
We put Phoenix in the stroller to contain him while we cleaned up after dinner. And then we headed back to the beach.
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We had steaks and chicken for dinner with my parents. It was yummy! 
Phoenix and Daddy
Here is Phoenix's footprint in the sand, one of my fave photos from the weekend.
Phoenix and Papa Mike (jason's dad)
Ariana and Grammy Sally (my mom)
My mom was the only one who went in the water. Here is Gammy Nancy (Jason's stepmom), Papa Mike (jason's dad), and Papa Frank (my dad). This is literally where they sat for the time my inlaws were there. 
And our family camping photo. We are going to take one each year. 
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