Halloween at High Cliff State Park

Oh boy, it's Wednesday already and I am finally able to get around to posting a blog about the weekend at High Cliff State Park (in Wisconsin).

We had our reservations made early but could only get a non-electric site.  Later some friends of the hosts were able to move into the host site and "sold" us their electric site.  From there, we "sold" our site to our friends Mel and Paula!   Now everyone got to come and enjoy the weekend!  Although we do have five solar panels on the roof, the winter sun is not as bright for recharging, and being parked in the woodsy trees is even more difficult for six days.  Now we could run a small electric heater in the basement water compartment bay to keep our pump, lines and tanks from freezing up. Temps dropped to the 20's overnight. brrrrrrrr

On Saturday was the huge Halloween Celebration in the park.  Besides trick or treating in the completely filled 112 site campground, there were also costume contests, pumpkin carving and a spooky trail walk put on by The Friends of High Cliff.

Our kids came, along with the grandtots... costumes and energy and lots and lots of sugar sure made for a fun day!   The only one missing was our son-in-law Mark who was out deer hunting.  

Here is our "TRIBE"

Grandtot Jameson came a day early and had helped me decorate up the campsite....  ours was very minor compared to some of the sites that were done up.  Wow... these people come a week early and set up all week long for this special day event!   Here is our site:

Jameson also helped mix up all the candy and start filling the bowls.  Paula brought her candy over too as they were hanging out at our campsite during the day.  (we went through EIGHT large bowls of candy!)

I cooked up a big crock pot of chili and had a crock pot of hot dogs kept warm too... along with a bunch of other goodies to munch on throughout the day.  But best of all was my daughter brought along a bunch of Birthday Cupcakes for MEEEEEEE   Yes, Halloween is my birthday and all of the grandtots look forward to celebrating with me.  And, I suppose, looking forward to the cupcakes?

Here is a little Utube video the kids made of my birthday singing:

JAMESON                                    ALLEGRA                                    CHELSEA

MASON                                     CLAYTON                              and .... ME! 

The kids and our friends gave me piles of wonderful gifts to unwrap

and I was the Halloween Queen of the Day! 

Even our newest little grandpuppy, Radar, was dressed up in a costume!  He is a Welsh Pembroke Corgi and belongs to Jameson, Heather and Jesse.   What an adorable little stinker...

Our wee ones donned their costumes.   We had a couple Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a Super girl, a Puppy and a Fireman!  ...  They all gripped their candy bags and were anxious to go out and get some Sweet Loot!

The grandgirls, both now three years old, really got into the day.  Our oldest daughter, Erin, was a vampiress from New Orleans I guess and went all out on her costume.  Later she and her husband went out for the evening and left their kids with us overnight.

 Little puppy Clayton was barking at all of us, and we had to break up a few sword fights between our Ninja Turtle Tots.  LOL   The silliness and fun of watching them play was such a joy for my heart.

Soon they blocked off the roads to auto traffic into the campground

 (comprised of six different streets of campsites) 

and the trick-or-treaters filled the roads up.  

Going from site to site, we enjoyed watching all the costumed folks stream on by. 

We set our bowls of candy out near the roadway, and most of the folks politely took one piece.  Chelsea and Allegra monitored the candy levels for a while until everyone in our group was ready to head out for some Sweet Loot.  We loved seeing the creative costumes that people came up with.
(that umbrella is a jelly fish!) 

What fun we had and kept refilling our bowls of candy for the 3 hours of visitors. We sat around the campfire with our friends and it was like watching a parade.  We even had out doggie treats for all the canine visitors.

Last year, this large family group came all dressed up as "Toy Story".... 

this year they all came as the theme from the movie "Despicable Me" !!!

How wonderfully creative and such elaborate costumes----

 I told them I would put them on the blog again, same as last year....

After the long day was over, and the food all cleaned up, it was time to sit around the campfire with some friends.  Then it was time to toss these two leftover grandtots in the bathtub and cuddle them up into bed.  Clayton was out like a light, before we were even halfway through his bedtime story.  Chelsea took a little longer, but I think it was due to the high sugar levels in her bloodstream?


The next morning was started early at 6:30 a.m. with two tots bounding into our bed to cuddle and snuggle.  This is the BEST part of our camping experience when having grandtots sleep over.   I love the time we spend in the bed, giggling, telling stories, and enjoying each other's company.

Hanging out in jammies all morning was fun, as they ate a little breakfast.  Granfaddah was outside taking down all the decorations and stowing things away in the motorhome.  I got to hang out with the grandtots instead.  What a deal, eh?

Steve was helping our friends Paula and Mel with some RV repair things, and we were watching from the window after naptime.  Paula snapped this shot of us as we were checking out the weather for the day. It was lovely, less wind, and crisp sunshine on a fall day.  Look at the reflections of the trees on the side of the motorhome... how cool is that?

When it came time to get out of our campsite, I took the grandtots in the car back to our house in Chilton. Steve stayed in the campground a bit longer and dumped and rinsed the holding tanks on the motorhome.  We were going to winterize the rig later today so he got all the messy stuff done there at the park before driving it home. 

We had to stop and buy MORE candy for the trick-or-treaters coming to our house in Chilton!   Sunday was the appointed event day for our town, from 3-5 p.m. so the grandtots helped me get more candy ready for the visitors to our home.   Clayton was mixing up the candy (and hoping to eat more)  while Chelsea entertained us with some live music.   

 After living the last 16 years in the country, we rarely got any trick-or-treaters at our rural home.    Now that we are living back in town, we get the joy and delight of seeing the little tots come up our sidewalk to get treats.  We sat in our enclosed front porch where it was cozy warm and watched the kids come and go. This is a fun way to wind up a very very busy weekend!  Here they come!

This week is going to be busy, I just finished putting away all the gear and freezable stuff we took out of the motorhome.  We will reload things if we head south or west this winter for vacation, but in the meantime it needed to get all unloaded.   

This week will also be my actual birthday on Thursday, so I am not sure what Steveio has planned.  Also the king sized quilt I sent off to Janna in Montana (hey... that rhymes!)  to be machine quilted is coming in the mail to me.  So I will get to sew on the binding to finish it up.  

Then I am working on some sock orders, later today we are going to get new tires put on the motorhome, and this weekend the three gals who grew up in this house are coming by for a visit!