The Winslow Wood Adventure!!

Our Camping Trip to Moose Hillock...06---the diary.....

Well...for our third annual camping trip with the Lowman's we decided on Moose Hillock...a Christian campground in Warren, NH. The Lowman's had been there before, but we never had. The Lowman's invited two other families that had adopted children as well...so it was going to be a good sized crew. This was our first official trip with our pop-up camper. We had to take two cars as Glenn's work van pulls the camper. Wow...what a lot of stuff we had. Anyway..our site was right on the river...it was so nice...the kids could go down there and play...and they were very safe. Moose Hillock is known for it's heated swimming pool with two water slides.Check out the website: www.moosehillock.com ..the kids loved that!! We thought the sites were nice and wooded, too...which was good!! We were all in the same area!!
Crazy thing about this trip was that Britt started driver's ed...so we had to bring her back and forth for two days...and Maddie and I had a wedding to go to...which was nice, but another thing, too. It was still tons of fun!! We had a weenie roast on our first night there..which was nice...and then Friday night we had a potluck dinner...we had wonderful things to eat all cooked outdoors...barbequed pork sandwiches and beans, hamburger casserole, pizza...it was yummy!!
I bought a dutch oven for this trip and we loved it!! So fun to cook. Glenn welded me a tri-pod device to hang it over the fire. Saturday night we had a dessert buffet which was yummy, too!!
Friday night we sat around and sang praise and worship songs....wow...that was soooo cool!! Anyway...we had a great time. Below is the slide show of the photos. Lifetime friends were made for sure!!!

Our Camping Trip to Moose Hillock!!

Our Super Star Birthday Girl!!

Maddie's 11th Birthday Bash!!

Well..it's hard to believe that our little girl is 11. Wow....we had a great day. She chose a huge chocolate chip pancake for breakfast, and hotdogs for lunch, and then we went to a Fisher Cats game in Manchester in the evening. We went with our dear friends the Robertson's. Before the game we went to the Puritan Back Room for a wonderful birthday dinner. A great time was had by all. Sydney slept over that night and then Abby Lambert came over the next day. Brittany made her specialty chocolate chip muffins for their breakfast, and they had a blast swimming in the green but much improved pool. Then a few days later we had a celebration with Grammy and Grampa and Matt and Miriam and Maggie...it was great fun....we had our dinner at McDonald's!! God has blessed us with Madelyn Swan Winslow, and we are so very thankful!!

Are We Pool People.???..You Decide!!

Our New Pool......The whole Saga!!!

Glenn finally said yes that we could save money in our envelope system for a pool. The kind that you fill the ring with air and then fill up the pool with water and the ring rises. Anyway...I priced them out for the size we wanted at about $379.00. So...we begin saving. I had $75.00 in my envelope and thought that maybe the pool would have to wait until next year as we continued to save.
Well...one Sunday morning after church, our friend Sonja mentioned that she saw a pool like we were looking for at a yard sale the day before. They were moving to California and had only used it a few weeks last year. They were asking $110.00 for it, but Sonja thought her husband would say yes to them getting it, so she talked them down to $75.00. That was Saturday. Sonja took us by the yard sale after church the next day. The yard sale was all done and they just had some free stuff beside the road. Sure enough...they still had the pool. They had paid $379.00 for it last year, and just really wanted to sell it. So....as any yankee trained by the master negotiator David Meserve ...I offered her $40.00....she thought for a bit and said..."sure!!"...and so....we purchased our dream pool...18 ft. in diameter and 42 inches deep...it really is true..God cares about the little things...big time!!
So...Glenn built a box to put it in, and we had a delivery of stone dust to pack it down and make it level. What a smart man I'm married to!! I thank God for him every day.

So...we get the pool set up and filling with water, but...Glenn's not happy with the progress from the hose...so he hooks up the hose to the pump in the basement to make it go faster, not thinking that he is completely by passing our water treatment tank....anyway... Glenn goes to prayer meeting with Brittany. Forgetting to put the plugs in the side. Grace noticed water flowing from the side of the pool around 8:00 that night....yikes!!! So I ran out and plugged it up as best I could. Then we added the proper chemicals to shock the pool and get it to the right levels. The next day we got up...and instead of crystal clear water...we had the equivelant of a rootbeer float....YUCK!! Then I discovered after much research that due to the iron content of our water, when you add chlorine to that...it turns brown like iced tea!! UGH....so we set off in search a metal sequestrant treatment for the pool, and to buy Maddie's birthday presents, too. When we returned home...I heard running water outside...and went out to find that the pool side had collapsed and water was running everywhere...we quickly took care of that...and added our new chemicals...as we were returning inside...Glenn said..."I'm not sure we are pool people!!"...still brown water...so we went to a pool store in Rochester and got a miracle thing called a "slime bag"....we ran the water from the pool through this...and over the course of a few days it took out the iron...enough so that we had good enough water for Maddie to swim in for her birthday a few days later. The water does look a bit green in the above slide show, but it was so much better. Now it's very clear. Glenn even rigged up his own water heating system.....oh that hubby of mine!! So...are we pool people....well..it sure has been fun!!!