Okay, so, yeah. I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I've just been inundated with
stuff to do. Summer is crazy around here with four kids to feed, clothe, entertain, and take from appointment to appointment to playdate to birthday party, etc., etc.
So I'm just finally getting around to blogging about our awesome camping trip last weekend. My apologies to the angry hordes who have been waiting on pins and needles to hear all about it.
We did a few things differently this year. For starters, we went to Raccoon Lake State park, which was pretty great. Good bathrooms, showers, and a huge lake to play in! Second, we decided to stay for two nights; it just felt silly to me to do all that prep work for just one night of camping. (Staying a second night didn't really take any extra work!) Third, I was going to do most of this without Lance since he had to work Thursday and Friday.
I never dreamed I would even be willing to take the kids without Lance, but I was feeling brave and Gigi promised to help me and so I did it. And it was fine! (Gigi and Craig helped me out. A LOT.) :)
We got to the campsite Thursday afternoon and set up camp. It was HOT and HUMID. And then I discovered Tess had had an accident in the car, which was fun. And the kids had already started to complain about being bored. So we decided it was time to go swimming. We went to the beach and swam and swam and the kids were so happy and it felt so good just to sit in the water, even though it was lake water and little fishes kept nibbling on us.
I can't remember if it rained before we went to the lake or after. But at some point it definitely rained and we were stuck in the tent. But it turned out to be okay because the kids played games and Gigi and I chatted and for some reason Craig wandered the campsite with his poncho on and we laughed at him. :)
That night we roasted hot dogs and had s'mores for dinner and is there anything better when camping.? No, there is not.
We gave the kids glow bracelets and finger flashlights and took a late-night stroll to the playground. My kids thought it was fantastic: not only were they at a park, but it was waaaay past their bedtime and they had glow toys!
It was finally bedtime and I got them all into their pajamas and onto their mats and sleeping bags. (It was way too hot to be
in a sleeping bag!) I thought for sure that Tess and Cole would crash first, but those little punks were the ones who wouldn't sleep! So just read on my Kindle until they finally conked out. I have to say - Kindle Paperwhites are AWESOME for camping!
I fell asleep to the sound of raccoons skittering around the camp and lapping up water that had pooled by our tent.
True story: the raccoons at Raccoon Lake were not nearly as brazen as those at Shades last year. However, we did see quite a few very brazen ground hogs during the day! I even caught one of those large rodents scrounging around in one of our tied up garbage bags. He was quite offended when I shooed him away.
The next morning we had pancakes and bacon for breakfast and is there anything better when camping? No, there is not.
It was especially fun because I got to test out my new propane Bayou Burner stove, which is super powerful and great for making pancakes in the big cast iron skillet I got from my grandpa.
After breakfast we went down to the lake to throw rocks. It was down a pretty steep hill right behind our tent, which was pretty fun with Cole and Tess. (At one point Cole refused to let go of my hand even though I really needed it free and he was fine, while at the same time Tess kept trying to let go of my hand and fling herself to her death. Fun times.)
I finally remembered to take pictures while we were down there!
All kids love throwing rocks into water.
The bigger the splash, the better!
Cole was all about getting big big rocks.
Spencer worked hard on skipping rocks.
Tess worked hard on getting wet, even though I told her not to.
Josh also worked hard on getting wet - and eventually got his pants soaked.
Two rocks are always better than one.
And now for a bunch of random pictures of the kiddos around the lake.
Look at the darlingness of accidental matching shirts! Josh and Bergen are such good buddies!
It was around this point that Bergen fell into the lake. Soon after everyone else went to get changed into their swimsuits. Lesson learned: if you're going to take kids down to the lake, ALWAYS put them in swimsuits, even if you don't think they'll do any swimming. Because they will always do some swimming.
It was quite a production to get everyone up the hill and back down again. Especially Tess. Especially since I had already taken her up once to go potty. (At least I was working off all the pancakes and bacon from that morning!)
Our kids are so cute together. They just play so well and generally get along; it's just fun to watch them.
I love these two girls!
I'm pretty sure Josh is throwing a rock here, but doesn't it look like he's catching it instead?
Tess only swam for a little bit and then just wanted to be held and tried to sleep. So I schlepped her back up the hill and tried, very much in vain, to get her to take a nap in the hot tent. After about 20 minutes I had an epiphany. I put her in this awesome camping chair that Gigi had brought and started pushing her. She resisted, but was soon fast asleep. Even the heavy gangster rap that the campsite across the way was blasting didn't wake her up. (SERIOUSLY. Why do people assume that everyone within a mile radius wants to listen to their music?)
We had lunch and dinked around... to be honest, I can't remember much of what we did! I think the kids played and did Mad Libs. Oh, and we had a little scavenger hunt. Who knows? We were camping - everything was pretty laid back. (As it should be!) Eventually we decided to go back to the beach for a swim.
True story: when Cole pees in a lake he stands in the water but still pulls down his swim trunks. Hilarious.
True story: Tess likes to eat sand, even at lakes. Even when it's more gravel than sand. And even when we all laugh at her sand beard and her pouting. Hilarious.
After the swim we started dinner, and around that time Lance finally joined us. Hurray! Only we were all tired and hot and a little rosy from the sun - it wasn't much of a welcome. Sorry, Lance. But we really were happy to see him!
That night we had Frito pies, which were very, very tasty. Lance kicked it up a notch and made a Frito Burrito. Impressive.
We make more s'mores and Craig made a delicious apple cobbler in the dutch oven. Why is camping food so good? It's a mystery.
I, of course, had to have a s'more. (They're my absolute favorite summer dessert.) This time I tried it with strawberry marshmallows, which was good, but I think I like classic best.
Didn't stop me from chowing down, though!
"Take a picture of me, Mommy!"
Tessie's version of a s'more: no chocolate, raw marshmallow. Blergh.
At this point the adults were pretty tired. We spent the evening listening to the kids do Mad Libs. (Potty humor was abundant.)
We tried telling those stories where everyone takes one sentence at a time, but Craig kept killing off the characters, which actually ended up making things short and hilarious.
We realized this was the first time we had ever got to just sit around the campfire in the evening without getting rained out!
At some point Craig decided to get rid of his hat by throwing it into the fire, which I guess was a momentous occasion.
So momentous that Gigi had to take a picture of it! (And I had to take a picture of Gigi.)
"Take a picture of us, Mommy!"
Josh. Chillin'.
Cute Logan, the Mad Lib king.
Cole was offended we wouldn't let him write the Mad Libs out, just because he doesn't know how to write yet.
While the adults were fine just sitting around the campfire, the kids wanted more entertainment. Even more glowsticks wouldn't appease them!
Oh well, next year we'll have to plan something for our campfire evenings. Skits? Charades? More Mad Libs?
Regardless, the key words in that last sentence are "next year" - because we will definitely be going again!
It was a lot of work. A LOT of work! And it was dirty and really hot. But it really was a joy to see our kids have so much fun with each other and to get to spend so much time with such good friends. I foresee many, many years of this camping tradition! (I just hope Lance gets to enjoy it with me in the future!)
