Camping Trip...or something like that

Once again I decided to attempt the ward campout sans husband. This year did not go quite as well. It would have been fine if the weather had cooperated. But I'll admit, I'm a fair-weather camper. (If you could even call me a camper at all, which admittedly is a big stretch.)

We got there and this year there was no willing and able fellow camper around to help me set up my tent. So by the time I had sorted out all the poles, tried to shove them in their little slots and gone and gotten Lincoln out of the fire pit (no fire in it) for the 12th time, we were an hour and a half into our little adventure. Then things really started to get crazy. The kids were thrilled that the tent was finally standing (sort of) and they immediately started unloading everything in our car into the tent (including a light saber--an essential piece of camping equipment; it doubles as a flashlight.) I was still trying to finish up staking the tent down when a huge gust of wind came along and blew the tent into the air. I rushed after it and caught it--it was literally airborne. I held onto it with all my might and wrestled it back to the ground. The wind died down and I looked around and realized I was missing one kid. It was at that moment that I realized that Chloe was inside the tent! If I hadn't grabbed onto the tent in time we would have lost her to Nebraska or somewhere! She was terrified, for obvious reasons, but I barely had time to deal with it because then it started raining and the wind picked up again. Two young men ran over and helped me try to stake the tent back down, but when the wind blew the tent away the first time most of the stakes were lost in the ground. We tried to weigh the tent down with Lincoln's pack and play and our cooler, but the wind was too strong and kept knocking it all around. When I finally noticed that the cooler had gotten blown over and spilled ice water all over the inside of the tent, I decided that enough was enough. I took it all down and shoved it back into the car. We will try again sometime when Ryan can go with us.

We did stay for the rest of the activities that night and had a lot of fun! The weather died down and it was absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed eating our tin foil dinners, roasting marshmallows and eating s'mores and being with lots of friends. The kids also got to make homemade ice cream in zip lock bags and catch bugs in a little bug house. We stayed late and got home dirty and tired, but it was worth it. It rained all night long but the kids slept in until 8:00 am on Saturday morning so I know that I made the right decision not to stay the night! They would have never slept that late had we been in a wet tent!!

Lincoln tastes his homemade ice cream


Lincoln and Isaac catching bugs
Family picture--Lincoln didn't want to participate
although he insisted I take this shot of him alone in the same place. Maybe he understands the concept of photoshop?! (That look on his face is him warning the other kids to stay out of his picture!)
Great photo op--do you see the rainbow behind them?! If only Lincoln would let me take a group picture!!!

(Ryan is done with school a week from today!!!! Then I will really be a happy camper!)