Camping Two Weeks Ago

When I sat down to write this post, I thought we had gone camping a week ago. Then I realized Mila just had a playdate with a friend on Monday, and I KNOW it wasn't the Monday after camping because I was exhausted, therefore....I just realized two weeks have gone by! That gives you a clue of how my days have been flying lately. I'm missing weeks at a time, and couldn't tell you what happened to them.

 

Looking back at all the camping pictures and all the memories we made as a family, I'm getting kind of sentimental. I'm wishing we had gotten to go camping several times this summer like we had planned, not just once. This particular trip was good in some ways and not so good in others.

Since it was a church trip, we got to chat with people we haven't talked to in a while, Mila and Olivia became better friends with a couple girls that were there, and since both our parents were there (B's and mine) we really didn't have to cook much. But...we didn't cook mostly because our table was overtaken by my mom, who brought her whole kitchen camping and laid it all out on the table. No room for prep, and definitely no room for eating anywhere near the table. So frustrating. I felt like I had nowhere to make myself a cup of Pero, let alone be able to find the cups and spoons in the mess. B's parents did the exact same thing, only even more stuff, on the table next to us. God bless 'em. :)

 

You know how if you know someone is there to help you with something, you get lazy and expect help and put things off, etc? And when you know it's going to be just you, you just do it? I'm totally like that, and that's what happened food-wise I think. I basically took most of the food I bought back home since we just grabbed whatever someone had cooked. We were in charge of one meal, which was cheeseburgers and broccoli salad that we made for everyone.

 

We took a route up to Warm Lake that I had actually never driven before because they had closed the highway up to the campground due to a large forest fire. This proved to actually be really cool, though it did add two hours to our trip. We got to see all these towns we have heard about but never seen, and all the antique stores I saw made me want to come back through one day. I actually liked the drive--as long as I get a Starbucks caramel macchiato in my hand, I'm good to go.

We arrived Friday night and set up just before dark, had church and some activities afterwards on Saturday morning, then spent the rest of the day at the lake, swimming and jet-skiing. I had horrible cramps all day Friday and the first half of Saturday, so I was not a happy camper. (Funny, right? Pun intended.) I couldn't believe how bad it was, and with such great timing, too. Ugh. On Sunday we packed up and spent a few hours at the lake again, swimming and barbequeing on the beach. I always love Sunday at church camp--when there's no rush to get back to camp to make dinner or help with games or activities that I had helped plan--and I can just soak it all up and relax.

 

I roasted s'mores both nights, which was a highlight of the trip for me. It turns out I love s'mores more than my husband and all of my kids. It's true. I made some gooood ones, too--too bad I was too lazy to get my camera out to document them. But really, I love sitting by the fire every night and being mesmerized by the dancing flames. It takes me back to my younger years.

 

The kids when we drove into McCall. We got out to run around a bit, and found a cool blue ban to pose in front of.

A very aggressive tug-of-war game going on here. Good thing no one got hurt. Notice how the men got the girls' attention--ha ha ha!

 The girls with their buddies.

 Everything tastes so good after a day on the water.

 My two studs just standing around, I guess.

 I had to include all three of these of Olivia cleaning her toes. How can I choose which one to leave out?!

Ben borrowed a net to catch some fish that were swimming all around our feet. No luck, though--those things are fast!

 I felt like a kid again while scaling this rock, which is actually really vertical with no grooves for feet/hands, except that I had to push/pull Olivia up the rock as I climbed. Reality check, right?

Yup, those are puffy Cheetos and hotdogs. The kids found the Cheetos, which were for a game that never got played, and decided to help get them off my hands. No Cheetos will go to waste at this house!

xoxo,
Tanya