This weekend was better than I expected.
Pretty much every memorial day weekend for the last five years we have gone camping.
Pretty much for the last five years it has rained over memorial day weekend.
I have vowed (for the last five years) that I was never, and I mean NEVER, going camping over memorial day weekend again.
And.
It rained this weekend, as expected.
It was still fun though, even through all the rain and the cold wind that blew through our camp in freezing bursts.
The number of people camping at our site grew from day to day. We were camping with Steve and Sabrina (ubber social butterfly types) so it wasn't surprising that a lot of friends had been invited. Four days of living commune style with a lot of people I don't know that well was a good thing for me. Situations like that force me to talk to people, and least more than the prerequisite awkward 'greet then run' I usually do. Even made some new friends.
We ate a lot of good food (Steve is a fantastic Camping Chef- he has it down to a fine art), played a lot of games (including late nights of Texas Hold 'Em, my new favorite), and spent hours sitting around a blazing campfire, talking and trying not to choke on the smoke.
The guys did a lot of fishing, and managed to catch a trout and a pike. I pretty much lost interest in that activity after trying to cast my line, only to discover I had cast straight to the top of a tree. If I had been 'birding' instead of 'fishing', it would have been a really great cast. Neither the birds or the fish were really biting, at least not to the satisfaction of my attention span, so I soon found myself back at the campfire trying to warm up.
The kids (of course) had fun. Derrin and Cameron rode their little motorcycles around and around, sounding like giant mosquitoes buzzing in and out of our ear shot range.
There were lots of little foresty areas, perfect for kids pretending to be deer, or being other animals of prey, hiding from their brothers and parents.
Kloe, throughout all of the cold, rain, and wind, only wore a fleece (I was up to three layers by Sunday), and until Saturday I don't think she even bothered with wearing shoes. Shoes would have cramped her style while she was dancing around in the mud anyways.
We (as in grown ups) were playing a game of botchee ball when we heard Darby scream down by the water. We ran over toward the sound, and saw red running down her face. It was one of those fishing accidents that always seem to happen around kids- we thought at first it was a fish hook from when Derrin cast his line, but it turned out to be a strike from the giant weight needed to cast in that windy fishing environment. Hit her little noggin' right above her hairline and gave her a little cut and a goose egg. After that trauma, a lot of time was needed in the camper with cartoon therapy (yes, there was a television, cartoons, and video games on this camping trip).
Speaking of camping trauma, the next day I tried to show Kloe how to ride Derrin's motorcycle. After sending her on her way, I realized I had spent a lot of time on shifting, how to use the gas handle, and where the foot brake was, but I had neglected to mention a very important tidbit- letting go of the gas is a very important factor while trying to stop.
She took off like a bullet, and my omission of that fact became instantly apparent. I took off running after her screaming "KLOE!!!! LET OFF THE GAAAAS!!!!" over and over, but she continued to accelerate. She flew over ruts in the road. She bounced over big rocks. She blasted through all plant life. Her feet were all but flying out behind her as she clung to the handles, in true superman fashion. Finally there was the inevitable and impressive crash.
I finally caught up to her, my heart doing flip-flops. She just looked a little stunned, and then she saw my face of terror. It then occurred to her that this was definitely a moment to cry. So she sniffled a little bit as we (as a couple other from our group had caught up at this point) checked her over. Fortunately, there was just a little scrape on her tummy from when she hit the grass. More cartoon therapy was in order at this point, so we made our way back to the trailer.
Besides that, it was all fun, games, hanging out, eating, gathering firewood, and relaxing.
The whole weekend was actually a great kick off to summer. I'm looking forward to more weekends like this one!
And now it's time to start the loads of camping laundry. *sigh* Real life begins.
Pretty much every memorial day weekend for the last five years we have gone camping.
Pretty much for the last five years it has rained over memorial day weekend.
I have vowed (for the last five years) that I was never, and I mean NEVER, going camping over memorial day weekend again.
And.
It rained this weekend, as expected.
It was still fun though, even through all the rain and the cold wind that blew through our camp in freezing bursts.
The number of people camping at our site grew from day to day. We were camping with Steve and Sabrina (ubber social butterfly types) so it wasn't surprising that a lot of friends had been invited. Four days of living commune style with a lot of people I don't know that well was a good thing for me. Situations like that force me to talk to people, and least more than the prerequisite awkward 'greet then run' I usually do. Even made some new friends.
We ate a lot of good food (Steve is a fantastic Camping Chef- he has it down to a fine art), played a lot of games (including late nights of Texas Hold 'Em, my new favorite), and spent hours sitting around a blazing campfire, talking and trying not to choke on the smoke.
The guys did a lot of fishing, and managed to catch a trout and a pike. I pretty much lost interest in that activity after trying to cast my line, only to discover I had cast straight to the top of a tree. If I had been 'birding' instead of 'fishing', it would have been a really great cast. Neither the birds or the fish were really biting, at least not to the satisfaction of my attention span, so I soon found myself back at the campfire trying to warm up.
The kids (of course) had fun. Derrin and Cameron rode their little motorcycles around and around, sounding like giant mosquitoes buzzing in and out of our ear shot range.
There were lots of little foresty areas, perfect for kids pretending to be deer, or being other animals of prey, hiding from their brothers and parents.
Kloe, throughout all of the cold, rain, and wind, only wore a fleece (I was up to three layers by Sunday), and until Saturday I don't think she even bothered with wearing shoes. Shoes would have cramped her style while she was dancing around in the mud anyways.
We (as in grown ups) were playing a game of botchee ball when we heard Darby scream down by the water. We ran over toward the sound, and saw red running down her face. It was one of those fishing accidents that always seem to happen around kids- we thought at first it was a fish hook from when Derrin cast his line, but it turned out to be a strike from the giant weight needed to cast in that windy fishing environment. Hit her little noggin' right above her hairline and gave her a little cut and a goose egg. After that trauma, a lot of time was needed in the camper with cartoon therapy (yes, there was a television, cartoons, and video games on this camping trip).
Speaking of camping trauma, the next day I tried to show Kloe how to ride Derrin's motorcycle. After sending her on her way, I realized I had spent a lot of time on shifting, how to use the gas handle, and where the foot brake was, but I had neglected to mention a very important tidbit- letting go of the gas is a very important factor while trying to stop.
She took off like a bullet, and my omission of that fact became instantly apparent. I took off running after her screaming "KLOE!!!! LET OFF THE GAAAAS!!!!" over and over, but she continued to accelerate. She flew over ruts in the road. She bounced over big rocks. She blasted through all plant life. Her feet were all but flying out behind her as she clung to the handles, in true superman fashion. Finally there was the inevitable and impressive crash.
I finally caught up to her, my heart doing flip-flops. She just looked a little stunned, and then she saw my face of terror. It then occurred to her that this was definitely a moment to cry. So she sniffled a little bit as we (as a couple other from our group had caught up at this point) checked her over. Fortunately, there was just a little scrape on her tummy from when she hit the grass. More cartoon therapy was in order at this point, so we made our way back to the trailer.
Besides that, it was all fun, games, hanging out, eating, gathering firewood, and relaxing.
The whole weekend was actually a great kick off to summer. I'm looking forward to more weekends like this one!
And now it's time to start the loads of camping laundry. *sigh* Real life begins.
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| Is this FUN or what?!? |
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| Muddy Little Girl Feet |
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| Double fistin |
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| Day One- Hair still under control. |
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| Hot Dogs! |
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| Steve and Bean |
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| D n Me |
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| Sexy Much? |
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| Camping and Ping pong. Why Not. |
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| Manly art of camping. |
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| Learning to Build a campfire |
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| More campfire schooling |
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| Chef Steve |
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| Campsite |
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| Fun with Glow in the dark sticks |
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| Our Group |
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| Aw, my friends! |
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| Art and camping. Why not. |
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| Didn't want to leave! |
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| Last day shot. |
