July 10, 2011

• Camping Pics

  Ever since we got our camper, I love! Love! LOVE! to go camping.  The tent…not so much for me. Too much work. Too uncomfortable at night. But now that we have our camper, I think I could go every other weekend and not get tired of it.

  This weekend we had arranged to go camping with some friends.  I love camping with just our family, but going with other people just kind of kicks it up a notch, especially for a major extrovert like me.

  The first evening, our friends Mike and Morgan arrived and the guys took off to a race, so us girls stayed with the kids. 

  

  Supper time at the picnic table.

  After sitting around talked for quite a while, we decided to tackle the chore of setting up the tent. We had said we would do it, since the guys didn’t really have time before they left for the race.

  Turns out…neither of us had much of a clue what we were doing.

  

  We tried to pound these very cheap and very bend-y stakes into the ground with the only tool we could think of to use…a big axe/sledge hammer sort of device.

  We laughed and laughed. And almost cried.  Because it was NOT turning out well.

  Things weren’t reaching to where they were supposed to.  We couldn’t get the tent fastened down properly.

  

  We tried. We really did.

  Finally we said “To heck with it — Good enough — and hopefully a strong wind doesn’t blow through during the night” and we went and sat by the campfire.

  

  Check out this picture.  To the untrained eye, it might seem the tent is standing up quite well. To the trained eye…well, lets just say you might notice a few minor flaws. Such as, the front left hand corner of the picture…where the poles didn’t fit into the ring at the corner of the tent, so we just dug a little hole in the ground and stuck it in there.  We laughed and laughed. And so did the guys when they saw it later on!  Quite the outdoors women we are.  Ha, ha!

  We eventually put our kids to bed and Morgan and I stayed up talking…and talking…and talking. It was one of my very favorite-est memories of the weekend.  Morgan, if you are reading this…You’re a gem and a true friend! 

  In the morning, they did the “small animal parade” around the campground. Despite Morgan’s dislike of farm animals, we took our kids to join in the fun.

  

  There we llamas, ponies, a colt and a sheep.

  

  (Guess Kendall got his butt wet somewhere?)

  

  As they say “A good time was had by all.”  At least the children!

  

  Then we went and picked some strawberries at the patch across the road.  The kids ate at least a 1/3 of the bucketful while walking back to our campsite. (Which took approximately 4 minutes)

  

  Here are some of the boys…just chowing down on strawberries.

  

  Derrick on his bike.

   

  Our friends Wade and Karlee arrived Saturday morning and we were happy to have them there!

  

  I absolutely LOVE this picture of Karlee. It showcases her personality perfectly.  She is SO much fun and yet can be serious too.  Love ya, girl.  (and no, she does not always wear a cowboy hat. We had plans to attend the rodeo parade that was going on in the next town over, but those plans didn’t even up materializing)

  

  Jeremy, Wade, and Karlee

  

  Aww…aren’t they the cutest?  (Mike and Morgan)

  And whose that girl in the background with her mouth full?

  

  My husband is such a corker.

  

  As is this dude. Meet Wade Bishop.  There’s no one in the world like him. And I mean that in the nicest way possible! 

  

  Mike, Morgan and Karlee

  There was SO much laughter. And fun. And teasing.  But also SO much seriousness and talking about God and struggles and just life.  I love that…friends that you can go from funny to serious with. Just like that.

  And friends who draw you closer to God.  That when you come away from being with them, you are inspired to be more like Jesus and are drawn closer to God.  What a treasure!  Seriously. 

  

  All the girlies of the three families. Playing “restaurant” or some such game in our camper.

  

  Jeremy made this UH-MAZING! chicken for supper on Saturday night.  Some people may or may not have eaten at least 8 pieces of chicken.

  

  Eating supper.

  

  Sitting around the campfire after the kids were in bed.   Those times are the BEST!

  

   

   

  Jeremy is so accomodating when it comes to posing for pictures.  (NOT)

   

  I was not ready for the weekend to come to a close.  But all good things must come to an end.  So until next time…here are some pictures to help me remember.  And now…I must catch up on my sleep. Staying up until 2 AM two nights in a row is enough to make me lose my way and end up wandering around in a dark house at night. (That joke is for you, Lisa!)

  I hope you all had a great weekend and are refreshed to begin another week.

   

  PS — I absolutely LOVED all of the comments on my last post about “wild kids.”  Just FYI — I am not easily offended and as long as you are not downright mean, I love to hear other’s thoughts (even if they are opposing) on a subject that I blog about.

  And for the record…our kids are not little hellions…not at home nor at friend’s houses.  But they do break a lot of stuff.  At least at our house.  They are respectful, but that IS something that is a priority to me to train them in.  Anyway, enough.  Later…

  • 6:29 pm
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