Memorial Day Weekend

Last weekend we took the kids camping at our local state park~about 15 minutes away from our house. They were so, very excited for it and it was lots of fun. I didn't get as many pictures as I should have, but we were mostly just enjoying ourselves (and when I finally did get the camera out the batteries died before I was ready). Of course, there are still more pictures than the average family... I just tend to go a little crazy.

Now before you all go crazy thinking how cool I am (or how ludicrous) for camping this late in my pregnancy let me tell you that we rented a trailer from the base to make sleeping arrangements more comfortable. Of course, they told us it slept 6 and when we got it all set up we learned they were WRONG! It slept 4.And Eliza had a fever Friday so I chose to take her home to sleep. It worked out really well. Saturday she was feeling better so we attempted to sleep at the campground. She was having a hard time settling down. I was sleeping in the little tent with Levi and kept hearing her crying in the trailer. After I'd been asleep for about an hour I woke up with a full on claustrophobic panic attack. I couldn't sleep in that tiny tent, in that heat. I jumped out of the tent and got Eliza and we headed home for the night again. I didn't even attempt to sleep there on Sunday night.

We got there Friday evening and had hobo dinners cooked in the fire. I must say they were quite possibly the yummiest hobo dinners I've ever had thanks to a tutorial I watched on YouTube done by some scout kid. They were good. Then we roasted marshmallows and had s'mores. It was de.lic.ious.

Saturday morning was lazy. The kids made friends with the neighbor campers and we took them all up to the playground. They had fun climbing the "watch tower" and trying to scare each other with ghost sounds.

Then we headed over to the lake and went fishing.

Can you see how excited they were to be here?

Bryant and Ethan were the only ones with fishing poles and they didn't really feel like sharing, so the rest of us were left to our own fun.

We collected rocks to try to skip in the lake. I got one skip out of one rock and I was the only one... that's pretty sad. Skipping stones must be a skill that takes perfecting.

We went on a nature walk and tried to find interesting things to take pictures of. I found this creature hiding in the weeds.
We found flowers or "wowies" as Eliza likes to call them.

But then everyone lost interest in exploring and wanted to go bug Dad and Bryant... by playing in the tackle boxes...

... splashing in the lake and "scaring all the fish."
By that point even Bryant was done fishing and thought it would be more fun to get wet. Because, "fishing is boring, unless you catch fish."

That evening we roasted hot dogs on the fire and then, of course, more marshmallows. It was camping bliss.

Sunday was my birthday. I came back to camp and Ethan made me a yummy breakfast of pancakes and then provided entertainment by playing baseball with the kiddos.

I wish this picture was more clear, but I LOVE Jonas' face!

Levi was up to bat and Jonas and Bryant are the umpire and catcher (I don't know if they even knew which was which).
Elilza was just happy to be outside. There are few things she loves more.
Happy that Dad showed him the correct way to hold the bat.
Realizing that after he got a hit and ran the "bases" it was no longer his turn was a less happy event.
The camera batteries died right when I was trying to take pictures of Bryant up to bat. I was bummed big time! He is really getting good at keeping his eye on the ball and "hitting home runs!"

I took some other pictures of our "hike" on our phones, but haven't been able to get them on the computer yet. And boy do I have a story to tell along with those photos, so be on the lookout. It made for an adventurous birthday.

After our hike we headed home to get ready for church. We stayed home the rest of the day because it was too hot and I didn't want to go back to the campground. Ethan took the boys at bed time and then cleaned up camp in the morning, took the kids fishing again and came home. It was a fun camping trip (and an easy one for this momma!)!