Camping

Who chooses to camp the weekend it's supposed to hit the mid-90s? More people than you'd probably guess if the jam-packed campground is any indication.

We got out to the lake in the still-early afternoon on Friday only to find that there were no water-front spots available and no side-by-side sites (we were camping with other people). But, Billy managed to find a somewhat shady spot to set up our pop-up camper for it's virgin outing.

Bella and I came out later after working the Jaycees' spaghetti supper. We did some socializing and then promptly went on to bed. Javi settled into camper sleeping without incident, but Bella is a different story. We thought everything would be fine once we got her to sleep, but that was only the beginning... the poor thing later FELL OUT of the camper!!! Apparently the flap on that side wasn't tight enough and our baby rolled right on out! Who does that happen to?

Luckily she barely had a scratch and we were able to comfort her enough to get her back to sleep in a new (safer) bed and we all went back to sleep. That wasn't the end of the night-time battles though because the next night, Bella was being silly and tried to throw herself back on her pillow ... only she hit the frame ... hard! A big ol' knot formed on the back of her head as we calmed down the hysterics. And then she did it again. Needless to say, night time in the camper is not our friend.

But daytime was okay. On Sunday after a super-early start and breakfast, we headed down to the beach area. I put the kids in bathing suits just so they wouldn't be too hot, but lo and behold they ran straight into the water and stayed there -- despite the temperature hovering in the freezing range! It was hot as all get out on the shore, though.

Shannon and Bill came to hang out with us for awhile, so when it was naptime, we dumped out the men and the girls drove around so Bella could get some sleep in the a/c. It was such a nice break from the heat! After the Shueys left, we headed over to Camp Gordon for dinner and s'mores.

Tons of bubbles, a bag of marshmellows, and a campfire later, we tucked back in for the night. Billy had rearranged our beds, so we were all much more comfortable on Night 2 than Night 1. Afer some good, good sleep, I was up and at 'em early in the morning so I went ahead and packed everything up. We actually had to wake the kids up around 9 am lest they sleep all day!

After breakfast, we went down to the waterfront and let them play for a couple hours while we just relaxed and enjoyed the day. Then it was time to head home -- for me an dkids at least. Billy stayed another night by himself to fish and play Thoreau. ;)

By 3 pm on Sunday, we were home, Bella was in her bed taking a nap and my car was unpacked. However, it's a day later and I'm still not recovered. I'm not sure when we'll brave the wilds again ... but we are planning to take the boat out of the day next weekend. It was the only thing (besides civilization) that we missed this weekend!