Family Camping Trip #2

I was waiting to post about our Memorial Day weekend because I wanted to post pictures to go with it. Well, we have lost our camera. We are not having much luck with cameras these days.

We left Friday morning and headed to T.S.P. where we set up our tent along with several of Brian's relatives making 16 total campers. Friday evening, Noah and Brian went swimming in the lake and had a refreshing time. Noah told his dad that "he liked swimming in the lake but not the seaweed". (I'm not sure what that was about) We cooked burgers, hot dogs and s'mores over the campfire and then headed off to find a shower.

Getting everyone clean while camping is more difficult then you would think. There is some logistical planning that has to go into it. First, I took Noah. The first shower we went into only had cold water. Lets just say there was lots of screaming and arms flying around. I somehow managed to stay dry because after all I had another kid in the car waiting to be washed. Next was Camden's turn. I tried shower stall # 2 and it did have hot water (please don't mention this to Noah) I managed to wash Camden and myself and after turning the water off and drying off, Camden who was sitting on the handicapped seat looked at me and then proceeded to pee all over my legs. So, we both had another shower. Off to the car where it was Brian's turn.

We had a perfect night to sleep in the tent. Noah was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Camden proved more challenging. After testing the boundaries of his air mattress by jumping and landing several times on the floor of the tent instead of the soft air mattress he finally fell asleep. It was beautiful to look up at the sky and see what God has created but at the same time I was a bit uneasy knowing that I could look up and be staring into the eyes of some wild animal. Luckily that didn't happen and the animals went for the food in the trash bags outside the tent and left us alone.

Saturday was spent visiting 70+ people from Brian's family reunion. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins, eating some interesting food, and seeing who could not go to the bathroom the longest. You see, there were lots of spiders and bugs in the bathroom. Most of the young cousins, including Noah loudly protested using the bathroom and fought with all their might not to go.

We headed to Brian's dad's lake house for the evening where we enjoyed a boat ride on the lake. Both boys got to drive the pontoon boat (with Dudu's help). We are all thankful that they do not hand out licenses until you are older because it felt like you were being driven around by a drunk driver.

Sunday, the boys both caught a catfish with Gigi's help and then we headed to Jefferson to ride the steam train. The excitement was lost on Camden who slept through the train ride as well as the 2 1/2 hour ride home. Camping wore all of us out and we seem to be still catching cat naps as much as we can.

We spent Monday at my parents house celebrating Mark's birthday. Were has the time gone? Can he possibly be 32? I don't think he has aged! He is so young at heart and I am proud to call him my brother. Happy Brother Marky!!!