Campout

At the end of June Mark took the kids out camping.  They camped for three nights and had a blast.  They set up camp over by our brush pile and put their sleeping bags in the tent.  Poor little Emmy didn't get to camp the first night because we thought she was too little.  She was none to thrilled about being left in the house with Mom while everybody else got to sleep outside!  I, on the other hand, thought the arrangement worked just fine :)  At the last minute on the second night Mark decided he'd give her a try in the tent but bring her in if she wouldn't settle down.  I of course stayed inside just in case she needed to come in.  Man, was it nice and quiet in the house that night!  Emma made it all night in the tent and went right to sleep.  The next morning I took some coffee, juice, and cinnamon rolls out to the hungry campers for breakfast.  We sat around and ate off of the Rubbermaid containers that we keep the camping gear in.  The kids thought that was pretty cool - they'd never had a breakfast picnic!  The third night they finally guilted me into sleeping in the tent with them all.  We dug out another sleeping bag and Mark gave me a thin foam pad to sleep on and I slept in the tent.  For the record I am never camping again unless I have an air mattress or something thicker than that pad to sleep on!  I couldn't sleep my hips and back hurt so bad - it was awful!  But they were glad I was out there with them - so it was worth it, right?

The tent.

Breakfast prayers.

Mmmm.  Tastes good!

The view from inside the tent.

The whole floor was covered in sleeping bags!

Proof I was out there.  Of course I have my coffee.

Me and the boy.

The neighbor drove his tractor over to talk to Mark and of course the kids took that as an open invitation to climb all over it like it was a jungle gym!

What a sad face!

Of course, you have to have a fire when you are camping.  It's just what you do!

Emma dancing on a log.  I was afraid to death that she was going to fall off and break her neck.

Can't imagine where Emma got the idea...what a squirrel!

Oooohhh....Fire.

The night I stayed out there we got out the little "pop" tent as well.  We didn't know if we'd all fit in the bigger tent and we figured the boys would think it was cool to have their own tent.

Really - you just toss it up in the air and it pops into a tent!  It's pretty cool!
For the record, I have NO idea why Benny has ahold of his rear end.

Patrick - being his normal goofy self.
I love this weird boy :o)

Uh Oh.... somebody's getting tired!

Nope!  She was just joking!

Much better than tv any day!

We even roasted marshmallows! 
We only had a couple flaming marshmallow meteors....

More proof that I was out at the campsite at night!

Hanging out by the fire.
We played "Witch" until it got to dark and everyone was to scared to play anymore.  It was SO much fun.

Daddy lovin' on Emma.

Ok, so much for the boys thinking it was going to be "cool" to sleep alone.  They couldn't sleep because they were scared to be out there in the dark alone.  So, we drug their tent into the screened in part of the big tent and then they were fine ;o)  Maybe next year.

The girls getting their feet washed off before they get in their new sleeping bags.

It really was fun - minus the actual trying to sleep part.