Let's Go Camping

Last week we went camping. It was a great week, with the best weather we'd seen around here in a month. As a matter of fact, the first night it was so cold and rainy that Brad had to bring extra jackets and sweatshirts back to camp with him after work. We camped with Teresa, Wayne, Cameron and Cris for the second year in a row. This year Kim, Matthew and Trevor joined us for the first time. To round things out, James and Deana were there as well. Honestly, it was a great week. We'd had our moments of 7 separate sets of hormones, attitudes, and moods, but for the most part, it was a fabulous week Buster and Spencer were there, and to add some spice to the week, Spencer went for a run not once, not twice, but three times during the week. It was all okay though, we used those dogs to get our exercise, walking them some days 4 times!

A couple of weeks ago, Cameron and Cris were scheduled to go to YMCA camp, but their camp was cancelled due to those horrible fires that started out in the desert and made their way up to Big Bear. They were very dissapointed. We decided it would be fun to creat some extra fun during our camp by including their themed night at our camp, complete with some coordinating activites. On Tuesday, we had Hawaiian day. The kids all got dressed up. We had a limbo contest after dinner. You should have been there. I've never seen anyone bend like Cameron did! He could bend in half backwards and hold it, all the while, his ankles were supporting him completely bent in half! I was busy holding the limbo pole, and forgot to take any pictures. Kim got pictures of this night though, so hopefully she'll share them with us.

On Thursday, Brad and I went to work, but brought Sarah and Deana home with us. Sarah had to take some math tests for placement at her new school, which starts tomorrow, and Deana required new glasses, thanks to some rough housing with Trevor. The girls spent the afternoon at the country club. When we got back to camp, we had Retro Night. It was so much fun. The pictures of that night are found here. The boys were John Lennon, Ozzie Osborne, and hippies. Deana was the perfect flower child, and Sarah looked just like Jan Brady. I even got into the act with my retro find from Goodwill. I was told I looked like Alice, from the Brady Bunch. Honestly, sometimes I feel like Alice. The kids had a disco dance off for their activity. It was too much fun. Teresa, Kim and I finished the eve off with our own rendition of Last Dance with Donna Summer!

Friday was fishing day. It was the most amazing day. Papa took the day off work to join the kids at the lake. With just a short casting lesson, each and every one of the kids was casting their own line into the lake! They didn't all bait their own hooks though, or untangle their lines....seems I still remember how to do all that! Every one of those kids caught fish. We were fishing for catfish, but they were all sleeping, so blue-gill it was. Between them, they must have brought in 36-40 fish! James caught the most with 10. They were all thrown back, but only one of them didn't make it. Deana caught the last fish and the smallest, but ended up with two before we were finished. Here are the fishing pix...

About 6 hours after we started, we had to pry the kids away from fishing to have our pirate night. Boy, was that fun. We all dressed as pirates and had a cannon ball fight....adults against the kids. I'm not sure who won, but the adults looked a little bit wet to me! Here are those pictures. Well, Saturday was here before we were ready. We are already planning next year's camping trip. We have have requests for more to join us. I plan to learn the rules of entertaining a group up there. Maybe Joleen, Alex, Aimee and Vince can join us next year! The more the merrier....