Camping

Well, this camping thing is kind of funny. If you go in with super low expectations you won't be disappointed.

So we left Friday with so much stuff. I guess I didn't realize how much stuff it takes to take seven people camping. We had our back tray filled and each kid had a sleeping bag on his or her lap. Additionally, some of our stuff was already in our friends' boat. (That s' is for you A. It's not just S's.)

We had to get the boat in the water, unload stuff onto the boat, take it over and then come back and repeat. That's a bit of a hassel. But the kids were still super excited so it didn't matter so much.

We found our campsite and started unloading the stuff from the boat from the dock that was out floating in water. So you can imagine us carrying stuff through a few feet of water to get to the land. Then we had to go up a small hill to find our area. After unloading some of it there we T found a rattlesnake. I'm not talking about some overexaggerated garden snake. Our friend saw it too and it had rattles. He was near where our tents were supposed to go. We decided to haul stuff back down to the beach and just 'camp' there. The rule follower in me didn't like this as supposedly we weren't supposed to camp on the beach. But the snake fearing person beat out the rule follower. Heck, if there is some rattler there then there is probably cousin Buba and auntie Evil too.

By the time we got everything set up it was getting really late. I was trying to get the kids to drink up so we could take them to the bathroom while there was enough light to look for rattlers. There was NO way I was taking any kid to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

We roasted marshmallows up in rattler territory. I was told they like to be out in the sun and most likely wouldn't be out at night. Still, I sat at the table with my legs folded under me.

The kids zonked out super fast which was a huge blessing because it was starting to get windy. DH and I questioned whether or not the tent would stay up. But we were too tired to worry about it.

During the night it got more and more windy. The wind would wake me up and get me thinking. "Hmm... are there more rattlers out there? Did we zip this thing all the way up or did we forget to zip the bottom adn some cougar is going to come and devour us?" But I was too cold and tired to do anything about it. I actually don't mind the sleeping outside thing if it isn't windy and there aren't mosquitoes everywhere. And in the morning it wasn't too bad to wake up in the tent, wind and all.

The wind started picking up more and more. The kids played in the water. We ate breakfast. It was slightly more gritty than normal but less gritty than the time I made omelets and didn't wash the spinach well enough. So I'm not complaining. The food was great according to me.

But then we had a few issues.

We came to go boating but you know it's not an ideal boating day on a small lake when there are white caps out there. Nevertheless, out we went. And I don't mind that part of it. It's more fun to be one the water when sand is blowing around than on a beach.

The kids were thrilled and wanted to go on the tube. Little girls were up first, then the medium ones. We stopped with the medium ones and the tube started coming up on the back end. The front was sinking. It was totally slow motion. It looked like the giant tube was going to flip over or sink.

And all three kids were holding on for dear life. And then over it went. Out popped J and T but D wasn't out. I froze. DH froze. Luckily, our driver didn't and he dove over the side in the freezing water to fetch D who was stuck underneath in an air pocket which was where one of the three seats is. Out of all of the kids it was really unfortunate that D was the one stuck underneath because he's the only one who can't swim, who has a fear of drowning, and has super high anxiety. Everyone got back in the boat and shivered away. It wasn't much over 60 in the water. We just turned up the music and chilled for a while.

DH still wakesurfed and wakeboarded. Considering the conditions he did pretty well. He had wanted me to try both but I wasn't about to humiliate myself in anything but ideal conditions :)

We went back to camp and let the kids play some more and then most of the kids convinced the men to take them on a hike. I thought they were CRAZY. Did we mention that there was a rattler out there lurking in the brush with its army of rattler friends? I guess the kids weren't as scared as I was and off they went to the top of the little mountain.

My friend and I stayed back and thought we would get a little chilling time. Then the wind picked up. Then our tent started flying away. Out came the stakes. So we ended up dismantling the entire thing.

We had contemplated doing hot dogs for dinner there. Heck, I even bought decent ones ;) But really, I didn't want to revisit our rattler friend who resided by the pit. So we loaded up and headed home.

I did wake up today with a majorly sunburned lip or something. It looks like I had a bad botox job. S kept looking at me today and would stick out her bottom lip. I guess it's obvious. It feels like the whole dang thing is going to blister which is going to stink big time. But once again, it'll be a memory.

And you know, the trip beat my expectations. I guess if you aren't hoping for much then it'll be better.

The pros of the trip:

-Lots of pictures
-Getting a good view of a ton of stars
-Watching the kids enjoy themselves
-Getting a little extra fiber in the form of sand
-Finally having enough sleeping bags for our family in case of an emergency
-Chatting with friends

The cons of the trip:
-Loads of stuff to pack for a one night trip
-MOSQUITOES
-Rattlesnakes
-Wind
-The boat rope taking a bunch of DH's hand with it.
-Burrs
-Sunburns and a big fat lip
-Bringing home sand in everything