Our camping weekend!!!

Ok, so it hasn't been a few days, I realize that. But I wanted to get these things down here, and just take some ME time, and let my fingers do the talking!!! There's going to be A LOT of pictures, so bear with me. And I'm uploading them in the smallest size, hoping it goes quicker. If you wish to see any of them bigger, please just click on the picture and view it full size that way!!!!


So, we left Friday, right after the boys got out of school. We were on the road by 4 pm, in hopes of getting there early enough to get set up, and settled in and still have some day light! Our thoughts were stopping at Mc Donalds on the way down so that we didn't have to try to come up with dinner for 6 hungry kids while trying to get camp set up. The place we were going was called Hidden Valley Camp Ground. (their website is what drew us to them! Its pretty funny!!) Its about an hour from where we live, in good traffic. We figured there'd be someplace on the way to stop that was convenient. . .we were wrong!!! We finally saw a sign for a McDonalds, and wound up driving 10 miles one way, out of the way, to get to Redwing to eat dinner. It worked out O.K. though, because the kids thought that was awesome, and they were fed, and done!!!

We ultimately chose this place because they didn't charge anything extra for more kids, or for the pets. So many places would have charged us 5 dollars extra PER KID, over 2 kids. Which just didn't seem right to us, since we'd all be in the same tent, regardless of if we had 2 kids or 4. And, out pets were welcome at no extra charge as well. Which is good, since all three of our pooches went with!!! Their website was awesome, and had humor, so we figured it would be a great fit!!!

Once we got there, and paid for our time (30.00 per night for the tent. No extra charge for water, or electric, so we brought electric cords along, and used it!) we headed off to find a site! They don't assign sites, they let you pick your site! So we found the play ground, and the bathroom, which both happened to be right next to each other, and we started to set up camp!!! We managed to get the two tents, the chairs, and the screen tent all set up, and a fire going, and get relaxing that night! It was AWESOME! The kids were in bed by around 9 pm, and the adults decided around 11:30 pm that we were going to turn in. It was a beautiful night, you could see the stars, and everything, but we were TIRED!!! So we packed the chairs away, and hit the hay. Would you know, the second we were all soundly in our tent the rain started??? Yep, call it luck, but really, what it was was the start of a very wet weekend!!!

It rained off and on through the night, and the kids were pretty restless. They're not used to the sounds you hear while sleeping in a tent, let alone a tent that has rain beating on it!!! And when the sun came up the next morning at 6:00 am, we had four very wide awake little kids!! They were up, and ready to get cracking!!! We all got moving, and started to get breakfast ready. We did eggs and bacon over the fire!!! The SECOND we got the eggs done the skies opened up and POURED. We all huddled under the screen tent trying to keep dry. (which didn't work very well if you're wondering! EVERYTHING got wet!) The kids were upset, and wondering why it was raining, so breakfast was kind of a wash (pun intended!) The rain lasted for about an hour. Long enough to make huge puddles, and soak everything around, and then go away. Once the rain did go away it left in its wake a very sticky, very hot, no wind day. The kids were able to play, and we were able to do camping sorts of things. Poor Gabriel though, he was sick. He started off the day saying he had a sore throat, an upset tummy, and a headache. That led to puking, and a long four hour nap in a tent that was SO hot and SO miserable. But it all together was the best day of the weekend! The longest stretch with no rain. They guys headed into town to get a couple of little webber grills, as a plan B in case the rain kept us from cooking again. At some point in there my mom called on my cell to warn me that there was severe weather headed our way, and to be ware. That evening the sky turned a funny color green, and it got windy, but no rain. The adults sat out playing cribbage, and sitting around the fire, and having pudgy pies! Sara and I turned in around midnight, and the boys stayed up till around 2 am because their stubborn asses wouldn't give up when the other would win! they had to keep going until THEY won. See the vicious cycle here???? Sometime after they were in bed, the rain started again.

Sunday morning we woke up a bit later than the day before! we made it to a whopping 8:00 before everyone was ready to get moving! But we also woke to another round muddy ground, everything wet, trying to cook and trying to deal with kids. We made the kids french toast, and the adults egg skillets with fried potatoes. We were able to eat, and get everything cleaned up before the rain started in again. It pretty much rained off and on all through out the day!!! At one point we put the kids for a nap, since there was nothing better for them to do! It cleared up about 3 hours before supper, and the guys took the kids to play on some of the games they had. When they came back we decided we'd get dinner going, in case the rain was going to move in again. Wouldn't you know the second we got the fire hot, and the grills going, it started POURING. We're talking my clothes were drenched within SECONDS. We wound up putting the kids in their respective tents and Todd and I cooked dinner standing over the grills with our umbrellas. About an hour after dinner, it cleared up, and left another round of puddles for the kids. We decided that since most everyone had gone home, we'd let the kids romp in the puddles, and let the dogs off of their chains. You've never seen happier kids or dogs. They all ran in the puddles, romped, played, and GOT SOAKED!!!! But they were so happy!!! The owner of the camp ground came around while Sara and I were at the fire. He gave us four free bundles of wood, and said we'd had the worst weather weekend they'd had in a long time, and that he was sorry, and here was some DRY wood!!! We started the fire up really well since we could with DRY wood. We did smores that night and the kids sat up with us around the fire until 11:00 pm. We played all kinds of word games and had fun!!! Everyone turned in at the same time, and we went to sleep soundly. The first night with no rain.

Monday we woke up around 8:30 to beautiful blue skies, and sun. It would figure that the BEST day of the weekend would come the day we had to go home! But Todd said it best, in the fact that if there was to be a day we NEEDED sun, that was it because we had to pack everything up!! We took our time, slowly packed, and enjoyed the nice weather! We were finally able to walk over and check out the river, and really get a good look at the camp ground!!! We headed out around 2:30 pm, and were home, unpacking by around 4, since we made a small stop on the way home!!!


That's the short abbreviated version of the weekend! Here are the pictures, as promised!!!

Here we are, all packed to the max, ready to go! We barely fit!!!

This became a classic pose for Kaleb for the weekend.

Traffic on the way out there. Turns out there were cops up ahead, and that's what slowed everything down.


Sophie Jo, just happy to be going with!

Kaleb napping with his puppies!


Gabe the first morning we were there!

Dallas still trying to wake up!

Our tent.

Kendyl after changing into some shorts since it was getting warm and muggy.

See, the pose!!!

Gabe: "I don't feel good!"

Todd cooking bacon for everyone.

Our camp site. Our tent on the left. The fire in the middle, Matt and Sara's tent on the right, and the screen tent in the back right. The bathroom was right behind me across the road, and the park was just behind that. It was the PERFECT set up for us.

The other famous pose from the twins this weekend! You'd really think they were twins or something!!!

Matt teaching Dallas how to play mancala.

Washing the dirty Kendyl girl hands.

Gabe, passed out because he just didn't feel well.

Hot, muggy, aqua doodle time!

Dallas caught on film, digging for gold!

Snuggin' daddy!

My niece Kristen! I love this picture of her!

"got your nose!!"

Just chillin by the fire!

Again. . the face!

Playing in the puddles!

Dallas still sleeping!

Morning MOMMY!

Mommy, its still raining outside!

My beautiful Kendyl girl!

Kendyl and her daddy!

Playing in the puddles! Yes, some were THAT deep!

Playing ladder ball!

Daddy and his twins!

My nephew Kyle.

Good morning!

Taffy and daddy were NOT ready to get up!

The cement ping pong table! the kids LOVED it!

Handsome bubba boy!

Woah! Almost fell!

All the kids playing together before we left!

After we got home, we found our flowers had bloomed, and the kids started to pick them! I dont' worry cause I'm not big on flowers, and they do this EVERY year. EVERY year. They have a blast picking flowers for mommy! Look at how HUGE those things are though!!!

Dallas trying out his glove uncle Curt and Auntie Kelly got him. Its the ONLY lefty glove they could find. He writes right handed, but throws and catches lefty! Its weird!

I was informed these are irises. ..they sure are pretty though!