Camping + Friends = Ultimate Summertime Fun!

If you're confused over my long absence and then sudden flurry of posts, don't worry, you're not alone.  I am confused as well.  I'm confused about why I can't seem to keep up with the pace of life!  I feel like there used to be a time when I actually got all the daily chores done and still had time to do fun things with my kids and post on my blog now and then.  Somehow those days have slipped away.  Now I feel an urgent need to catch up quickly....because more fun's a comin'.  In 5 short little days my baby brother is getting me a new sister!  Woo hoo!  So I need to blog up all the past and present so that I have time to blog about the future.  Wait, what?  Maybe I mean blog about the wedding in the future.  I'm not really sure what I meant.  However, that is neither here nor there.  What is here are pictures of our (somewhat) recent camping trip.  Talk about fun times!  

These boys are exactly a year apart.  They are pretty similar in their level of activity.  Meaning neither of them likes to sit still much.

My two girls vacated our family tent and shared a tent with their friend.  It was rather nice to have a little extra room in the big tent!  We were able to let Daddy set up the new camping cot that we got him a whole year ago for Father's Day.  He said it worked pretty well. 

These pictures are really in no particular order.  And I'm in no particular mood to get them organized--haha.  We'll go the mish-mash route.  The long and the short of it is that we went up to Lake Kachess to camp for a couple days with a big group of friends.  A good time was had by all (I think).  There was food and water and friends and HEAT--102 degrees one day.

We spent time around the camp fire drinking hot chocolate and reading the Word.

Can I just say that I love Miss Beth?  I do.  And so do my kids.  While we were setting up our tent she was busy helping us and playing with the kids.  Ezra came over to me and said "Mom, I really like Miss Beth.  She's so nice."  I must agree with  him!

 Ditto for Aunt Ginger.  I want to be like her when I grow up.  It was so fun to have her along.  And she slept in the back of her car with her moon roof open to watch the skies.  That reminds me--for the first time ever we camped with the rain cover off of our tent.  It was so warm out that we didn't need it.  And there was not a raindrop in sight.  It was fun to see the gorgeous stars when we were awake.  Unfortunately that happened a lot the first night.  I never sleep well the first night camping.  The second night I was exhausted enough to crash out hard for quite a while

Breakfast the first morning was a joint effort.  That makes it fun, I think.  Aunt Ginger and Tadd compared their different coffee making methods while camping.  Beth provided us with plates and plastic ware so that we could actually eat.  Andrew and Wendy dealt with all the meat--delicious bacon and sausage.  Lisa made amazing oatmeal pancakes.  And I cooked some eggs.  Sharing the work makes it so easy.

These two cannot take a serious picture.

Oh my word, they kill me.

I love this picture of Henry shoveling in his food.  He does love scrambled eggs.  Our first kid to like eggs.  It's a miracle.  When I think of all the battles that have been fought (and still are) over eggs in our house...

My plate of goodness.  Speaking of sharing the work, the girls went and picked those wild blueberries for us first thing in the morning.  Well, not really first thing.  First thing was at 4 AM when the light first broke and they woke up and started chatting.  Loudly.  I, being the lazy mom I am, tried to squeeze my eyes shut and ignore them.  The other mom--who is very pregnant--is much more responsible.  She made herself get up, walk across the campsite and tell the girls what time it was and that they should go back to sleep.  Then she went back to bed.  Then they started talking again.  Loudly, again.  Then I ignored it again.  Then the other dad got up and brought their daughter back to their tent.  And that is what actually happened first thing in the morning.  A couple hours later is when they picked the berries.  Which were sour.  BUT--they were delicious with some peanut butter and a touch of syrup and whipped cream on pancakes.  AND we were not worried about being poisoned because we had a horticulturalist along with us and she okayed them.  Plus, we've eaten them when camping in the same spot before :)  

After breakfast and some time in the Word we headed to the lake for some relief from the serious heat.  Andrew and Wendy had brought all manner of water toys--kayak and oodles of paddle boards.  Tadd and Dallas each had a blow up raft with outboard motor.  And all the families with younguns had a variety of floaties.  We were set!

Did I mention it was beautiful?  It was.  We were joined by another slew of folks who weren't quite up to camping but still wanted to come play for the day.  Look at all that water activity.  We were sure to use lots of sunscreen and lots of life jackets.

Hey--there's me!  I got to take Henry out for a kayak ride and it was so fun.  He really loved it.  It is a bit hard to decide whether to paddle in front of him--and get drips all over him, or behind him--and occasionally hit him in the head.  He was very patient with the process.

After a good seven plus hours on the beach we headed back to camp for supper.  And to put on our matching shirts :) 

Ha!  I caught them when they weren't ready to be silly.  The four pictures I took after this one look just like the breakfast series.  Goobers!

Brothers.

Oh boy, here we go again.

This is where the story turns south.  On the second morning of camping, Nora opened my tent flap at 5:45 AM and informed me that she had just thrown up.  Outside her tent, Praise the Lord.  She continued throwing up at regular intervals all day.  We felt awful.  It was hot.  She was miserable.  Other people were with us.  What a day.  We really thought we were dealing with a bad case of dehydration because of all her physical activity and the extreme heat.  Plus, she's so tiny.  Her little body was burning hot as the day went on.  And she was dehydrated.  But that was the effect not the cause.  And we found that out for certain when I got what she had the next day.  Oh joy.  Praise the Lord that none of the other families ended up getting the stomach flu.  Most of our family cycled through it--but like stomach bugs so often are--it was violent and mercifully short.  It was a sad end to our camping trip for sure.  But other than that it was a great time.