Camping

Mandee is currently putting the little princess to bed.  She has told me that if I really loved her that I would make another post to the blog.  So… here goes…

Camping has always been a dirty word in the household where I grew up.  My little sister lasted exactly 1 day for only 1 summer at girls camp.  I still wake up in a cold sweat sometimes at night when I have “Vietnam-style” flashbacks about scout camp when I was a kid.  I remember one time that I actually had to (prepare yourselves for this… it is almost to horrible to describe…) touch a fish with my bare hands and clean it.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love the outdoors.  I just like it to stay outdoors.  I love to be out in nature, but I love even more being able to go inside and use the greatest invention of the modern era (flushing toilets).  I am also very fond of hot water heaters and showers.  

For the past 12 years of our marital bliss, my smoking hot wife (her words) has been trying to convince me that we need to become a “camping family”.  She tells me how much she absolutely loves camping and that all of her favorite memories as a child revolved around taking trips out into the forest and sleeping “Moses-style” (in a tent for those who are not in the know) and only having leaves and holes for the “facilities”.  Sounds awesome, huh.

Well, being the wonderful, kind, incredibly handsome and caring husband that I am.  I have offered to take the family camping a few times with our tent (gasp… yes we do actually own a tent… it has been used at least 6 times… nevermind that 5 of those were in our own backyard).  My admittedly half-hearted offers to do the camping deed have always been met with an equally half-hearted, “well… do we actually have to go in a tent, with no bathrooms and no beds?” from my smoking hot wife.  She then gently reminds me that while she enjoyed roughing it as a child, if I really loved her and the kids, I would take them camping in a manner that was befitting (that is really fancy talk for renting a camper… yay!!!).

Well, this weekend, I finally redeemed myself as a husband and a father (almost).  Here is the proof:

We took an extended family camp-o-rama up to Indian Creek in Palisades.  Notice, however, that there is only one family that appears to be sleeping in a tent in this picture. 

Can you guess which family that was?  Dang.  Someday I’ll get this right.

Anywhooo.  The kids absolutely had a blast.  Alex and the boys decided that they needed to catch a fish.

He ended up catching something much more exciting…

No, not me… the tree.  Let the good times roll!

The intrepid explorers had to go on a hike.

Alex got to double as a pack mule for the trip.  It is about time somebody else took a turn!!!

Chase got a little bit of an extra work out himself (on a side note… Carson had the dirtiest face in the whole camp… we had only been there 1/2 hour at this point).

Abby came in a close second.

We also had a great time riding bikes, four wheelers and motorcycles.

At night, the cousins all gathered around to play some games.

I’m not sure if Olivia just lost this game or if her hot dog just did not agree with her.

Uncle Matt made sure that all of the kids new the safe and proper way to shoot a raccoon.

“Get ‘em where it hurts, kids”.

Papa made sure that he provided all of the outdoor lighting that we needed for the trip.

Seriously, I’m sure that you can see that jacket from the space station.  Small airplanes were trying to use our campsite for a landing strip.  Do not look directly at the hoodie or you may burn your retinas.  (OK… I’m done… sorry Papa, that may have been a bit overboard).

OK, so I’m not done, yet.  Here’s another shot.  Notice how it seems to absorb the light from all of the surroundings?  Amazing.

Of course, the kids had to cook their smores over the campfire.

Leave it up to Sam to find the stale and crusty bag of peeps from Easter and convince all of the cousins that they would be “freaking awesome” to roast over the fire.

We also did a little star gazing.

We told some stories around the campfire.

And of course… Ralph the Midnight Hair Dresser made a visit to the campsite…

We had a great time and will definitely do it again (as long as the next time includes flushing toilets).