Camping trip for Trent's birthday

Trent wanted one thing for his birthday. To go camping. Normally, I actually enjoy camping. It's fun to 'get away from it all' and spend some time outdoors, wake up in the middle of nowhere and have to cook your food over a fire. However, this year I was pretty pregnant (which makes even sleeping on a normal bed difficult), we left very late (after Trent got home from work) and had to set up camp in the dark. Luckily, the kids slept incredibly well. Didn't wake up once in the night and were very warm in the morning. Me-I wanted to murder every one of those 50 birds that decided to yell, hoot, and holler their morning calls at 5 since I had just finally fallen into a deep sleep. When I woke Trent up and asked him to go throw rocks at the birds after I unsucessfully tried to fall asleep again, he got out, chucked the rocks and dumped himself back into a sleeping bag...all while not disturbing the kids' peaceful slumber a bit. I never really could go back to sleep. When Kyleigh finally got up, I climbed out of my sleeping bag and felt as though I had pulled an all-nighter on exam night in college.

Children all nestled snug in their beds. But doubt there were any sugar plum visions that night.

I can count on one hand the number of times that Brenden has pulled his sleepy self out of bed before this spunky girl. And one of those times she was sick with a fever. She is an early riser and when she does, there is no period of drowsiness...it's full tilt the minute her feet hit the floor. I'm serious. Sometimes she's singing on the way down the stairs or dancing while I make her oatmeal with brown sugar.

After a hearty breakfast of cold cereal and chocolate milk, we came into the tent to see how the boys fared.

Girl time

And with this little one, anything is fair game. She's up for whatever I can think to throw at her.

Camp Dining at its finest.

Would you believe that it didn't rain that night, but the grass was still all wet?

Enough was enough so after awhile, we roused the boys up. This guy was a little harder to bestir, so he was tortured helped out a little to get out of the warm sleeping bag and begin a day of canoeing and play.

"How embarrassing, Mom".

Maybe he's not so shy, eh?

Close up. Thanks, Bud.

Trent wasn't having the semi-nude photo shoot so he tried to hurry and throw a t-shirt on Brenden.

But by that time, the kid was fully invested in some quality camera time. And I was of no help to encourage him in the right direction.

Back outside, this little girl was semi-patiently waiting for someone to come throw a couple pieces of wood into the pit and light em' up. She was promised smores after b-fast. (Camping, people. We do things a little differently when camping. There is no set time restraint on smores when you are camping. Graham, marshmallow and chocolate is viable food option for breakfast when you are camping).

Casting a spell on the fire pit to get things moving faster than her parents can manage?

Dreaming of the melted marshmallows that will soon pass her lips.

He is perfectly content to be thrown into a wide open space and given no restrictions. Camping is fun for kids.

Breakfast is done and now onto the smores...

Bear Grylls would have been sorely disappointed with the amount of time it took for these fellas to get our fire started. But that's ok. We hadn't been hiking for hours, caught our own food, and half-starved by that time. (Anyone watch his show-Get Out Alive- on Monday nights? It's great. I've actually never seen Trent so excited for a show).

With the coals smouldering, she can almost taste those marshmallows now...

Finally.

Notice: B's face and K's 2 hands

And this little face can get 2 more marshmallows if she polishes off the 2 in her hands.

Sugar = Happiness

Make that 3 more marshmallows so she can keep those pants up.

After the kids finished their 'mallows, I had wet wipes ready to fix messy fingers and faces. Kyleigh thought her Dad needed a little assistance as well, so she called for him to kneel down...

...and fixed her Dad right up.

And was handsomely rewarded for her efforts.

Meanwhile, this kid pulled out a book and actually sat in this chair going over each picture for quite some time. Neither Trent nor I wanted to disturb this kind of activity, so we packed all the food stuffs away and got working on the tent take-down ourselves.

With the packing almost finished, this kid found a nice spot to nibble on a little graham cracker.

And watched on while Kyleigh put away her little BYU camping chair.

It was difficult for her to put away and I offered to help, but she doggedly managed to get the task done herself....thank-you-very-much.

I had been taking pictures all morning and B wanted to snap one before we left our camp spot in Findley, OH.

Kids were excited to go canoeing....until their Dad got in after pushing us out into the water and it was not as stable as on dry ground. Kyleigh held on for dear life and refused to look up until we coaxed her somehow to relax and trust that she wasn't going to fall into the water.

Fairly big lake. We didn't get to the end of it before turning around, though. I think we were out for about an hour.

Found some large tree branches reaching out into the water forming a natural tunnel to take the kids under. 

One could take a picnic out on the canoe and find a bench somewhere along the lake. 

Back at the beach where you rent the canoes, they have a wading pool partitioned off from canoes. But don't bother...the water is pretty stagnant and smells like rotting fish and mossy/moldy water. Good thing they had showers and we brought a fresh change of clothing for the kids and Trent who got into the water.

Out on the lake, though, it doesn't carry a stench so you're unencumbered to enjoy the surroundings. Even the random picnic bench half buried in the water. 

Told B it was a diving board and to jump on. But he didn't buy it.

Then we found some wild forget-me-not flowers and I had to grab a few to take home and throw in some water. They really are small and easily missed. 

We asked the kids if they wanted to get out of the canoe and walk on the little trail. Once they got out, we started pushing off and waved good-bye. Kyleigh thought it was funny at first. 

I guess they knew Mom and Dad weren't really going to maroon them cause they never really got scared. Just kept playing with the sand and rocks till we paddled back.

B wanted a go at the oar. 

Then some swim time before everyone changed clothes, loaded the car, and drove home. Nice place. 'Bout an hour drive westward. Next time I think Trent wants to try Allegheny, PA. He has asked around the ward and found some people who have done some extensive camping around these parts so I think he's already compiled a list of the next camping destinations. I'm not sure when he's going to figure those in since the season is almost over and we may be headed back West by next spring/summer. I'm sure he won't be too sad once he sees the Rocky Mountains or canyons and ranges on the west coast.

 Meanwhile, we make do with what we have.