Camping!

Do you like tall trees and tents? Have you ever heard of hobo dinners? Do you like making (and eating) smores? Now, if you answered yes to 2/3 of those or more, let me ask you this question. Have you camped before. Your answer is probably yes. Our family went on a little camping trip ourselves the last day of school. Here is how it went:

On the last day of school we had Kindergarten promotion and 5th grade promotion. Because these events were held during school and ended before  school let out, we were able to leave early. Walker, Maverick, and  Mom and I went home early where the other kids were found playing with our good friends who were kind enough to watch for them for four and a half hours while Mom and Dad were gone from home. We already had our clothes packed along with the toiletries and Mom had just run to the store the night before to get food for the adventurous one night camping trip. The dinner for that night was going to be hobo dinners: potatoes, onions, meat, carrots, cream of chicken, salt and pepper, put into an aluminum sheet, folded up, and cooked over the fire. We were also going to have a dutch oven lava cake. And for breakfast the next morning we were going to have a quiche: eggs, ham, and cheese delicious breakfast. So, Mom got the ingredients for that.

Another thing that had happened the night before, Dad and Mom got out both of our tents (we can't fit our whole family into one anymore) and our cots and sleeping bags and aerobed (noticng later that we needed a mattress not an aerobed, so on the way to the camping site we had to pick up a mattress).

After that last day of school we gathered our dutch oven, the salt and pepper, the lanterns, the plastic utensils and cups and plates and bowls, and other stuff like that and put them in big containers and then stuffed everything we needed (including pillows) into the trunk and car top carrier. We dressed appropriately and headed off to the camping site (we had to stop at Target to get something :D). 

We got there and unloaded everything. We saw the Mattssons, the McRae's, the Dean's, the Broadhead's, and the Bruner's too who were right next door. They  were going to be our neighbors!We set up the small tent and put pillows, a mattress, and the sleeping bags in there. Then we set up the big tent: 4 sleeping bags, and 2 cots. While Dad was doing this, Mom was setting up a prep table by a wooden table which held a lantern and a big bucket full of supplies, and next to the wooden table were two crates full of food and supplies (did I mention we had two coolers). While Mom was doing this, Walker and I were playing tennis bounce and badminton (we broke the plastic ball in half), Maverick and Ainsley were visiting the neighbors, and Bode was playing the Grape Game. The Grape Game is where he would take grapes and roll them on the backside of the car: the thing that has a bunch of ridges and is there so you can step up and touch the trunk handle. Anyways, you can tell we had a great time.We played games and Bode got himself really dirty!!!

I helped Mom make the hobo dinners! It was really fun. After we put the ingredients inside the aluminum sheet and wrapped it up tightly, we put them in the fire. Dad had to flip them halfway through. 

They were really good! They smelled and looked good. Another thing that looked good was our campsite. Here is what it looked like:

Anyways, back to the story: After we finished eating our hobo dinners it started to grow dark so we headed over to the neighbors camping area. Everybody we knew was over there. We made smores and Mom made a delicious lava cake. It was good. After some good stories at the campfire, we headed off to bed. It was cold!Bode went to bed first and Dad had to stay in the tent for a long time before Bode finally snoozed off. Everyone went to bed thinking that the night was over. But it wasn't. Before long, Bode woke up and also woke up everybody else in the big tent: Mom, Dad, and I. He was playing on Mom's iphone. Apparently he had found it and was playing games and watching videos. He didn't go to bed for a long time after that. We had to switch around the whole tent until he went zzzzzzzzz. At least the other kids got a good sleep :)

We woke up and played some more and Mom made a quiche that was scrumptious. We talked with the neighbors and played horseshoes. We went to the park and then played some more. Before we knew it, it was time to leave. We packed up and headed home. We were very sad it was over. The camping trip was pretty fun!