Camping Chaos!

You guessed it! We picked the hottest weekend of the year to do what...go camping of course!!! And I say we, but the girls and I chose to sleep with the comfort of air conditioning, electricity, and running water. We were troopers by day and wimps by night. While the boys were roughin

it in the woods, the girls and I slept at Nanny and Poppy's house.

The weekend started off at Nanny and Poppy's house while we waited for Kevin to get off of work and then go and get the campsite ready. Emmy slept, as she does most of the time...

and Drew and Ellie played in the pool (yes, in their clothes - their bathing suits were still packed in the car and I was lazy :)

and convinced Nanny to get in the pool in her clothes too!

Kevin got home and the boys went to get the campsite ready while the girls finished getting the last few things at the house and ran a few errands (which was just fine and we took our sweet time getting out there, at least long enough for the sun to go down and the temperature to drop 10 or 15 degrees). The boys had the tent up, fire blazing (yes, we had a fire in the dead of summer - you can't camp without a fire), and chairs ready for us by the time we got there. Kevin was attempting to blow up the air mattresses - success with one, not so much with the other. There was a "small leak" around the place where you blow it up - but "not a big deal" according to Kevin. Needless to say, Kevin told us the following morning that he was laying on gravel by 1am (guess the "small leak" turned out to be a little larger than he thought).

Here is our first attempt at a family photo. This is the best that we could get (the best of about 25 pictures or so). Never mind that we are in our camping attire, plastered with sweat, smelling of insect repellant and very sleepy (i.e. Ellie). But here we are, all five of us!

I must say, I was very relluctant to go this weekend. I could use the excuse that it would be too hard with a newborn. Or I could say that since it was so hot I didn't want to go. Or I could say that Ellie is just not old enough to camp yet and we should wait a few years. But no, I will be honest and say that I am just not a camper. The idea of sleeping outside in the 80 degree weather, waking up in the middle of the night and having to WALK 150 yards to the bathroom, having no running water, no electricity, wildlife... lets just say, its not my thing. However, I must say that we had a lot of fun and I was perfectly content "camping" during the day (when it had cooled down a little, of course) and sleeping in the comfort of Nanny and Poppy's house :) I loved watching the kids enjoy the whole "camping experience."

We made Smores...

Ellie wanted nothing to do with the marshmellows and graham crackers. She wanted nothing but what? Yep, the chocolate! What can I say, she's mine!

We rode bikes... (Well Drew rode, Ellie sat on his bike while he was doing something else.)

played in the rocks...

cooked hot dogs over the fire... (with only one minor incident -- Joan and Steve ran into town to get something and said "Do you want us to take one of the kids?" to which we of course answered "No, we will be fine." Let's just say that they had not yet gotten out of the park before we had them on the phone asking them to bring back some Solarcaine, or anything for a burn. See Drew knew not to touch the fire or the hot dog that had been in the fire, but he did not know how hot the skewer had gotten :( Poor buddy burned his thumb. Nothing that a little cake didn't cure though.)

Ellie would have rather used her hot dog as a sword!


Poppy and Drew went on a nature trail...

Drew and Ellie played in the tent with Jesse...

And played on the steps with Ann...

It was a fabulous weekend and we are all officially exhausted! But it was a great way to spend Father's Day weekend.

We got home today, unloaded the car, and started unpacking. All of a sudden I hear Kevin say "Andrew Herman..." and I stop dead in my tracks. I knew that sound. This is what I saw when I turned around...

Do you see it? Look a little closer in the front of his hair. Yes, that's it...GUM! Gum in his hair. Apparently, it wouldn't stay in his mouth when he was "doing his flips." So, Drew will be getting a haircut this week to even up his now uneven hair!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Happy Father's Day!

Love to all!