Dear Family
and Friends,
This has
been a full week... one that needs to be put down on paper of some sort. Monday my sister T and her husband T were
still in town. M was off work so we
decided to make a day of it. We took
them to lunch at our favorite burger places.
The restaurant is amazing, and the burgers did not disappoint, and they
were delicious. Then we picked up B-man
from school, and drove to the airport where T dropped off their rental
car. Then we drove to the Udvar Hazy Air
and Space museum to explore a little bit.
We had a great time, and were sad when the time came to drop off at the
airport. The rest of the day was pretty
quiet in comparison. It was a good thing
that we knew we would see them relatively soon, so we didn't have to be so sad
when they had to go home.
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| J after his last practice with his trophy. |
Tuesday M
was off work again, and we spent the day mostly working on various little
things around the house. That evening we
had J's last soccer practice. A friend
organized a little team with friends where the kids got t-shirts and a trophy,
but it wasn't through the city, just with friends. It was a great little
experience for J, and he loved his trophy a lot. Usually most practices he would forget that
he was supposed to be practicing at some point during the hour and would run
over to the play set and play. That
night after practice M and I went to dinner to celebrate his birthday. The dinner was fantastic, and M had fun
trying out every single flavor of lemonade that they had.
Wednesday M
was back at work. I spent the day trying
to get things organized to go camping the next day. I made our tin foil dinners, and gathered all
the equipment. I've decided that camping
is really just moving on a small scale. B-man
had his end of the year party at school that day. I ran over quickly to drop
off some watermelon for the party.
Thursday was
the last day of school. B-man was
excited to be off and at school. I
watched a friend's kids while she went to the fifth grade graduation. While the kids were playing, I did the
finalizing of the preparations for camping.
M was working the day shift, so the plan was to pick up B-man and head
to the campground on our own. We would
set up the tent, play and have fun and then M would join us that night. I picked up B-man and our plan was going
pretty well. B-man and I were both
pretty nervous about setting up the ten ourselves, but we were both praying
that it would go well. I knew it was
supposed to rain, so I was also praying/hoping that the rain would hold off
until after the tent was up. About
thirty minutes from the campground it started to rain and didn't stop
raining. We found the campground, and
our campsite. It was pouring rain. I'm not going to lie, I sat in the car for a
few minutes building up my courage for the job at hand. Finally I got out of the car and started. There was no way around it. B-man and the kids immediately headed to a
playground close by the campsite and were playing and getting wet. Eventually they were too wet, and came back
complaining. B-man helped them watch a
movie in the car while I kept working. I
laid out the tarp, got the tent out and started with the poles. I had all the poles in and was just starting
to put them in their spots to raise the tent when a man approached from a
nearby RV. He asked if I was putting up
the tent by myself. When I said yes, he
kindly offered to help me. I was so
grateful, that I didn't even pretend to say no.
He was SO helpful. He knew just
what to do, and we had the tent up in no time.
Figuring out the rain fly took us a little to get it lined up, but at
least by then it was on the tent keeping the rain out. The man's name was Chuck, and he said that he
had been sitting in his rv watching tv when he saw me pull up. Then he saw that I was trying to put a big
tent by myself, and just couldn't sit there.
Seriously an answer to prayer.
Not the answer I wanted I wanted the rain to stop, but Heavenly Father
sent him instead. It was so
helpful. Once the fly was on I grabbed a
towel and dried up the inside of the tent.
By then I was soaked to the skin, and the kids were ready to go play, so
I changed them into their swimsuits and we headed to the pool. The kids were having a great time, and I
wasn't. But I really just decided to put
on a happy face and try to encourage them to have fun. The boys had a good time, and once they were
done we sort of dried off, and then we used a large picnic area that was
covered so that we could be a little dry while eating. We had chicken salad, so it was a no cook
night. We then spent the rest of the
evening exploring the (indoor) game center.
All the boys were watching others play games, and then eventually I let
them all play one game. They had a good
time. We then headed over to a different
building to watch a live animal show that was going on. The company had brought a snapping turtle, an
alligator, and two different owls. The
boys were so excited and thrilled. By
then it was getting pretty late, and the boys were tired, so the
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| J wanted to do a silly face. |
last five
minutes I took the little boys back to the car and then B-man met me
there. It had been raining nonstop since
we got there, and by now the car was smelling like a wet dog... but at least it
was dry! We drove back to the campsite,
and then I tried to figure out the driest and best arrangement for our sleeping
bags while the boys were in the car staying dry. Luckily we all had some sort of pad that kept
us off the ground. The tent was mostly
dry, but there were a few areas by the zippers that were leaking. Eventually we all got in the tent, and the
boys got in their spots. It took a LONG
time for everyone to settle down, and eventually I had to bring RM over and
sleep by me because he was being SO wiggly and hard to settle. I was so happy when M came in that
night. J and RM were both very wiggly
during the night, and they both kept sliding into puddles into the tent. At one point we had to take off J's shirt
because he had rolled into a small puddle.
Luckily he didn't wake up. But of
course the boys were all up very early.
At least the rain had stopped for most of the night.
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| Loving the fire, and no rain. |
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| RM sleeping in a puddle. He was a good sport. |
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| So sleepy on the way home. |
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| RM hates flies. Good thing we got rid of them. |
By the time
we were up in the morning the rain had started again. I had forgotten the cereal, and I didn't want
to make pancakes, so we drove into the nearby town and got some breakfast. There are some perks to camping near
civilization. I was so happy to be
finally all dry and happy. We gave M the
tour of the campground when we got back.
We debated for a while about what we should do... The pool wasn't open yet, and so we went to
the jumping pillows. The kids were
jumping at first, and then when we were told they couldn't jump when it was
wet, so they had a great time digging and playing in the sand around them. We headed back to the camp and lit a fire
when the rain was a little lighter. We
were able to get it going, and roast some marshmallows. Having the fire cheered everyone up. I had already told M, that as long as the
boys were having fun we would stay, but I was not going to stay another
night. The forecast was for more rain
all day, and M had to work all night the next night, and I knew that we were
not going to have a good sleep, so I just decided that we would go when we were
done. Clearly I am wimpy. But the boys were still having fun. Once the pool was open we then went to the
pool. It was kind of cold, and I am
really glad that M was there, because he made the kids have fun. B-man was complaining and saying he wanted to
go home, but M eventually won him over and he ended up staying in the pool
longer than anyone else. The waterslide
did help. While we were swimming I dried
all our wet towels and clothes. It was
so nice to get out of the pool and have a warm towel and dry clothes. We had another picnic lunch under the safety
of the picnic center. While we ate B-man
was a mad man on the water slide. Then
the little boys went back into the game room, while B-man and M ate lunch
together. By this time the rain had
turned into more of a mist, and so we decided to head back and take down the
tent before it started raining harder. It
was a process, but with M it went pretty fast.
While we were taking down the tent M and B-man got the fire going
again. It was a decent fire with a lot
less rain, and B-man had a great time poking and staring at the fire. We got everything arranged into the cars and
had a great time enjoying the fire until it went out. The rangers came by and teased us about
leaving after we had been through the worst of the storm, but there was no way
I was staying. Once the fire was out we
headed out home. There were a ton of
flies in the van, and we tried to get them all out, but sure enough five
minutes down the road the boys were freaking out (the sleep deprivation wasn't
helping) so we had to pull over and try to get the rest out. Once the majority were out of the car the
little boys fell asleep within minutes.
They slept the whole way home, which was so nice. B-man and M had a great drive home, and
stopped at Sonic for some hydration. Once
home we quickly threw our dinner in the oven and then worked on getting all the
wet stuffed laid out as much as possible in the garage so that it could
dry. B-man and M really vacuumed and
cleaned out the car so that it didn't smell like gym shoes and mildew
anymore. What a relief! As soon as dinner was over the boys all got
ready for bed. They all fell asleep
quickly.
Saturday
morning I went hunting at garage sales with a friend. It was a good day. The rest of the day we worked on getting
things cleaned up and dried out. We set
up the tent in the yard to dry out and tried to get everything else set up
too. B-man had fun with a neighbor
friend and the little boys were happy to read and follow me around while we
were working. Late in the afternoon we
all headed to the pool. The boys had a
great time, and J somehow convinced some people at the pool to give him lots of
snacks. It was a little
embarrassing. We ended up staying longer
than I realized and had barely enough time for dinner and bed. Thankfully dinner was easy and quick to
prepare. That night M left for work and
I worked on Primary things.
Sunday
started crazy. Things took longer than
expected and we were a little late to church.
I hate that. Then things settled
down and went pretty well. They called
someone to do the nursery music, and that will really make my Sundays a lot
easier. After church we did our usual
routine. M was home sleeping and so we
tried our best to let him sleep as long as possible. We had a tasty dinner and then got the kids
ready for bed.
We love you
all!
The C Crew
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