Spring Camping Trip 2011

Over and over, throughout the course of our marriage, Jason and I have heard it stated (from various sources) that "One of the best things you can do to promote closeness within a family is to go camping together".  

We took the kids on their first camping trip about a year and a half ago, in a tent borrowed from friends.  The kids were still a little small to get the full effect of the trip, but we still had a great time.  This time around, we decided we were ready to make the investment in a tent of our own, so we are now the proud owners of an 8-sleeper, cabin-style tent.  Sure, it's twice as big as we need, but if we're going to survive in the great outdoors for 2 or more nights, it's nice to be able to have a little room to spread out.  My other favorite purchase for this trip was a $3 door mat, which we kept outside the main entrance of our tent, to wipe our feet and leave our shoes on.  Made a world of difference in keeping the inside of the tent clean(er).

Thanks to friends of our good friends the Hindmans (who, incidentally, are also named "Jason and Angela" and have a daughter and son the same ages as Norah and Eli), or more accurately Angela's dad, Dr. Case, we had an amazing camp site, right on the water at Inks Lake.  (The only down side to this was that Norah and Eli wanted to jump in the water the instant we arrived, and didn't stop asking all weekend long, even after we took a dip)

Another perk to camping with the Hindman/Case clan was the presence of the Case's 2, college-age kids, each of whom had brought along a few friends. (Translation: there was ALWAYS someone fun for the kids to play with, because everyone knows that pre-schoolers think college students are the coolest people on the planet!)  Norah loved her first-ever canoe trip with Helen's Uncle Steven.  (The Daddies also took out all of the kids for a longer row later in the weekend)

There was a group of ducks that hung out around our camp site all weekend long.  At one point, one of the College girls decided to try her hand at duck wrangling while we all looked on, in typical, camp-style entertainment. (That's how we roll)

After watching her several failed attempts, Jason rolled up his sleeves
and decided to show everyone how it was done.

Duck-0, Jason-1.  Total time elapsed, 8 seconds.  (Turns out, when fishing for ducks, a little bit of bread goes a long way :)
 

The kids (and college students) were all impressed with Daddy Doolittle's mad duck charming skills.

After a brief petting zoo photo op, Daffy was released back into the wild (No animals were harmed in the filming of this incident).

Much of the weekend was spent playing washers.
  Eli developed a mild obsession with one of the college girls (Hannah), and followed her around everywhere she went.  Thankfully, she was equally enthralled with him, admitting to us early Saturday morning that one of her goals for the day was to "Score a photo of herself and Eli for her Facebook profile"

We had two night's worth of beautiful, lakeside sunsets...wished I would have taken photos of both nights.  The first was vibrant pink--so different from the second.  It made me stop and think about what a creative God we have....painting a totally unique shade of sunset 365 days a year...and yet most days, they are only an afterthought for me, if I even take the time to notice.  Camping was a good way to remind myself to take time to notice the beauty of the world around me.

The second night, while the adults were cleaning up dinner, we noticed that Eli and Isaac had procured a football and were attempting to play a game of catch.  It was so cute (and funny) to watch them mimicking their Daddies' actions from earlier in the day.  (The Jasons had had a good, long game of toss the football prior to dinner)

Wind up, throw...and chase the ball...over, and over, and over.  It amazed me how they didn't seem to get frustrated that they never made a completion.  They were in their own little world, having a ball...literally.

We even got them to pose for a photo op, which no doubt will be worth a mint when they're both pro ballers in about 25 years.

After their game of catch, Eli was in bad need of some refreshment.  Which quickly lead to his discovery of the magic water jug.  Our little drink-aholic was in heaven, being able to refill his cup over, and over, and over...without asking permission or water intake monitoring.  

 The Jasons...pausing from a heated game of washers

Despite repeated heckling from the peanut gallery, my Jason developed some deadly, pinpoint accuracy with his "disc golf" approach to washer slinging.  (Translation: He smoked them all down)

Eli honed his "baby whispering " skills on Asher and Hope all weekend long.  (Did I mention the Hindmans brought their 7-month old twins?  Talk about some hard-core camping prowess!) Despite countless corrections, throughout the course of the weekend, Eli consistently incorrectly referred to Asher as "she" and Hope as "he", thankfully, the babies didn't really mind.

The kids also played a fair amount of whiffle ball.  The Jasons even taught Norah how to hit a ball on the fly (a skill that will no doubt come in handy when they start hitting without the tee in t-ball in a few weeks)

Just look at that intimidating stance!  Wouldn't you back up to the fences if you saw her coming to the plate?

Our last morning , we had a pancake breakfast, followed by a lakeside time of worship.  Steven Case started off a couple of songs, then said, "If anyone has a song they'd like to sing, just start it, and we'll all come in and sing along." No sooner had the words left his mouth, than a completely uninhibited  Eli burst into a lively rendition of, "I've Got Peace Like a River", and as promised, he was quickly joined by the rest of crowd. 

Another perk to our casual camp-style worship service, was that the kids all took part in our time of communion.  (Back home, in the church of Christ, it is traditional that only those who have been baptized partake in the Lord's Supper, so this was an extra-special treat for our kids) It was such a special time for our family.

After church, we broke camp and headed out, making one, final stop to sample the local fare at Storm's (a burger joint, similar to Texas Burger)

Eli has repeatedly asked if we can "eat at Storms" since we've been home, so we know he was a fan.  It was such a fun weekend, and we look forward to our next camping expedition!