Camping 2011

Buddies!

I think this is our 3rd or 4th Family Fun Camping Trip in Navasota at Dana's parent's land. They are always a lot of fun, they get a little bigger each year, and Kacy never sleeps! Well, I take that back - one year I was pregnant, so I guess she slept then! :) The ones where she was actually born, we slept up in the house because I was too nervous to even try sleeping in our little tent together! I remember both of those years, she was up all night for some reason. Cory and Adilyn were old pros camping! They had stayed in the tent together every year. Anyway, last year I convinced myself that no matter what I would try to get her to sleep in the tent with all of us. Adilyn and Cory went up on Friday night, and Kacy and I were planning on going Saturday afternoon. It was really nice to have an evening alone with Kacy. I realized how little that she actually gets my undivided attention. :( We slept in that morning, and we headed out. After a little trouble with directions (go figure), we got there around 1pm, just in time to eat lunch. Adilyn saw us pull up, and of course, ran to me. She immediately had to have all my attention again, which was okay because Kacy wanted to see Cory. Adilyn was completely filthy The hayrides are always fun, adventurous, and full contact! The tractor pulls a huge trailer around the property. The property has millions of trees, so there is no way to keep all the paths clear. As you ride on the hayride, you also have to duck and dodge branches, and the challenging part is keeping them from hitting the kids! It's still always a lot of fun!

Another camping activity was fishing. Adilyn really wanted to do it on her own, so here we were dodging again. This time we were dodging fishing hooks! We didn't catch anything, but as fishing always is, it was a great experience just trying. I was kind of glad that we didn't catch anything because supposedly the fish in there were pretty big. I don't think our Mickey Mouse fishing pole, meant to catch Gooey Fish, would have held up in a fishing battle with a catfish!

Strangely enough, the favorite activity every year is the massive dirt pile. I think that the dirt pile started out as just a place to put some extra dirt, but then we all realized that it was the kids' favorite spot to hang out. It gets pretty dirty out there, but all the kids have so much fun climbing up it, running down it, and just getting dirty from head to toe! This year Wyatt and Adilyn were playing on it. They were taking turns jumping off the one side. Wyatt would grab Adilyn's hand and help her up, it was really sweet. Then, Wyatt started riding this little plastic motorcycle down the hill. Adilyn was watching him, but obviously not really wanting to try it. But, Wyatt, being the sweet boy that he is, asked her if she wanted to try. At first she said no, but then he kept asking her and asking her. I was just watching the whole situation go down to see what she would do. Finally, she attempted it. She fell about halfway down, which I figured she would, and then she cried, which again, I figured she would. She was fine, but it was just an interesting thing to watch her give in to "peer pressure" already. It was very clear to me that she didn't want to do it, but she did it anyway. Pretty funny, but I hope she learns her lesson about peer pressure as a kid when it's about motorcycles and dirt before it turns into beer and cigarettes! Adilyn rode on Redbird again. She was a lot braver up there this year. She held on all by herself, and didn't want Cory or I to walk with her. Kacy, who is usually my little daredevil, would not even sit on him. You never know what they are going to want to do!

We had a fish fry for dinner, and Cory was the cook. Then, it was time for S'Mores. What a fun day!

Finally, it was time for bed. Throughout all the fun we had all day, this was the moment that I was dreading...We didn't have a big family tent, so we were going to have to sleep in two little tents. To avoid arguing, we decided that all the quiet girls would sleep in one tent and the snoring daddy would sleep in the other. I knew that it wouldn't be a big deal if Kacy cried a little bit, but I wasn't about to let her scream and scream with all the other tents (with kids trying to sleep also) so near us! I decided it would be best for all of us to go in the tent at the same time. Of course, it took us forever to get in our jammies and diapers. Both girls were being really silly, Adilyn kept trying to hide her pull-up and Kacy was flipping and rolling all around. I was not getting any more confident by the way they were acting. I got all the blankets set up, and I was trying to calm everyone down by using my soothing night-night voice. Adilyn kept coming over by Kacy, then she would grab Adilyn's hair or hit her and Adilyn would start crying. It was getting worse by the minute. Finally, I got Adilyn to stay in her little corner and lay down. I noticed after a few minutes, she was quiet. Kacy, unfortunately was not quiet! That girl was body slamming me, jumping on my head, doing front rolls and talking, oh the talking! After about 30 minutes of chatter and craziness, I took her out by the fire. She was still wired out there! I then decided to walk around with her in the dark, which was quite treacherous! Carrying an almost 2 year old, walking in pitch dark, with sticks and holes...I was just waiting to bust my butt. Much to my surprise, she got quiet and she was out! I thought for sure, she would wake up when I put her down, but she didn't! She slept the whole night. I didn't because I kept hearing things, and it was not that comfortable in the tent. Oh well, at least we made it through the whole night in the tent for the first time :)

Looking for stars!

Pretending to sleep...

These annual camping trips are so much fun, and I am very grateful that we are friends with the Hrobars, and that Dana's parents are so generous with their time and their land! We make memories on these trips that will last forever.