The Call Of The Wild

Matt and I sat at the computer early one morning about 3 months ago. It was the first day of campsite registration for this summer, and we were anxious to beat the hoards of winter-weary campers to get the best sites on the best weekends...starting with this one. We we were up before the kids. We scoured the map, determined the best location in the campground and we went for it. We had a screen full of windows open, fingers posied on the refresh button, and even gave that old-school phone registration thing a try too. We did it! Success! But in the days leading up to our adventure it became clear that Mother Nature didn't get the memo. If it wasn't cold and grey, it was drizzling, pouring rain, or thundershowers. This weekend's forecast didn't look so great either. But we spent days (literally) planning and packing and there was no way we were doing all that for nothing, so out into the woods we went. With our car packed to bursting, a couple of kids beyond excited at the prospect of s'mores, and me armed with a typed, mostly pre-prepped and cooked meal plan for 2 1/2 days for 4 very individual meal requirements, Mother Nature decided we were a force to be reckoned with, and backed down. I wouldn't have wanted to mess with me either. One point: Me.
The weekend was fantastic! The kids loved all the dirt and rocks and the leniency on hand/face washing. Liam was over the moon about s'mores. Sarah liked to snuggle with me in my sleeping bag. Which brings me to the downside of the trip: sleeping. Both of the kids were not on board with sleeping in the tent sans parents. Or before it was dark (somewhere around 10pm). Or while they could hear any other noise, like a crackling fire. Or birds. And there was a rumble going down between the birds and chipmunks somewhere in the neighborhood of 4:30am. One point: Mother Nature. Maybe 2 points, since the one thing we forgot in the pack-a-thon was Matt's hayfever medicine. But who's counting? ;)
Anyways, here are a few pics from our trip. I was especially happy to get a few shots of the kids in the sweaters my Grandma Lot knitted for me many, many moons ago. I always thought they were kind of itchy, and as it turns out the kids do too! Matt called this my Eddie Bauer Kids Catalogue photo shoot as I chased them around the woods with the camera, but it made me happy to see them in the sweaters. And I'm pretty sure my Grandma Lot would have said "jolly good!" or something to that effect if she saw them too!

Marshmallow torching - er - roasting, lessons:


Matt and Liam were up in the tent for a long time during the Bird Incident in the wee hours, so Sarah and I got up in the somewhat later wee hours and played with rocks while the boys caught up on some sleep. I unearthed 2 large rocks from her full-zip jammies later that morning. Still puzzled about that one.


Sarah kept trying to dip her finger into the water jug and lick them off. Never got a drop, but that didn't stop her from trying!


Our tent backed onto these woods and Liam would drag Matt back there to play "Paper Caper." Loosely based on a book he reads, he stood in the hollow center of an old stump and got Matt to feed twigs through the sides. He'd push them out the other end as "paper". Clever!