Our Camping Trip

2(To Annie: "Stephen??" ...okay, that was really lame!)

Hello to everyone, we're back! Camping was a lot of fun, but we are all happy to be back in the comfort of our own home with showers and soap! (Just for a warning to you all: the "n" ad the "j" on our key board is sticking...so sometimes even if I type it, it doesn't work...so if a word don't look right, it is probably missing a "n" or a "j" I'm not just being a lazy typist.)

I really, really, really love writing...I'm always writing something! (I don't keep diaries--ever, but I keep "Jesus Journals" and I write letters to my future husband on a regular basis. I've also written several books and my newest means of writing is by blogging.) So this camping trip I decided to keep a journal of our trip, like people did on the Mayflower and like Lewis (or was it Clark?) did on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Just for a warning...this will probably be a very long post!!

Friday Morning, 6:35am

We are all getting last minute things packed to leave. Everyone is up, but not not everyone is "awake," as is the case with me. My parents are packing the ice chest and getting our food packed, my siblings are loading it into the car and Shelbie is chasing the goats around the backyard. They are being most uncooperative. While everyone else is working, I'm in my room faced with a tough decision: which pillows should I bring?

6:50am

We are getting ready to walk out the door. The kids are saying goodbye to the animals, and Daddy is saying goodbye to "Pancake," "Flapjack," or "Roadkill" as daddy calls him; his name changes often. (He has something wrong with his back legs, so they sprawl out to the sides, making him look like roadkill! He's daddy's favorite, Daddy wants to keep him!) The load up call was just sounded.

11:00

We are at camp and all set up and unpacked. The ride up was fine, we didn't have to stop for any bathroom breaks...which is amazing for a family of ten!! I slept the whole way there, but I'm still not fully awake.

I have been walking around taking pictures, while my dad set up the tent and complained that he wasn't getting any help. ("Poor you..." as he likes to obnoxiously say.) He is going to be so happy when I get married and he has a son-in-law to help him out with this type of stuff...oh, my poor future husband, he has no clue! The boys are getting better and are starting to be able to help more...but not enough yet. I help him a lot, but I've always wished I had an older brother to do this stuff instead. I guess not having a big brother (meaning I have to be daddy's "girl son" (as he calls me) and help him with his work) has made us so close.

Us girls are going to sleep in our own tent this week (not because we are super brave and adventurous girls, but because my dad is using a tent heater in the family tent and it freaks me out, because I am convinced that it sends off poisonous gas that could kill us all...um...long story.) Anyways, Shelbie and Shaylah have spent at least 20 minutes arguing about who has to sleep next to me. (In case you don't know: I am a horrible sleeper. I move everywhere & I sleep really sound, so I don't wake up even if I'm smothering a sibling. Not to mention, my sleeping arrangements--I can NOT sleep with only one pillow. The least amount of pillows I can comfortably sleep with is four. Normally, I sleep with eight pillows, but I can make do with only four for a few nights. I have no clue how I'll do this weekend--they only let me bring two pillows!)

We already have the air soft guns out. Ney camping trips are characterized by: camouflage, converse shoes and air soft. Shadd is walking all over the campsites picking up pellets off the ground. He has so much patience, this is pretty much all he will do all weekend long.

3:00pm

It's 3:00 and we are getting ready to go down to the water. My dad is playing with the guns, and shoot various objects. He was shooting at a bird a few minutes ago, but my mom quickly put a stop to that. (Last year my dad shot a blue jay, and it had a fit! It started squawking and screeching at him! It was really funny (but also very sad!), my mom put a quick stop to that!) After my dad quit shooting at the bird, he said, "Okay...I'm going to shoot one or the other...your pick: Poppet or the bird." Everyone picked Poppet! Shaynah had a the deer in the headlights look and said, "Don't shoot me!" Of course we all knew he would NEVER shoot his Poppet!

We are off to the water.

Almost 5:30pm

We just got back from the water. My dad and the girls went swimming while the boys dug a hole to bury Poppet in. My blood sugar was (and still is) low, so I didn't have much energy to do anything. I felt really dizzy and very shaky, so I spent most of my time laying on the blanket trying to not pass out. I did play a little bit though; I took Lolly down to the water for a while, and helped everyone dig their hole. Everyone else went fishing, but didn't catch anything. I don't care for fishing, so I just stayed and took pictures.

Right now everyone is either shooting guns, doing their devotions or playing with the ax. Hopefully we remembered to bring a tube of superglue...we might need it if their not careful with the axes.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow...I'm buying everyone ice cream! I tried to talk my dad into driving me down to the little general store tonight (which is like five minutes away) so that I could buy a ice cream bar or something...but he's not going for that. I even offered to buy him one too; how could someone turn down an offer like that?

Before dinner, but after 6:00pm

We just got the fire started and everyone is hanging out around it. My dad mentioned that I should have brought my guitar with me, which would have been a lot of fun...if I knew how to actually play it better! I took lessons for about a year, but my teacher was more interested in playing the songs herself than teaching me how to. So now, I have a beautiful and brand new guitar sitting in my closet--but not much knowledge of how to play it.

A few minutes ago some guy on a bicycle with a group of kids behind him came biking by. Both he and the kids were yelling "Have no fear!! Batman is here!" Finally I turned around to see what the commotion was and this guy was dressed up in a full batman costume. He was yelling cheesy lines such as: "Chop that wood like batman would." It was very weird, my mom said he must have lost a bet!

Next morning, around 10:00am

Last night we ate dinner, cleaned up and then roasted marshmallows. We all hung out by the fire talking and telling stories until around 9:30, then we went to bed. Unfortunately, our neighbors (they are having a reunion of some type...there are like 40 people over there) were up until 2:00am. They were so darn loud and obnoxious, it was really annoying.

I woke up this morning to hearing my siblings outside by the fire, and I was overjoyed that they lived through the night. I still don't like that tent heater though. (Side note: I found out later on in the day that they didn't even use the tent heater.)

I'm having serious ice cream withdrawals and I attempted to make myself some shake-n-make ice cream this morning. It didn't work very well...it ended up tasting like a chocolate milk shake. It wasn't that bad actually. However, my ice cream craving is still not satisfied. If I can't talk my dad into giving me a ride down to the general store, I'll go myself...the problem will be getting the keys from him. (Can you imagine how lost I'd get?!)

Afternoon

Well, I didn't have to drive myself, nor did I have to walk. My dear daddy drove me down to the store a few minutes ago. Now we are all enjoying huge bowls of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. I'm about to dive into the bucket itself, after all...there can't be any leftovers. My parents are starting to worry about me...and rightfully so! They keep saying I have "issues." Hmm...I probably do.

After Ice cream

Yum-o...I made sure not even one bite of ice cream was wasted.
We are getting ready to go down to the water.

5:00

We are back from the water and everyone is changed into warm clothing and huddled around the fire--even though it's not very cold out. I just got done washing my hair in freezing cold water, now my head is all tingly and numb...but at least my hair feels clean and is curly again.

My dad is heating a bucket of water on the fire, I offered to give the little girls a bath in the pot once it's warm enough. They are so dirty!

I need to go figure out my sleeping arrangements before it's too dark out. (BTW...Shelbie slept in the family tent last night, so only Shaylah and I are in the smaller tent.) Anyhow... I can't sleep in a sleeping bag (because I move too much) so I unzipped it and used it as a blanket. I need another blanket or something, because I froze last night! It was one of those annoying moments, where you are super cold...but you don't want to do anything about it. So you lay there freezing all night knowing all you have to do is wrap yourself up in the blanket, but you don't do anything about it. It's annoying. Tonight I plan on being warmer. I am off to bathe the little girls.

6:15pm

We are getting dinner ready. There has been some talk about packing up and going home tonight. My dad and I were all for that (not that I don't enjoy camping, because I do...but I miss my bed and all my pillows). An unofficial vote was taken and we were outnumbered. You know me and my awful sense of directions (see post titled: Shyloh's Travels) I voted that we pack up and head to the ocean to spend the night on the beach.

8:30am

We are all awake and getting packed up, we want to be out of here within the hour. I was woken up by my dad pulling the plug on my air mattress...it deflates within ten seconds of being unplugged. My dad is still laughing over it, he thought it was hilarious...I didn't think it was very nice of hi,

We were all going to have hot chocolate this morning, but my dad caught the tea kettle on fire and totally fried it, we had to throw it away.

My parents were up with Poppet last night. She had a croupy cough and was panicking because she couldn't breath. They had to boil water and have her breath in the steam, she seems to be doing fine this morning.

Last night we were all warmer and our neighbors were quiet, thank-goodness!
I have to go help pack.

10:15am

Yay! We are heading home! I put my ear bud splitter on my i-pod and I'm letting Poppet and Lolly watch "Open Season" on it. It's really cute, because they are totally belly laughing at the movie!

Every year for the past several years we burn something of significance before we leave. The first year was a pair of Shannen's favorite shoes (that didn't even fit him...but he wouldn't give them up) and last year they burned my pillow (that one made me mad...true, I did throw up all over it...but it was washable.) This year we burned a pair of Shaylah's favorite shorts (with her blessing...they had holes in the bootie). Our neighbors must have thought we were really sick as we held the burning shorts on a long stick and sang melancholic songs. We are such a strange family!

I'll post pictures and blog about present time once we get home and get unpacked.

Present time, 3:45pm

That was our trip, as recorded in my journal. Believe it or not, I did leave half of it out! I'm working on a slide show of pictures, but they are taking forever to upload and I want to run to the store and buy some ice cream to eat before church. The slide show will get posted tonight at some point!