LAZY DAZE

King of the Grill!

Dad's archery lesson. Good idea?
Probably not...


Hanging out with the kids...


Genevieve in the water!
WARNING: DO NOT GET GREMLIN'S WET!


Jonathan and Ann Marie in the Drink!

It's high time I finished writing about camping. I will try to wrap it up quickly and neatly as there are many other contents I need to spill from my brain! After set-up on the first night, we quickly made our way into the tent and passed out... The next morning (Saturday) we got up and I got to work making breakfast so we could get a move-on. Breakfast was eggs and ham on an English muffin. They turned out pretty good (if I do say so myself) and ham is an awesome and easy clean-up solution to bacon when camping! After breakfast we found a small snake and some snails to play with and a bit later we did some archery. We were shooting into an empty camp site and I thought I would show Jonathan how a medieval archer would launch his arrows upward at the enemy. I ended up spending the next ten minutes trudging through a tangle mess of forest trying to locate the lost arrow. As for my luck at finding it...that arrow remains lost. A big OOOOOPS on that one. Genevieve even decided she wanted to shoot a few, with dad's help of course! Jonathan really enjoyed it! Eventually we headed out to do some fishing... One thing to remember about kids is the need for instant gratification. If they don't get a fish in five minutes or less, they get bored of fishing. No matter how many times you say, just be patient and wait for the fish to bite, you find yourself casting out the same bait over and over and watching them reel it back in again and again. Jonathan was getting pretty good at casting, and Genevieve was excellent at reeling in! Ann Marie decided that having a nap was the way to go and laid a towel out on the ground to lie down. It wasn't long before the kids decided to join her which left me to fish in peace...but I turned it down. Instead I propped my rod in a tree hoping that General Sherman didn't decide to take the bait and drag my rod into the lake and then joined the family in the shade of a big tree. We didn't get a chance to nap ‘cause we ended up goofing around but that was fun! After a while we decided to pack things up and go back for a sandwich lunch. After lunch we spent the remainder of the day on the beach and swimming. Ann Marie wasn't going to go in the water, but an evil and sadistic husband changed all of that! Who would have known that a woman's shirt, shorts, and underwear work just as good as a bathing suit! What is a trip to the beach as a family if all the family isn't in the water? We goofed and splashed about and had a great time! Genevieve was even able to swindle a pool noodle from another family! Naughty little girl she is!

Once we had our fill of swimming and sand in places it doesn’t belong we headed back to camp to start working on dinner. Dinner was turkey burgers and corn. Simple and filling. It was dark by the time we started eating and the mosquitoes figured if we were having dinner, so would they. We got a good campfire going and had mosquito coils placed at what were decided the most strategic positions around the table. But I think mosquitoes are evolving. Smoke doesn’t seem to bother them as much as it used to and their little stingers no longer seem so little. You could be wearing a suit of thick armour and those little buggers can still manage to get their stinger in ya and suck out a pint of blood. Despite the bugs, we made s’mores for desert which were a hit. It was a long time since we had s’mores and I don’t think the kids ever had them before. Before long the kids were in bed and Ann Marie and I had a chance to enjoy the fore alone for a bit. We even had the rare opportunity to see how dumb June bugs. They would fly into the fire and crash land on the ground. God gave them wings but no flying ability to use them. One even landed in a fully melted marshmellow that Genevieve had deposited against the outside of the fire. I tried to save him but he became a nice treat for some racoon to discover. A sugary marshmellow outer shell with a crunchy green gooey centre. Yummmmmmy!
Ann Marie finally went to sleep and I decided to investigate the cause of some child screaming his lungs out. It turned out to be a camping neighbor’s kid. They were really nice people but the devil sure climbed in their boy at night. I hung out with them for a bit just chating about this and that and then decided I had better get my butt back to the tent before Ann Marie started missing me. Well, it turns out I was 29 minutes late from my 30 minute visit.
The next day we had a quick breakfast, loaded the cars, and headed for home. It was a wonderful camping trip and the kids weren’t 5 minutes on the road home before asking when we will go again. Well, I have to be honest. I wasn’t even in the car yet before I had that thought! Despite the mosquitoes, I would call that camping trip a wonderful success.