We got back from camping at Oak City a little before 1:00 a.m. last night.
We literally had mountains of fun.
The scenery and wildlife is a big part of why we go camping.
There was wildlife and scenery a plenty.
Maybe a little too much wildlife for my taste.
Spider fan anyone?
Perhaps vultures are more to your liking?
DOE - a deer, a female deer.
And meet her boyfriend - Buck.
I also saw many cows. They liked to wake us up in the mornings.
I don't have a picture.
If you can't imagine a cow then you need a better imagination.
I also saw a lizard, but couldn't catch it.
Either lizards are getting faster, or I am getting slower!
Isabelle enjoyed collecting the scenery.
Of course our trip was filled with the usual camping experiences.
Such as...
Hiking.
Crossing Bridges.
With help at times.
Four Wheeling.
Does this helmet make my head look big?
Now if I could only reach the clutch...
Thank heavens for older cousins!
Time for swinging.
"Mom, there is something wrong with this swing!"
"Ah, being off of the ground does seem to help!"
"Let me give you a hand big sister."
Sadly he is too young to know you have to move out of the way after pushing someone in the swing.
YIPPEE!
When you are camping you must eat lots of snacks.
Good company makes the food taste better.
Yepi thought she had died and gone to doggy heaven.
She got held and played with enough to last her
until next years camping trip!
She also got to find lots of leftover barbecue snacks all over the place.
At home she only gets the droppings from 2 kids,
but camping she had no less than 7 kids to clean up after!
It helps to have friends.
If anyone got scared of the graceful deer coming into camp,
Yepi became the protector of the campsite.
Stand back - she is one ferocious little puppy!
Shooting goes hand in hand with camping.
Here is Isabelle contemplating how to shoot.
No need to worry - she got the hang of it very quickly.
She was destroying targets left and right.
It was very impressive.
There is just something so American about shooting a
gun on the 4th of July.
Some people might think this is child abuse.
To each his own I suppose!
We believe in teaching our children about guns and gun safety very early on.
The kids were great at entertaining themselves.
Anyone up for a game of baseball?
This one is always up for anything!
Lets move on to Frisbee.
Followed by a little football.
Here we have the "boys only" tent with an exciting game of aggravation taking place. At other times this became the "girls only" tent, and many battles for territory would pursue.
After a couple of days Soungsik made all of the kids bows and arrows.
The kids promptly started up the ever classic game of
"Indians and Ninjas"
Mostly camping is about sitting around.
And getting massaged.
And maybe, just once, succumbing to sleep.
William was Grandpa's little shadow.
But being a shadow does have it's risks.
It wouldn't be a camping trip by the sand dunes if somebody didn't get stuck.
It was only about 110 degrees on the sand.
Fortunately there is no shortage of nice people in Oak City and
people came within a few minutes to help us push!
We did lots of other fun things as well.
Of course there were nights by the campfire,
and the always disgusting and messy roasted marsh mellows.
We went swimming in Delta on Saturday and this was the highlight of the
trip for me because I had 2 teenage girls ask if Isabelle was my younger sister.
"Why yes you beautiful angels!
She is my younger sister, with a mere 12 year age difference!
How sweet of you to ask!"
I got a little - and I mean little reading done.
Much visiting accomplished though.
I thought I had achieved a pretty decent tan until I came home
and it washed off in the shower - c'est la vie!
We stopped by the graveyard to visit Grandma and Grandpa's gravesites.
I also have two sets of great grandparents here, as well as my uncle who died on his mission, an aunt who died on the day she was born and my cousin would be only a few months older than myself that died in a car crash a few years ago. We miss them all so much and it's important for us to have them stay alive in our memories and to be introduced to our children.
On the 4th we went to see the fireworks which officially wrapped up the trip.
Liam and Yepi slept soundly through the entire thing.
Isabelle loved it and that made it all worth it.
Now I am off to see if I can rid the car, house, children, pet, clothes etc.
from all of the camping fun (AKA dirt)!
