Ft. McAllister Family Camping Trip

A week after my time at Girls Camp, we thought it a good idea to have a little camping trip of our own.  Theoretically Matt and I love to camp.  However we haven't camped out as a family since Eli was 4 months old… So it's been… Like 5 years since our last family trip.  That's a shame.

Okay, first thing:  THERE WAS A MASIVE THUNDERSTORM RIGHT BEFORE WE LEFT.  We were pretty sure we'd have to cancel.  I mean, like feet of water were dumped from the heavens.  But we told ourselves, "We can do this.  It'll clear up, and we'll have a wonderful time."

Second thing:  It. Was. HOT.  An unbearably hot day.  I was pretty sure we were going to sweat to death, but the storm brought in some relief.

Third thing:  I had looked up all these different camping food ideas on Pinterest.  I got some pretty good ones, too.  Or at least I had thought.  And for the most part they proved to be great ideas.  I mean, premade breakfast burritos, wrapped in tin foil, to cook in the morning coals of the fire.  GENIUS and GOOD.  However, the Orange Rolls baked in an half an orange was a FAIL--"burnt black, to no hope" epic fail.
(Also, it's always good to have an extra pack of hotdogs in the cooler.  Titus happened to drop like 3 or 4 before he got a cooked hotdog in his belly.)

Overall we had a great time.  The boys loved playing in, around, with fire.  They loved sleeping on top of the sleeping bags.  They loved the late night.  They loved the early morning.
LOVED seeing a raccoon try and take our stuff.
They can't wait to go back.  Matt and I, on the other hand, had to have days to recover from our one camping night.

I'm actually just now fully recovering from the camping trip.  Me and the boys were at the park near the site, and happily swinging on the swing, myself swinging too.  Then the swing snapped in two while on my back pump, and I crashed hard.  I got a great scrap on my knee, and jammed a few fingers, and the boys thought it was AWESOME.
"Mom, look, you broke the swing!  Mom, look!"  
And I lay on the ground mortified, trying to be brave and not cry.  It sorta worked.  Somehow I had the wind knocked out of me too.

Anyway, overall it was fun.  I think we're going to try and camp every few months or so.  Matt and I want to work on our fire making skills, and the boys really enjoy it.

Baseball Season was LONG

This was our first real year with baseball.  Holy crap.  It's long, guys.  I'm not really into baseball, but Matt is.  And the boys really fell in love with it.  Titus wasn't old enough to play this year, but next year he will be.

Isaac was in machine pitch with 7 to 9 year olds--the Atlanta Braves
Eli was in coach's pitch with 5 to 6 year olds--the North Carolina Tar heals

Most of our Saturdays were all baseball.  Lots of weekday evenings, too.  And practices.
- Eli's games went on for 2 innings, each player got to hit each time up to bat, and it wasn't too fast.  Actually it was an hour long.
- Isaac's games were usually 6 innings, sometimes shorter, each about an hour and a half long.

Eli's team didn't have a playoff system, but a nice party at the frozen yogurt place in town, with trophies handed out.

Isaac's team did make it to the second round of playoffs, but lost.  Overall, the season went really well. Mostly won most games.
Isaac improved 100x, it seemed.  He started having one of the best swings, and hitters, on the team… On his team were a pair of brothers who were amazing!  They held the team together for the most part, but everyone else started to do well too.  Along with our neighbor, Bruce.  He was on the same team as Isaac.

 

Epic-Mom-Freak-Out-Fail

I lost it today.  

I wake up to Titus screaming and screaming.  

"Isaac," I yell, "what is going on?!"

"He wants me to build his Bad Cop Lego car, but I don't know how!" 

I jumped up and stormed into the play room.  "TITUS!  DID. YOU. BREAK. UP. YOUR. LEGO BAD COP CAR?!?!?!" 

"Yes," he squeaked, "I didn't like it." 

I take him by the arm, marched him to his room, and slamed the door.

I sat in the middle of the playroom floor with the Lego box in front of me.  I didn't see any diseranable Lego Bad Cop car pieces.  Titus, it seemed, completely destroyed it. 

"Isaac, do you know why he did this?  Any clue?  Because he's following your footsteps.  Every Lego you've ever gotten, you've taken apart and lost...  If you do not want these Lego sets anymore, then we will just buy a box of Lego pieces... DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

I then turned the box of Legos upside down and dumped hundreds of the "Lego little devil bricks" onto the ground.  

And Eli and Isaac started to cry. 

"No crying," I insisted, "We are going to find ALL the Lego guy parts, then start trying to assemble the Bad Cop car.

But first, let's have breakfast."

We breakfasted.  Chocolate milk and Cheerios.  No tears. 

Back upstairs we started making piles of color bricks.  Eli took the white, me and Isaac the black, and Titus the red--all looked for Lego guys.  

After like 30 minutes of trying to find exact Legos that matched the Bad Cop car instructions, and basically coming up empty for each step, I began to have a sneaking suspicion:

"Titus, are you sure you broke up the Lego Bad Cop car?  Go look in your room."

All the boys went to the room.  Nothing under the bed.  But then Titus said he knew where it was at: "I think it's downstairs!"  

After two minutes of searching, they started to happily yell, "He found it!  It was under the couch!" 

UN. BEILIVEABLE.  He found his dang Lego Bad Cop car. 

I felt like CRAP.  A poop-head of a mother.

So I fed the boys homemade brownies and root beer, hoping the sugar would erase the last two hours of their "crazy mom" memories.  

Moral of the story?  There is no moral. 

Just remember that four year olds are crazy, and they can drive their mothers to insanity, too.  

And always have root beer on hand.  

Girl's Camp : Simon and Garfunkel is NOT Cool

A few weeks back when my parents took my boys for a week, I went to our church's Girls Camp.  A camp for all the girls ages 12 thru 18.  Yup, I VOLUNTEERED.  My current church assignment is to teach the Women's group, but I love being outdoors so I jumped at the chance to go to Girls Camp.


It was 4 days long.  Two days were spent on uninhabited barrier island, then the last two days were at a wooded camping area back on the main land.

The theme was "Survivor," with the young women being split into two teams.  Lots and lots of team building and character building obstacles.

Our time on the island consisted of a lot of sand, walks on the beach, cooking over the fire, trying to escape the tide, watching out for alligators and sharks, and holding on for dear life when storms would come.

Our time on the main land consisted of fighting off bugs, taking a hike on a "marsh hammock", trying to sleep through bull frog croaks, going to a water park, late night camp fire talks, and oppressive heat.

Over all it was a lot of fun!  Even though the girls thought my music was "not cool"… Simon and Garfunkel, Ray Charles, etc.  Not their thing, I guess.  Neither is talking about fiber.  So I'm old.  Age 28 going on 68, haha!