Campin' 2011

 You can tell it's the first day, because the boys are still clean!  Chaddy was trying to blow the fire out. 

 If there was a fire, Gary was there. 

 Camp crafts. 

 Ready for a ride.

 Making flower fairies. 

Stories about Eden:  Her eyes swelled up like last year, we have no idea why.  She said, "I look ugly, disgusting and hideous!"  Dad said, "Nice vocabulary."  Tim gave her some sunglasses that she wore every second till the swelling went down.  Then she rode the 4-wheeler with Lex and, going over a bump, hit her cheek on the handle bar.  She got a cut, and her cheek swelled up.  "I look like an alien!!"  I used my first butterfly bandage, and Lex got dubbed the Crazy Driver. 

 Racqual's boys, hanging a swing in the quakies.  They made two nervous parents and one nervous wife...

 ...and one nice ride.  But with a rope that long, you had to be a pretty straight swinger to avoid whopping a tree. 

 Sage, blowing on a "wish."

Cards in the cook tent.(Notice, it's not day one anymore.  Chaddy would wipe at his eye with his black hand and end up looking like KISS.  I don't think I got a picture of it, but I know you know what I mean  :))

Mosquito repeller on mosquito attracter.  I counted 40 bites on his face.  On the way home, the lady at Taco Bell asked if he had the Measles or Chicken Pox.  No.  Just sweet baby blood!?!  I think I used a whole bottle of OFF just on him. 

 Licorice Lips!

 Cousin Cloe, pushing Sage and Daisy.  They were inseparable. 

 After a lighter mishap, and nearly collapsing Grandpa's awning, Chad decided Gary needed some positive interaction.  So he taught him to ride cousin Gabe's motorcycle.  He picked it up just like that.  Chad tried to keep him in the dark about 2nd and 3rd gear, but a couple of days later, he figured it out on his own.  He laps camp, and one lap was suddenly much faster than the others had been.  Chad heard him yell, "I'm flying!"  and ran to intercept him to tell him to stop. 

"Were you scared Gary?" 

 "Only when I saw you running at me." 

 Campfire snuggles

 Samuel and his house

 Lily and Hannah making marshmallow masterpieces.

 Root beer floats. 

 Right in the middle of camp, we had a family of mountain blue birds.  The mother and father would take turn bringing caterpillars and bugs to the hungry babies all day long.  They were never more than two or three minutes without a parent showing up with food.  That tree two pictures up, right behind Lily's head, was their home.  They were so fun to watch, and made my job look easy. 

 My flower fairies!  --and Racqual's :) 

 Cousin Abby and Lily and I went on an outing to the bathrooms.  Then it started pouring.  So we stayed.  And played Big Bootie, The Story Game, The Scream Game, and Bubblegum, Bubblegum, sang Down by the Banks, and took silly pictures.  We also were treated to the sight of a deer grazing across the meadow, and then...

 a rainbow, and we know it was time to leave. 

What a fun 9 days!  And now I have a mountain of laundry it will take oxygen to reach the top of, and a trailer that needs a serious wipe down.  Wow, vacationing is work!  But worth every second.