Camping

Again, so much time passes between my posts nowadays! With it being May there are a ton of things going on with school ending just around the corner. But I have lots to share so there will be more posts coming. My last post was about the book I reviewed for Booksneeze, The Heart Mender. I did a drawing and my friend Lisa won the book! Thanks for the comments and for those of you still interested, you are always welcome to borrow mine. I have been watching for my next book but nothing has caught my eye yet. I will let you know when I get it in!
Two weekends ago the families of the Level 5 and 6 boys at gymnastics were invited to go camping out at a family's ranch in Crockett, Texas. Only Caleb has done an overnight camping with Heath so we were looking forward to a fun weekend. By the time we were ready to go, I felt like I had packed half our house. We got up there around 6 Friday night and got everything unpacked and our tent up by 8. The kids had already run off and found friends. The one thing about getting out of the city that I love, is the amazing night sky when the sun sets. One of the parents got a text about 8:30 that said we would be able to see the space station fly over at 8:40. Sure enough we started looking and were able to spot it crossing over us.  By 9 we had even killed our first snake!

With families arriving late and the excitement of friends, it was extremely late by the time I wrangled the kids into the tent but I did and I am glad I did because they were awake when the sun came up. I was able to snag this great photo as the sun came up though!

This was our tent. We borrowed it from Heath's mom and it was quite spacious.

This was a view from the house looking out over "tent city" as we called it. A few more tents were added that day as some more families arrived.

Saturday was filled with tons of activities including fishing, hiking, dirt-biking, four-wheeling, archery, BB guns, water fights and lots of eating! It was hot but we had canopies to hang out under and the kids of course weren't fazed by it. They never stopped going. We had an accident early on with one of the kid's airsoft guns. One of the younger kids picked it up and shot it thinking it was a water gun and it hit Caleb in the side of the head. God was watching over him because if he had not turned his head, it would have been in his eye. I included a picture of the result.

Heath and the kids hanging out fishing

This was the extent to what he caught: weeds!

A sweet picture of Elizabeth!

A front view of the house from the pond. We spent most of our time on the backside of the house where the tents were.

While Daddy was fishing with Caleb, I took Elizabeth on the four-wheeler. She spent the rest of the weekend on the four-wheeler with someone!

Do you think she is having fun?

Caleb learned how to ride a dirt bike. He was timid at first but did a great job and had a lot of fun!

Elizabeth and Daddy on the four-wheeler

We went on a hike over some of the 34 acres of the ranch.

The canopies we set up for shade. They came in handy later when we had about an hour long rain shower as well.

Heath helped Elizabeth shoot the BB gun. 

Caleb ready and waiting to shoot the BB gun.

Breaking up into teams for the water war and listening to the rules.

Each team had a barn to defend their flag. This was Caleb's team getting ready to head to capture the other team's flag.

Elizabeth is on her way with a water balloon and gun! She's ready!

Chaos ensues at the other barn!

Caleb makes off with the other team's flag but it is eventually captured back. I believe the blue flag was eventually captured but everything went haywire with accusations of cheating and Caleb running though stinging nettles which had him screaming on the the ground. If you have ever experienced them you will know the pain! If you haven't, be thankful!

Saturday evening we had a rain shower for about an hour and at the end, I told Heath to go check our tent. Unfortunately what he found was a wet mess. The canopy outside our tent had dumped onto the roof of our tent on one end which then flooded the entrance below it, and then the rain shield failed over our bed and it was soaked! We were very thankful the ranch house had a washer and dryer. We were able to get everything washed and dried and set back up in time for bed. The kids were wiped by the end of the day and were sound asleep when their heads hit the pillow. Sunday we slept a little later and then broke everything down before relaxing and then heading out.

The weekend turned out to be everything we hoped and the kids were begging to stay. All the parents at gymnastics the next night were all sharing about how we were ready for another camping weekend!