For the longest time, Kate has wanted to spend her birthday camping. Since her birthday fell on a Sunday this year, she had to settle having her birthday cake a couple days early.

The convenient thing about Kate’s birthday is that it falls rather close to Thanksgiving so I get to have time off from work to spend more time with family.

This campout to Lake Somerville was Simon’s first camping experience. He did a great job just hanging out with us around the fire. By the time we made it to the tent to go to sleep, Simon’s contentment had fled to some yonder place to which we could not go. I think Jeana and I got only 30 to 45 minutes of continuous sleep until early in the morning. Simon handled the lack of sleep rather well because in the morning he was as happy as he’d ever been! I was knackered, and Jeana was knackered, yet Simon was hale, hearty, and wide-eyed.

My contribution to the birthday festivities was painting the piñata, or the pin-ya-tttuh, with a soft emphasis on the T sound (as demonstrated by Audrey). Jeana was smart to craft the piñata with a thin shell so that only a few rounds were needed to get to the end goal.

Jeana came prepared to make homemade ice cream to go along with the awesome butterfly cake she made. The ice cream making apparatus we have is a round, red, hand-me-down from Ben and Suzanne. After filling the ball-o-fun with ice, salt, and the sugar/cream mixture, the instructions indicated that the ball be shaken for 15 minutes. Adam was a shaking hoot. You know how dancers sometimes move and shake around then clap their hands really close to their face? Yeah, that’s how Adam looked, sans the rose pinched in his mouth.

On Saturday morning, Adam and I took the girls for a fun hike around the edge of the lake. We got to see a lot of wildlife, or evidence of that wildlife – deer tracks, ducks (and their droppings), cranes, moss, and of course fire ants. I know, I know. Moss cannot be considered wildlife, but that’s neither here nor there.

Oh, I forgot a funny story about Adam and me getting busted for gathering firewood in a state park. You see, we paid $11 for a bag of chunks of wood – a rip-off I dare say. To compensate for the lack of long-burning logs, we wandered into the nearby trees to find some dead branches. We did find some and pulled it from the thorny brush.

I came out from under some branches whining about getting stabbed left and right from the thorns when I see a flashlight shining directly at me from off in the distance. Everything went into slow motion at this point and I carefully moved my eyes to discover where Adam had retreated to. I found Adam crouched back into a tree with his light off, and standing exceedingly still. That’s when I realized we were probably in trouble.

The ranger approached with his light held high and his other hand pressed onto the butt of his pistol. Scratch that last part – I embellished a little. The light was held high and the ranger approached me. He was surprisingly kind, and asked, “I assume you’re out trying to find some firewood?” Adam critized the chunks we purchased and expressed how they were inadequate for a real fire. The ranger agreed and described that the firewood vendor sold his prime cuts in the city, and saved his fodder for purchase by suckers like Adam and me.

Ranger Roger (I don’t know his name, but I’ll take literary license and call him so) walked us over to his house and said we could fill our sack with wood from his pile. All he asked of us was that we stop by the park office in the morning and make a donation – which we did. Thanks Roger for keeping us warm.