Category Archives: Camping

Audrey’s 7!

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Jeana| 3 Comments

Audrey turned seven on Friday and partied all day long. It was Field day at school so she pretty much got to play the whole time.

Soon after Audrey’s 6th birthday, she decided she wanted to have a pool party for her 7th. Then, a few weeks before her birthday she decided she wanted to go camping. We had a conflict with soccer games so that couldn’t happen. So then she changed her mind about 50 times trying to decide what to do for the occasion. Finally, I told her that I would just surprise her with what we would do. Around that same time, we found out her soccer games were cancelled, so camping was back on the table.

It was so much fun – but we decided that we definitely don’t want to go camping in Texas any deeper into the summer than May. It was pretty toasty!

The kids had lots of fun playing “pin the soccer ball on the soccer girl.”

Check out the soccer girl’s legs. They were originally supposed to go to her right, but then they would have run right off the paper, so she faked everyone and went to her left instead. Now she appears to have one extra joint in each of her legs or else to have been seriously maimed.

They also had fun breaking the soccer ball piñata.

Apparently, the park managers cut down some cedar trees before we arrived because there were fresh stumps in our campsite, and scattered cedar chips everywhere. Scott explained to the kids some of the rules of the campsite, and cautioned Kate regarding her cedar allergies. Later, we laughed when we overheard Ocean yelling to Kate that she couldn’t touch the wood because she was allergic.

On another occasion, Eden ran over to Kate and gave her a big hug. “Kate, I love you,” Eden said. “You’re my best friend.”

Thanks Ocean and Eden for your love for our girls.

By the time we were done with dinner, none of the kids wanted to eat any birthday cheesecake. So, Audrey blew out the candles and then headed into the tent.

After a little bit of work, they were all asleep. (It’s tradition on our camp outs to take pictures of the sleeping kids).

We bought a new 8-man tent for our camping trip and it made the experience so much better. Simon had plenty of room for his pack-and-play. The girls had space for their full size mattress, and even with the queen mattress for us, there was extra space for bags, shoes, and the stack of blankets and sleeping bags that we didn’t need. Simon woke up a lot during the night and it seemed like he was just disoriented. We got very little sleep as a result, but after a short containment in the van at 2:30 a.m., he was able to fall asleep for the rest of the night.

We woke up at 6:30am to the pitter-patter of rain drops on our tent. Luckily the light rain passed quickly and the heat returned.

After breakfast we took a hike through the woods. The kids were amazed at how many roly-poly bugs and caterpillars were out on the trail. Simon didn’t last long in the backpack before he fell asleep.

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Posted in Audrey, Birthday, Camping

Kate’s birthday campout

Posted on December 3, 2009 by Scott| 4 Comments

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.

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Posted in Audrey, Birthday, Camping, Jeana, Kate, Simon

Thanksgiving

Posted on December 5, 2008 by Jeana| 4 Comments

The Macey’s day parade didn’t quite hold enough attention for Audrey and Kate, so they put on their own parade around the kitchen while I prepared food and Scott was off playing in the turkey bowl.

I have to admit, I enjoyed their parade much more than the one on t.v. I’m not quite sure what they were going for with their costumes, but I thought they were very creative.

The Harmans and Hollands joined us for dinner, which was awesome. We have some good cooks for friends!

Audrey knew that the Bird’s went camping over Thanksgiving break and so about three weeks before, she asked if we could set up tents in the backyard on Thanksgiving night. I’m pretty sure that I said, “Maybe,” and then forgot about it. Audrey of course didn’t forget about it, so around 9:00, after everyone left she reminded me that I “promised” them that we could sleep in the tent. Scott was not at all excited about it, but for some reason I decided that that precise moment was the time to start following through on promises. So, we went out and set up the tents and got to listen to the rain hitting the tent off and on all night. It ended up being a really warm night despite the rain.

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Posted in Audrey, Camping, Family, Kate

Camping at Enchanted Rock

Posted on October 26, 2008 by Scott| 10 Comments

We paid homage again this year to one of the so-called places to climb in Texas. And by homage, I mean we climbed less this year than last year (i.e. not at all). That’s ok. Jeana is six months pregnant and the pregnant belly may not be conducive to agile climbing.

We learned some funny things about the Wayes on this outing, which I have no problem blogging about since they’re moving away from us soon. I will miss them. First, Becca has issues with some funny things: sand in her nails, fish, and eating meat off bones (although this is dwindling with the advent of Texas BBQ). Second, Scot told us a funny story about him running full speed into a chain parking lot barrier and falling face-first into the pavement. Thanks for the laugh. And, thanks for bringing Bernie to entertain our children. Oh, and thanks again because now they want a pet dog!

Ocean was so thoughtful of Jeana by offering her a piece of licorice. Jeana declined the offer, but Ocean insisted on keeping track of a certain piece of licorice in case Jeana changed her mind. Jeana sat at the campfire watching Ocean caress the licorice in her hands and thread it through her toes. Ocean asked for another piece, to which Adam replied that she already had one. Ocean told Adam that piece belonged to Jeana. When Jeana said she didn’t want it, Ocean caressed and threaded more, and finally took a bite.

While in Utah at my parents’ house this summer, my dad carved some walking sticks for Audrey and Kate. Yesterday we finally took a hike for the girls to use the sticks for their intended purpose (rather than just play with them around the house with some sort of princess theme) up to the top of “Enchanted Rock”. Kate surprised me and made it up a good portion of the hike – she was a good little hiker.

Poor Audrey. Audrey had school pictures on Friday so she dressed up a bit. Jeana packed her camping gear for her so that we could just pick Audrey up from school and drive straight to our destination. I paid our entrance fee after arriving, and when I returned to the car, Jeana told me we had a problem. Jeana had grabbed two right shoes for Audrey. You see, Audrey and Kate have the same shoes, except that Kate’s are smaller. Oh well, what can you do? Scot asked me at the campfire, “So what’s the deal with Audrey’s shoes?” As if she had some “condition” – just kidding. Despite the two right feet, Audrey hiked all the way to the top and most of the way back down before complaining. In fact, she and Jackson were racing to the top of the hike! I found it easy to take pity on her and carry her on my shoulders part of the way down.

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Posted in Adventure, Audrey, Camping, Friends, Jeana, Kate, Outdoors, Texas

Camping at Lake Somerville

Posted on March 29, 2008 by Scott| 4 Comments

We went camping a couple weeks ago with Jeff and Brenna and Adam and Jamie. This camping trip was much better than our last outing. We had great weather, and there were two trees in our campsite that made for some excellent slacklining. The slacklining was setup all evening long, and we set it up again Saturday morning. Jeana nailed the slackline for the first time ever, that is, she got up on and walked all the way across the slackline with no assistance! We were all so proud. Adam also got across the slackline, and Jamie was really close.

We took a walk down by the lake so the kids could touch the dirty water. Jeana wanted the kids all looking at the water together with their backs facing us. This was as close as we got them to posing.

Jeana is determined to take a picture of the girls sleeping on every campout. On the first attempt, Kate wasn’t quite asleep.

We took our bikes and the Burley so that we could go for a ride on Saturday morning. Jeana showed how tough she is by pulling the girls the whole time up and down some big hills. Note that in this picture Jeana is riding her old friend, the green GT Timberline. Since then, Jeana has craglisted that bike and purchased a new one. Pictures of the new bike will be posted soon.