Staunton River State Park Camping Weekend

My little messy bessy!

Dead car battery as we were getting ready to leave.

Our little home away from home

You can take the girls out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girls. Guess we're still country girls at heart!

We just can't hide it.....we're just like the beverly hillbillies! Oh well......At least some people still like us and put up with it:)

Me and my girl!

Look at those two! We're all still just kids at heart!

Daddy's arms...my favorite place to be

Craig made the most awesome rope swing for the kids and the adults had just as much fun.....sort of took my breath away swinging at first....that's my man!


Making icecream with the icecream ball!
The boys off to fishing. This is where Alayna went biserko cause her daddy left without her!

Alayna bringing mommy flowers
Please come play with me Laura!

Morning coffee break

Peacefully taking it all in

Little miss mother hen

Here I sit Monday morning after a successful camping weekend tired and bug bitten, (I think I lost count at 83 on my ankels, legs and feet alone) but 100% satisfied that we pulled off a great weekend with 3 kids with a 4 month old at that. It's just barely 9:00am and Alayna bless her heart is already back down. We went with Dave and Sue and their 3 kids as well. Wow, can't believe we did it with 6 kids 6 and under. We sort of braced ourselves and prepared ourselves that anything could happen, but determined that regardless if you keep a good attitude we'd make it work. The kids had an absolute ball so any little unplanned glitch we encountered made it all worth it. We went into it not quite sure how it would go with 3 little ones this time in a not so huge tent, but all went very well. I think the only thing different that could be is if we really would have had an extra day or 2 just for the fact that it goes by so fast and by the time you set up it feels like it's time to leave. We've already had some sweet conversations with Bradley about the fun he had from his perspective and this morning all he wanted to do was go back. Craig's already called this morning to tell me the conversation they had in the car and they were asking each other what they liked the best and Bradley said "daddy, I know what you liked the best.....you liked watching us play and have fun" It amazes me how intuitive he can be sometimes. He also said "daddy, I just want to go back to camp" Poor little guy wasn't ready to face reality yet with school and all. We let him get a feel for more of the big boy stuff like saws, pocket knives ect....A few little knicks on his hands, but all 10 fingers and toes are still there. Whew!! This mommy's gotta get used to watching her little boy grow up! Alexander and Bradley sawed logs for hours on end, collected sticks for the fire, got their first lesson on what wittling a stick entailed. The daddy's took just the big boys fishing on Saturday in a canoe. Craig surprised Bradley with his very own bigger boy fishing pole that came with a little tackle box. He gave it to him thursday night and boy did he beam from ear to ear and talk about that nonstop and was just so thankful for it and kept thanking daddy over and over. Bradley caught a pretty big fish. Craig thought Bradley messed up his pole while they were fishing and to their surprise there was a fish on the other end instead. Bradley was so proud of his catch! I know it does his daddy's heart good to see he has the same love for fishing and such an interest in hunting as he does. As the boys were gone fishing Sue comes skipping back from the bathroom just a happy little soul with a great fun idea to be master camping women and try to make a fire to cook our chicken on and have a meal ready for when the boys came back because we knew they'd be starving. Between the two of us and the food we each had to share we pulled together and pulled it off successfully with a table cloth and a flower centerpiece to boot. We even had dessert because Sue of course thought to bring her homemade icecream maker that the kids had a ball rolling around in the gravel.

Alayna and Hamilton.....oh these babies are quite the duo!! They play so well together! Sue and I love just watching them and wondering what goes on in their little heads. They followed each other like little puppy dogs all weekend and wore themselves out silly. Priceless little moments of Hamilton making his campsite rounds like a little camp ranger saying "Hi Cag, hi Heidi, hi Braley" just to make sure we were ok and then he'd be off again. Or Alayna singing Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you cha cha cha nonstop to anyone who'd pretend it was their birthday. Alayna wore herself into a few ugly meltdowns, but would recover and then keep on going. Mainly over when her daddy was out of her sight and she didn't want him to be. That girl is quite attached to him more than ever. So the two little ones pushed each other in the stroller, would sit in the rocks and spoon them in buckets forever, collected caterpillers or just be off in their own little world of wonder. Alayna is intrigued with bugs and all the ugly creepy crawlers, some of which I've never seen before which flips me out a little how she'll pick them up and not even flinch. Her and Alexander are two peas in a pod in that regard. It's so neat to see the little relationships that are forming between the 6 kids. Alexander and Alayna have a brother/sister relationship in a way. They love and fuss with each other. Bradley just adores Madeline in his own way. Hamilton and Alayna are just what you see that's hard to put into words...just watching them explains itself. Bradley and Alexander is sort of the same way....they get along great, they have to work things out, they encourage each other, they compete with each other, they work well together when they are on the same mission, they are so different, but they are so alike....sort of a brother thing. We heard alot of "that's awesome buddy or SWEET" or "hey you do this job and I'll do that job" ect.....And then there's Madeline and Laura....two sweet babies that just go with the flow and probably wondered where in the world they were, but had not really a worry in the world. They just took it all in. Madeline seems intrigued with little Laura and I think wonders.....Hmmm, why aren't you playing with me? Soon enough we'll see how their relationship will be.

All 3 kids slept thru the night except Laura woke up once 1 of the nights and went right back down. It took awhile getting them all down and of course they were up at 6:30 raring to go, but that went way better than I prepared for especially with Laura and then Alayna not being in her crib. It's so sweet being awake and Craig and I love watching as all 3 emerge from their sleepy state one by one with their fuzzy heads and scrunchy bun faces. Don't ask what that means, it's just my description. Then they come out of their sleeping bags with big smiles and pounce on us and of course daddy gets them all wound up with tickles and pretending he's a bumble bee. After that all they want is to get OUT of the tent to start the adventure all over again. We try to hold them in as long as we can, but that's short lived. The last morning there was a HUGE ENORMOUS spider on the other side of the screen right above our heads in the tent just staring right down on us. I swear it had big eyes and ready to eat us alive. After the tent came down later they found it and the kids were playing with it and trying to get it, but we weren't sure what kind it was. You know who was the most curious of all....YUP....Alexander and of course he about squished the brains out of a frog too. The critter of the forest just love when these 2 families come to invade their territory. Poor things...

The kids loved bebopping back and forth on the trail that went from our site down to the river which was far enough that we didn't have to worry about safety with the water. They loved throwing the huge rocks that were down there into the water. We went on a little hike on Saturday and with a bunch of little legs in tow and tireness creeping in we headed back so the little ones could get a nap. Craig had to just put Alayna in the truck until she fell asleep and that's how she got her nap. You just do what works and go with it. I think Laura practically sleep the whole weekend away. I think being out in nature just wore her out. She ended up being the best little camping baby. You gotta train them early on.

Saturday night we got the kids down quicker so then the adults actually got some down time all together around the campfire which was for quiet conversation and smores all to ourselves which was nice. We were saying once you actually get the new routine down with the kids, it's time to leave so that's why we need more time.

I don't know how to put all the little precious moments into words, but keep thinking and saying to Craig if you could just have a video camera hidden in the trees to capture all the little things. There is hardly nothing to do in the woods, but why are they never bored. It goes back to the old fashioned way I guess....it's the simple things in life that can be the most fullfilling. You can be so tired from lack of sleep even, but still be so fullfilled. I sometimes think that too many options and tecnology can cause too much confusion. Who knows.....

To sum it up...it's awesome to have friends that we always say you can just "do life together"... have alot of the same interests and go through some of the same stages and phases with our children together , just be yourself together and see all sides of each other and relate with it all and just except each other as you are. The Lord has blessed us with such friends as these.