Camp Out

From Beth: It was another messy week for us- as Caroline displays here. In this particular shot she is showing off the combination of brown paint, dirt, dinner and dessert that adorn her outfit.

The focal of our week was Katie and Jamie's camping trip with Adventure Princesses. A neighbor invited them to attend and once they were officially signed up it was pretty much all the two of them talked about for the remainder of the week!





The campout began Friday evening with a cook out and lasted until Sunday morning. We decided that Katie would probably do best with one night of campout so they stayed Friday night and came home Saturday evening after dinner.



From Jamie: We arrived around seven o'clock on Friday night, after a minor delay of me forgetting the snacks. We arrived and Katie met the other girls from the Wolves tribe. The dads were all happy to make hot dogs and fajitas for the kids and steaks for themselves. I can say I might have had the best ribs I have ever eaten-- apparently they had been prepared all day Friday. Some of the dads take it really seriously- with snacks, satellite dishes and the required beverages- juice boxes and the adult variety.


Friday night we had a campfire with the Chiefs wearing these funny headdresses. The new girls all got called to the fire and had to introduce themselves and their Dad and say their indian name. Katie picked Little Sunshine. She also thought it was funny when everyone chanted"Chief jump fire now" to get the chiefs to jump the bonfire. Last year the chant became "Chief on fire now" but no injuries this time.


Here is Katie on Saturday morning with her breakfast. No, the Diet Coke is not hers. She made the healthy choice of fruit loops over Lucky Charms, although she picked out the marshmallows after. She also had sausage patties, links and two little donuts. If that doesn't say breakfast with Dad, I don't know what would.



Saturday was on to the activities.We started the day off byheading to the archery range. We hit the target a few times but mostly hit the canvas at the back.


Then it was off to the climbing wall. Katie did a really good job especially since she was one of the youngest there. She made it almost to the first level. The only problem was when Katie was coming down she thought it would be more fun to come down facing everyone and her helmet got stuck on a rock.


Here is Katie with Coconut Bob who supposedly is cursed but everyone tried to steal from our cabin.

After the climbing wall it was off to the fifty-foot slide which had two tunnels so that the kids could race. Katie had fun at this and won most of the times.

In the afternoon after lunch and a little college football, it was off to the horse riding. Our horse's name was Junior and all he wanted to do was eat the grass. I tried to hold his head up but he would start to push his head and walk into me. Katie after watching this and laughing said "Dad just let him eat."


Then it was off to the canoes for a ride in the lake. We had fun and Katie insisted that she was the only one paddling.

After canoe it was off to the BB gun range. When she got home she reported this as her favorite activity. What 4 year old doesn't like to shoot guns? I have to admit she hit the target three times, which was three more than me.


After the activities, the girls played together and the Dad's watched some football on one of the two televisions until one was taken up to the Pig Roast area to get ready. We then had a nice meal although some of the girls weren't big fans of the pig's head being on the serving line. You could tell everyone was exhausted but we decided to have a quick game of Dad basketball, caught the end of the Ohio State and Notre Dame games, and the girls played. They had a bonfire Saturday night again and as the torches were coming to go to the lake, Katie asked if we could go home as she was exhauseted, evident by her falling asleep soon after leaving.

From Beth: Meanwhile back at the ranch . . . Caroline and I stayed very busy. I have never had a night with just Caroline, but I must say that it was marvelous. She went to bed at 7 p.m., as she always does and slept until 9 a.m.! It was like a little piece of heaven as I woke to sun shining on my face. On Friday night I had offered her a list of things to do including favorites like swimming and the park. When I asked her Saturday, the only thing she retained from the list was chocolate milk, so we did manage to incorporate that into our itinerary! We did our normal Saturday stuff (work out at the Y, grocery, errands) and she enjoyed being my sole companion. Her special treat was a picnic at the park (with chocolate milk!) and some play time. The downside of this plan though was that she was so distracted that she could hardly focus on eating.


Let's pause for a moment here because this is a special moment. . . With the thousands of photos that I take, there are very few when I get genuine, looking at the camera, nice smiles from both girls. And this is one of those rare ones. Sunday afternoon we met friends at a nearby pumpkin farm for a hayride. Our first challenge was that it was 80+ degrees and we had to wear pants (for the hay). The girls were happy to see each other and run around on the wooden play equipment (including the Amish-made rocketship- anyone else find that humerous?)

We then got in line for the hayride and tried to keep the girls from destroying the animatronic pumpkin. We're pretty sure that the guy's arm was swinging the wrong way after our little angels paid him a visit.
The girls liked the hayride and we were happy that "Suicide Hill" (their name) had been toned down a little. Last year we hit a huge bump, which made it pretty memorable. Halfway through the girls got to get out of the wagon and select pumpkins. Caroline liked them all, but when she discovered the bottoms of them were wet, she would drop them and say "yucky." As the hayride resumed she got wigglier and wigglier and we knew our time was limited. She had fun running around the play area, although she did have a spill that resulted in a scrape on her nose and a bump on her forehead. From there, we ended our pumpkin excursion and headed home for a nap.










While Caroline was snoozing, we resumed work on my Halloween project- the circle of ghosts. I have been working on it in phases since Friday and when we returned from pumpkins I had Jamie finish the task of getting the dowel rods into the ground. He was pretty much grumbling the whole time about it being hot, wanting to watch football, etc. but I was glad for the help. Katie liked being in the center of the circle and she helped me cut out eyes and mouths.





Later in the afternoon the girls helped me make an apple dessert- you can see what kind of helping Caroline wanted to do!