A Proper Campout

In celebration of completing a 5 year project we got a bonus day of paid leave at work. Since Alison and the kids' nature group was planning a camping trip on this last Wednesday, that day seemed like the obvious choice.

On the day that the trip was scheduled to begin (Tuesday) it was raining, so all of the other people that were supposed to come wimped out except for one family.

We got our tarps and hammocks set up before the rain was really going, and we also got a fire going despite the rain. It was colder than usual, however it was still pretty good weather. It didn't snow at least :)

The rain continued all night, and well into the next day. Mike was able to get a fire going on day two as well by tearing apart a dried out pine tree that he found in the camp site.

Mike, Rea, and Sara went out and picked a bunch of berries (raspberries, currants, and serviceberries). We plan on making a pie, though that hasn't happened yet. 

The kids were a bit grumpy about the rain, but Mike and Alison taught them all the fun things to do while huddling under the tarp listening to the rain: telling stories, singing songs, playing games, etc. We told them that they hadn't been on a proper campout until they'd done at least one solid day and night of rain, so we were proud of this trip. We told lost of funny stories about rainy campouts in Michigan :). 

Whenever the rain let up, we would go out and play or cook things over the fire. It ended up being quite fun. Alison's favorite thing to do was to take one of those cans of pre-made biscuits and wrap the dough around a stick and cook it over the fire. We had hot dogs and s'mores too; lots of cooking over the fire. That was fun for all of us.

Wednesday night we planned on staying the night again and leaving at 7am to get Mike back for work, but the kids insisted on getting back in their sleeping bags to warm up after getting wet, so their beds were damp, and it didn't seem worth it to sleep in the rain again just to leave before breakfast. In the end, we went home at bedtime.

Thursday we decided to incentivize cleaning the house by watching a movie. Mike and Alison decided that they really wanted to watch The Lord of the Rings again. The kids decided to clean up so that they could watch it too. We had them cover their eyes at some of the monster-killing parts, but mostly they enjoyed it. We've had some interesting discussions ever since.

We only had time to watch up until they got to Rivendell the first night (those movies are long!) Friday night Mike and Alison decided to get sushi take out (while the kids ate macaroni) and then we all finished the first movie together. Alison is really enjoying it; she'd forgotten how much she loved the first movie. The kids are pretty excited, too, and want to finish the story.

Saturday was a Super Saturday with crafts for the Relief Society, so Alison was gone for four hours finishing up stuff for this year's homeschool. (We were invited to bring our own crafts if we didn't want to do theirs, which was very convenient.) Mike and the kids spent the whole time cleaning the house; it was a lot of work.

We had planned to go to the Stake Barbecue that night, but Mike forgot and agreed to his parents' suggestion for a barbecue at their house. Amy said that her kids might possibly-maybe-a little bit have been exposed to Covid, but we went to the barbecue anyway. Then we realized that maybe we should worry about maybe having been exposed to Covid and going to church, so we decided to do home church for the next two weeks.  The kids were coughing again when they woke up, so it might have been good. (I'm thinking maybe they always cough when they wake up, and we just don't notice it unless we're trying to get out the door early? I don't know, but it seems odd that we never seem to notice they're sick except at 8am on Sundays.)

This week is going to be our first week back at homeschool. Alison has been working very hard to prepare for this school year, so hopefully it will be very fun and go smoothly. Fingers crossed!