Monday, April 13, 2009

The Devine-Riffle Camp Out!

Thursday we departed for our first family camping trip. We attempted last year and the weather did not cooperate, so we were more than ready to go this time around!

This is Carly - she worked very hard with Matt bungee cording all the totes down. Notice her work! Matt forgot to take them off and they actually stayed on the whole trip. When we got there we told Carly to take hers off, she did it with one little tug and it came right off! At least it stayed on for the ride down.



We arrived at Cane Creek (in Waxhaw) around 11:00 am. We unloaded the car and started to set up. TJ and Deanna were surprisingly right behind us at arrival (if you know these two, they are always late!) The weather was beautiful!! One of the first things that the girls had to try out was fishing! Matt let them do all the reeling in, which of course led to a very tangled up line. During the processes of untangling, low and behold, they caught a fish!!!! Matt told the girls to grab the line and those two little monkeys pulled the fish in with their "bare hands" on the line. By the time I ran down there, the fish was already in the water - doing the back float! The girls reenactment of what happened was hilarious. "When we got it out, Dad stepped on it. And it was wiggling all over. It needed it's Mommy, so we threw it back in the water. It was smooth and crunchy and its tail was very wet." All of this story included body motions, including what the fish's mouth looked like when Matt stepped on it. So funny!!!

For the rest of that evening, we cooked and hung out around the campfire. We had foil dinners and banana boats for dessert. YUMMY! The next day, we woke up and ate breakfast - until 10:00! We had bacon and eggs and donuts!! Yes, to those that know my track record with the donuts - we survived the cooking experience! (When I was about 12 yrs. old I decided to do this in my back yard with one of my friends. Everything was going well. I made a fire, cooked all the donuts, and then it came for me to put out the fire. Well, at 12 yrs. old I didn't know what water and hot oil do - I poured water all over the fire and then looked at the can of oil in the fire and proceeded to cool that down too. BAM! It exploded and my friend and I were burned all over the place. We ran as fast as we could to our pool to cool our sizzling skin, but we ended up with burn marks all over us. My mom thought I was out in the sun too long!! She had no clue that all of this took place until a while later when I let out the truth!!!) So, no one was burned and I was very careful with my oil this time! Deanna decided she was going to go on one of her 6 mile runs (she is absolutely insane and there was no way I would go with her) and she dragged TJ along. We decided to go on a hike. Chloe wasn't too graceful with the stumps, so within 5 minutes, she had fallen and cut up both of her wrists and was bleeding nicely. So I opted to take her back and bandage her up. From that point on, Carly would tell Chloe to look down when she walked and to look out for the stumps - "If you see a stump, you will fall." (that was my expert advice)



Well, then the rain came! At nap time, we had a short storm. Just perfect for nap time. We all took a nice nap and it was over by 3:00. Then we had sausage and apple pies for dinner. About 9:00 pm we had our second batch of storms come rolling through - this was the "red" storm. The kids were already sleep and they slept through the entire storm!!! There were some pretty rough points during the storm when the tent was swaying back and forth and the rain was coming in on us!! And yet, the troopers kept sleeping!! Cooper (TJ and Deanna's dog) slept right through it too. The next morning I picked up Chloe's sleeping bag (luckily it has an air mattress in it), and it was a raft!! There was water all under her! She was floating that night! We were very wet. Chloe picked up her jacket to get out and she said it was wet, Carly said, "Just put it on Sissy!" These kids are such little campers! It ended up being a group consensus to pack up and go home to dry out! So, the camping trip was over, but it was a blast. The girls kept saying, "Camping is so fun!" We will definitely be going again!!!
Breakfast - Harper style!
P.S. I may post some more pics - Deanna said she would send me the ones she took - which are great, so I will add them when I can.

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