Every year we go camping for a week with others from our church. This year there were about 80 of us. Here is the inside of our tent. This year the girls slept in the middle "room". The "room" on the left was for Ian and Jordan and Noah were in the "room" on the right. The picture of the exterior of the tent on the right above shows our tarp patch job. When we realized there was a pretty bad leak at 11:30 at night on the Tuesday of that week this was the best we could do in the dark in the pouring, very cold rain!
The little orange tent with our clothesline behind it was where hubby and I attempted to sleep. We didn't get much sleep and when we tried to get in and out of the tent it was tricky. Our mattress took up most of the tent. There was nowhere to put our feet to try to stand and nothing to hold on to. Then when we could stand we had to place our feet into a puddle of ice water where the rainflap gapped and the tent pooled up with water. One night when my hubby was climbing into the tent he flopped right down on my knee. So then I limped for the rest of the week which made it even harder to climb in and out of the tent. Ah yes! It was an adventure! The picture above on the right is the screen room over our picnic table and "kitchen" area.
Our campsite was right next to where our church family put up the volleyball net. I liked that because it made it very convenient for keeping track of my children. the above photos were at dusk one night. Hannah just learned how to do a cartwheel and was having a great time practicing!
Every year we drive just a short way to a really fun waterfall. It is always a bit cold, but fun. This year it was a bit crowded. Lots of people were there. The boy on the left is my Noah. The photo on the right is my hubby, Russ. Have I mentioned lately that I love this man? Last year he didn't get to come to camp with us and we missed him so much. I was so happy to have him there this year!
Ian climbed up to a little pool directly under the waterfall. A lot of the rocks are really slippery so I wouldn't let him climb any higher than this. One girl fell and cut her knee. She was really lucky that was the worst that happened. It is a bit treacherous!
To gain perspective of the enormity of this waterfall... Ian is actually in that picture on the left about in the middle standing on that rocky ledge under the waterfall... see how tiny he looks?
He said it was realllllllly cold!
There is a cool, crisp pool below this rocky ledge that is easier to access. Here is Noah swimming in it!
Hannah mostly played sun lizard up on the rocks. The boys don't mind the cold though and really had fun playing in the water for close to an hour until I was too chilly even sitting on the sun warmed rocks above!
There is a big log that the boys like to jump from. You can see them climbing up to it on the left and you can see my hubby (in the red shirt) sitting on it in the pic on the right. You can see the lower pool of water in the right photo too. If you hunt through my archives from the past two years you can probably find other pics of this same location!
Here's Hannah in front of our van. On the right you can see my hubby loading the utility trailer with bikes and supplies. I think these photos were actually taken on the Saturday morning that we left.
The cargo net holds in all of the sleeping bags, tents, food and other gear. The photo on the right is the back of my van loaded with pillows, toiletry bag (the red and black bag), extra blankets, swimming bag (the pink one), Hannah's life jacket and I think there is an extra tote of yarn back there too!
Here's a rare view of the back seat of the van with Hannah's baby doll with her BIP doll blanket (hot pink). On this trip Noah and Ian sat on either side of her. You can tell where Kaitlyn sat in the middle row. See her BIP afghan, her purse and her backpack piled high! :) Quimby, our Boston Terrier was sitting on Jordan's seat in this picture. She had a doggy bed on the floor, but of course tried to take over a higher spot whenever possible!
Here's the front seat. In the middle you can see a tray filled with our Nalgene water bottles. In the picture on the right you can see where Kaitlyn gets her packing skills from... like mother like daughter! On the floor I had my computer bag (yes I took my laptop, but I didn't use it much...only when we went into town and I found a wi-fi connection!), there are also two bags of yarn and a bag with my journal, and some books! The afghan in progress was for Eric Dixon. You can just see it peeking out of the top of my green and white Shaklee bag!
At the campfire... Kaitlyn on the left, on the right Ian with Quimby on his lap and Jordan sipping from his Nalgene bottle.
Jordan roasting marshmallows and Ian splitting wood for kindling.
(Boy did that make me nervous. Sometimes it is hard to let boys grow into those man skills!)
Noah didn't make me so nervous! He was a sweetie when we all went around and took turns saying 1 nice thing about each person! He could never narrow it down to just one thing to say!
Hannah working on a sticker book that some friends brought just for her. There are about 3 older couples in our church who just dote on this girl. She just loves older people. She gets little gifts from them all the time. They brought her a box of Old Maid cards at church just the other Sunday and another couple brought her a new pair of earrings that same day! On the right you can see my hubby. I just love that man!
They love bike riding during camp. In the background you can see several of the other campsites. I tried not to include any close ups of others since I don't really have their permission to post their faces on the internet, but we always get so many nice shots for our scrapbooks!
Back to the waterfall on a slightly warmer day near the end of the week. Noah has some Dad to himself time! That is a rare treat! Jordan considering whether or not to get wet! Instinct won and he was submerged minutes later!
Rock climbing and log walking. On the left are Ian (in the white) and Jordan (in the yellow). You can see Ian again on the right with Noah (in the blue) and Russ (in the red) on the log. I don't know who the boy in the blue sweatshirt is. There were two really large families there that day. I think they had 14 children between the two families and mostly long skirts! It was nice to see that. One of the moms noted my girls' nice modest swimwear! I wondered if they were homeschoolers but I didn't ask.
Here is Jordan up on the rocks again. I think this picture must have been taken earlier before he got in the water. It is still strange to realized he is 14 now. He actually turned 14 the Tuesday of Camp. I will blog about that later!
So, there you have it... Family Camp 2008! Summer is my most picture heavy events of the year (camping, four bdays, and other days off for hubby... therefore more day trips and activities). With that said there will be lots more pictures as I have time to get them all on here! Hope you enjoy them!
