YEAH - I'm finally done uploading pictures!! Seriously loyal blog fans (that means you mom, Grams & Gramps, Den, Kara....and...most of all...Mary O'Neill-Broerman!!), It took me forever to get going on this week's update...mostly because first, I had to tackle unloading the car and washing all the camp-fire-smokey-smelling cloths (is there anything better....or worse?!)

So....our 2nd camping trip was great! It was amazing how fast the day flew by! The kids had SO much fun so, of course, the parents did too. The only snafu was the sleeping. Logan did very well, Aiden not so much (Bray was with the in-laws). Aiden is the kind of man who needs his own space because I think he talks himself to sleep most of the time. Well....he talked to ME for 2 hours in the middle of the FREEZING cold night. We (meaning me and him) almost called it quits and headed for home around 2:30am. I only stayed because our van was packed in so tightly that I was afraid I was going to hit another car pulling out of the camp site.
As always, I feel that the pictures below express what I simply can not put into works (or into FEW enough words that anyone in their right mind would actually want to read them!)

Here we are....arriving at our site! This trip was vastly different from our last venture. The theme was "a lot". First of all, it was MUCH colder so the kids needed A LOT more clothing...they got bundled in hats, gloves and puffy vests as soon as we got out of the car.

I am not lying when I say that this is a picture of Aiden as he is saying "caaaaaammmpppping!!!! yeah!"
This time we need a LOT more gear (we even bought a new, much larger tent!)
And there were a LOT more campers (and cars!)
Aiden tried to help unload the wood. He stumbled around with this piece for about a minute and then gave up to go play with the other kids.
Our site was right off this great path in the woods. The kids would run up there, back and forth behind all the camp sites on our side of the road until we yelled "WE CAN'T SEE YOU ANYMORE!" At night, we gave them glow in the dark necklaces so we could keep a better eye on them! We went with another family so there were 4 kids ranging in age from 2 to 5.
Here, the kids play "choo choo" on the sleeping bag rolls while the dads slave over tent construction.
Brian proudly displays the fruit of his manly efforts.
While the guys finished setting up camp, we mommies took the kids up to the arts and crafts area to paint pumpkins... ...and do more TIE DYING (yeah!) This time, we brought pillow cases for trick or treating.
Here is a view into our tent. Brian got us all set up with air mattresses, sleeping bags and our "knot blankets" (I made one for each person in our family last year. Brian's is Bears, Logan's is trains/cars, Aiden's is balls, mine is flowery & pink and Brady's is just blue & green stripes....I guess I'll have to make him a new one once we know what he really likes!)
One of the main forms of camping entertainment for the kids was "H family tent destruction". I would fix it up, zip the door and tell everyone to find something else to do, but they would be back in there tearing it up 1/2 an hour later. Seriously though....who could blame them?! How FUN does that look?! I just didn't want any of the air mattresses to bust (especially since we borrowed one toddler aero bed from a friend which had just been patched up due to a "toddler jumping puncture wound") Here's a fun game: can you find the three children in this picture?? Hint: Logan blends in with his army-green sweatshirt!
2008 Halloween Camping Trip Award: most hysterical picture! This area of the tent is actually a "closet" complete with a bar for hanging cloths (pretty cool, hu?). Well....Logan looked into the tent and IMMEDIATELY declared that it was the bathroom! He ran out, got the portable potty I brought, set it up, pulled his pants down, and christened the 'powder room'. I almost peed MYSELF laughing so hard!
From the door opening, Mackenzie observes the boys jumping on the beds and announces that it's lunch time!
Sorry about my bad picture taking! This is a very shadowy picture of the 4 kids eating grilled cheese for lunch.
After we ate, Brian and I took our boys on a little drive. Aiden actually had a pretty decent nap in the car, but Logan just watched Lady and the Tramp and demanded pieces of my gum. When we got back, it was almost 3:00 and time for the costume parade. I pulled my boys into our tent and got them ready to be Rock Band Guys. Now....for those of you not familiar with Rock Band, please let me explain. Rock Band is the coolest game...it's got a guitar (or 2), a drum set (my favorite) and a microphone. You create a band and actually play your instruments. Brian and I are addicted, but most importantly, the dads in our neighborhood are addicted. They will get together on a Saturday night after the kids are in bed and play until 2 or 3 in the morning! I had this idea that we should get all the kids of the rock band dads to dress up as a band for Halloween (some of the older ones had already decided to do other costumes, but there are 7 kids in 3 families who are doing this together). We weren't going to tell the dads, but they all managed to find out. In the game, each instrument has it's own little symbol. The other mom who went camping and I made tee shirts for the kids with their symbol on the front and the "Lolly-pop Palooza" line-up on the back <-- that is a play on words for the Lollapalooza music festival that is hosted in Chicago each summer. Anyway....here is Aiden as the drummer!
Ryan our guitarist and Logan....on bass guitar pictured below. I took out some of the pictures I originally uploaded because they were sideways, but we put fake tattoos on the kids, I made chains to attach to their pants like the punk rock kids and both of my guys had bandannas (with a Halloween motif!) tied around their pants legs. Aiden's hair got spiked and Logan got a blank streak down his head compliments of daddy. Unfortunately, he kept putting his sunglasses up on his head and then back down on his face. The black hair dye would get on the glasses and then on his nose & face. I spent a lot of the afternoon doing "the grossest mom thing ever" <-- licking your finger and wiping something off of your kid! The band gets ready for the costume parade. A LOT of the other kids LOVED their instruments and would come over to tell the group that they liked their costumes. We heard a lot of people commenting on how cute they were (although I'm certain that only a few really got that they were from Rock Band).
Logan literally said "mommy....everyone here thinks I'm really cool!" I don't know about EVERYONE, but I thought he was the coolest!
During the parade it was hard to keep the band together...
We had no idea that there was a costume competition at the end of the parade. Here, Susan and I hold up signs for our kids during the individual costume section. Ryan was a finalist in this segment and all of them were finalists in the group competition (although we didn't show up at noon the next day to see if we won)
Between individual and group, we sort of lost motivation. Logan and Ryan were digging in the dirt....
...while Aiden meticulously collected acorns and "their hats" <-- that was a mommy explanation for why some of them were only nuts....with no hats. Logan would destroy Aiden's arrangement from time to time, a fight would break out and then he would go back to digging with the drumsticks.
Aiden, back up on stage for the group competition. I feel like they really came into their own at this point. I imagine Aiden saying "No, Jellystone Camp Ground...YOU ROCK!!!"
"YAAAA!!!!!" Like a typical band, the group members could hardly wait until they were off stage to start drinking (in reality, they all got thirsty and the dads were sent back to camp to procure sippy cups)
"Cheers dude....good gig!"
After the costume non-sense, we went trick-or-treating from site to site. Aiden had a little trouble focusing on the actual "candy getting". Brian and I kept saying "eye on the prize dude", but he was mesmerized by the other costumes and the camp site decorations (there was also a competition for best decorated site). Here I am carrying Aiden along to do my bidding (aka: get some candy....um....for him I mean....certainly not for me......)
We took turns carrying our little lolly-gagger
Logan had the whole thing down to a science, although he had questions at every site. "What is that?? Do you have a green one??" <-- if he had his choice, all his candy would have been green....and lollipops!!! This is the pillow case he decorated earlier in the day. Some people went ALL out with their sites. This was a spread of 2 or 3 sites just down from us....
....this isn't even 1/3rd of what they had going on....it was insane!
It made our inflatable monster, lighted bats & golf ball/handkerchief ghosts look sad :):)
We woke the next morning to rain on the roof of our tent. We put the kids inside the car to watch Lady and the Tramp (AGAIN), packed up, ditched our plans for a camp-cooked breakfast and found a nice place called the Silver-something-or-other....all I know is they had lots of delicious coffee for the tired mommy!

Hooray! I couldn't help but take a picture of the grass going in on the final dirt lot behind our house. Brian is sad that he doesn't have anywhere to dump stuff anymore, but I'm glad that I can finally think about getting our windows clean (loose dirt tends to blow around a lot....and cover our windows!). Those lots back there were full of rocks that could be thrown....and were thrown....by little hands at other little heads (plus construction debris etc). I'm so glad we have grass!!!
In preparation for their next gig on the 31st, the boys practiced a little rock band with daddy after dinner tonight (Logan's request). We don't actually plug in their instruments.
I had to laugh because Brady has a shirt with a microphone on it and he was chewing away on the real rock band one.
Fun fun fun at the 554!!