We practiced (see last post), we made lists, we shopped for food, we packed our stuff, we (the dads) sweat like pigs in 100-degree weather to set up, we got torrential rain, we left the campground for dinner at a pizza joint, we went back and had a great night, we got more torrential rains but slept through the night, we went home in the morning to have breakfast, we waited it out, we went back, we got lucky, we stayed until they kicked us out on Sunday, we had a blast…and then we recuperated

Day 1: It was, according to every news cast in our area, “the hottest day of the year” on Friday. The dads all went early to get the site ready and man oh man were they drenched in sweat! The wives and kids rolled in around 4. I can’t remember when the rain started, but it came on with crazy force. We knew that storms were on the way and, despite the spotty cellular coverage at the camp ground, every adult had their phone out tracking the radar. We ran for the cars and our pre-determined plan to go eat pizza at a nearby place until the first storm passed. After dinner, the skies were once again clear so we headed back and:

Made s’mores

and then went on a hay ride at 9:30. The theme of the weekend was Christmas in July so the wagon was decorated with Xmas stuff (as was the whole campsite). We sang Christmas carols and the Yogi Bear song as we rolled through the camp grounds.

The kids went to bed then the adults had a nice time chatting and hanging out around the fire. Sometime in the night, the rain started again. It rained, and rained and rained. I never imagined the varied sounds that water can make falling on the roof of a tent. For some reason, we had what I can only describe as mist falling periodically from the ceiling…right on my face. The boys slept like ANGELS. Brian and I tossed and turned, hid under the covers to avoid the mist, came back out because it was too hot, got up every so often to punch water off the tent roof where it was accumulating in 2 spots and worried about the next day. At one point, I was walking around around in the tent and, because of the water flowing under it, I literally felt like I was walking on a water bed! This is a picture of the sites next to us in the morning. They are known for flooding which is why we never stay on them.

One of our group’s 4 camp fire pits.

When the boys woke up, they literally had no idea it had been raining all night. They were READY to go and wanted to know if everyone else was already outside playing. We had to tell them that the plan was to ditch the campground for the time being, head home to make breakfast with everyone and wait it out. Once they realized that we were just moving the party, they were cool. We promised to return as soon as the rain let up. Everyone gathered any wet bedding, cloths and towels and we caravanned home to the Epstein’s house where we made STRONG coffee and ate “Mr. Cheesy” <—traditional camp ground breakfast of hash browns, eggs, bacon/sausage/whatever meat you want to throw in, and cheese.

At 10:30, the rain had stopped. We all headed to our respective homes for showers and possible naps. I have to say that it was like a dream – ALL 5 of us fell asleep for over an hour, got nice showers, clean cloths and woke up to a sunny day! Brian headed out first to replace our pop-up cover that had been the only major victim of the previous night’s storm. He bought a new one and met us back at the camp site for lunch (he actually ran out of gas on the way back, but that’s another story). After lunch, we got the main event for the kids: Christmas presents!!!

Each child got a box wrapped in Christmas paper. Inside each box was a part of a larger picture. Each picture had a number on the back…

Susan and I made a giant “puzzle” and the kids all put their pictures in place to reveal:

A giant water slide! This was Brian’s idea. He and 2 other dads went in together and bought it for summertime fun…which they decided should start at the camp site. The presents were my idea…Susan did all the pictures and the wrapping.

How fun is that?!

Brady needed a little help up and down at first, but he got braver near the end.

Susan, Anne and I brought along some “Christmas” crafts for the kids. I really tried to get all red party hats, but the best I could find was a pack of mixed colors. This craft went from Santa hats to…um…Santa’s helpers hats!

Saturday night, as Brian and I were sneaking in to go to bed, we found our children in three of the funniest sleeping positions! Of course we had to take pictures.

Aiden does the frog:

Brady: booty in the air

Logan: Maxin and Relaxin

Sunday we hung out around the camp site, ate Senior Cheesy (Mr. Cheesy with chorizo that we never got to with nacho bar the night before), did a scavenger hunt and went to the pool before having lunch and heading home.

Some of the items on the scavenger hunt were pictures like this one: “take a picture of Yogi”

Or this one: take a picture of a flag  

Here we are returning from our scavenger hunt. Our cars are on the left, our camp stuff is drying on the right (those are small sites, but no one was there last weekend so we used them for the direct sun exposure :)  

We all still had a blast, but hopefully our camping trip in October is a little less…watered down :)