Ahh – totally forgot about Brian initiating a “snipe hunting” expedition with the kids (a joke we played on our nephews at Yogi Bear like 12 years ago when we went camping with them…apparently Brian did it in Boy Scouts growing up).

Wikipedia Etymology of Snipe Hunting:

The origin of the term is a practical joke where inexperienced campers are told about a bird or animal called the snipe as well as a usually preposterous method of catching it, such as running around the woods carrying a bag or making strange noises such as banging rocks together.^[1] Real snipe (a family of shorebirds) are difficult to catch for experienced hunters, so much so that the word "sniper" is derived from it to refer to anyone skilled enough to shoot one.

Here’s what we did:

When it got dark, Brian had all the kids get pots, pans and spoons etc. to bang on in the woods. He instructed me to get one of the stuffed animals from our tent (we used Brady’s teddy bear named Jelly Bear…which I shoved up the back of my coat). Brian and Pete got pillow cases. Brian gathered the children on an un-used site across from our area and told them about “the snipe” using hand-gestures indicating the size of snipes at a variety of ages. He said they are shy creatures so aren’t seen a lot, but they really like loud noises and will come out when called using the words (high pitched voice please) “snipe snipe snipe snipe!” We all went across the road to a big, open area of trees while Brian instructed the kids to bang on the pots and pans and yell snipe. A lot of the kids were timid…wanted to hold hands with the adults (which I think was just me, Pete and Brian). Logan was apprehensive and kept saying, “are they REALLY real mom? really???” At one point, Pete came around behind me and I dumped Jelly Bear into his pillow case. Later, Brian “spotted one” and Pete ran to get it. The kids freaked out when Pete opened the pillow case and threw jelly bear into their circle. Then they all laughed and said they knew we were kidding once they saw it was a stuffed animal. The whole thing was pretty cute. Brian then had them gather around and talked to them about traditions and having fun and how they need to take their own children snipe hunting some day :)