Apparently I'm not a very good blogger - I can't even remember when I last posted. The last few months had me spinning out of control (kind of like a toy top!) I'm not quite sure what happened, but I do remember bits and pieces of taking and picking kids up from school, catechism, soccer, baseball, gymnastics, etc... all you equally busy mom's can fill in the blanks. Anyway, I thought I would try and get back in the swing of things and write about one of our favorite summertime activities - camping.
This past weekend we went on our third trip of the season to Metamora-Hadley State Park. We went with my Dad, his wife "Julie" (that's not her real name and I don't recall why that's her nickname, but it is, so we will just go with it), my step-brother J-bird and his friend Pickles (my little monsters couldn't remember Pickles' real name, so they gave him a new name - Poor kid!). J-bird and Pickles were great with the boys - especially considering Hambone thought he was sixteen like them - he would not leave them alone!
For some reason, we sometimes eat better when we are camping than we do at home! This weekend was no exception - the meals were delicious! Dad and Julie made huge, yummy breakfasts with eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, french toast and blueberry pancakes and Assman made amazing, mouth watering ribs (literally - they were pretty spicy) on his new grill!
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| Daddy likes his new grill! |
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| This pig tasted delish!!!!! |
The boys absolutely LOVED fishing with Papa, but poor Papa couldn't catch a break between baiting hooks and removing small blue gills from their scooby doo and star wars fishing poles. I think they need to at least learn how to bait their own hooks! I was pretty impressed with myself for baiting a couple hooks and even removing one fish from the hook. I did discover that I do NOT like the nightcrawlers though - they are too big and fat and juicy and squirmy!
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| Papa getting them ready |
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| Papa unhooking the fishie |
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| Porkchop and his first fish! |
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| Hambone and fish #1 of 4 |
The little monsters also went on their first canoe ride with Papa and Julie! I was skeptical at first of letting them go out because they are boys and they are spazzy and I was nervous it would tip. However, I'm glad I let them because they LOVED it!! They surprisingly sat amazingly still. Assman and I took them out too. We discovered that I'm not allowed to sit in the rear of the canoe, because I suck at steering. We literally were zig-zagging across the lake and turning in circles :) It was quite amusing (at least I thought so, because I couldn't stop laughing:)!
There were just a few negatives...I fell out of the camper (No, I was not drinking!) Rosie lunged after a group of dogs, breaking her collar in the process and setting herself free. Ballsy little thing was trying to pick a fight with three dogs (all bigger than her!) all on her own. To say the least, Assman was not a happy camper at that point! Then someone stole Hambone's camping chair! Who on earth would take a kid's chair?? But all in all it was a GREAT weekend!
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| Pretty butterfly |
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Bait stealing bluegill...some actually got hooked!
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| Maybe a baby perch? |
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| Can you see the frog? He's in there somewhere! |
Until next time, visit and explore your local State Park and don't forget to live, laugh, love!! xoxxo
(P.S. I received a kick ass camera for Mother's Day, so now I can brag about and prove how stinking cute my little monsters are!)
