A story of a camping trip

I'm sitting here, listening to the thunder outside, feeling quite content.  Of topic...this is my 900th post on this blog.

The house looks like a cross between a tornado and a war zone is somewhat clean, the kids aren't home from school yet, I have a candle burning that smells like Christmas, my white peach tea next to me, and life is good.

I took a brief blogging hiatus, both from here and from Loving When It Hurts, to go camping.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate camping I'm not the camping type?

I know I've told you how I feel about HIKING!  Camping is not as bad, by any means.  But it's not on my list of 100 Favorite Things To Do either.

When I think of somewhere to get away to, I envision beautiful beaches, spacious resorts, and delicious food.  Not a wilderness full of spiders and ticks, tents that may or may not leak, and hot dogs.

On the other hand, I have a husband, that I love.  A lot.  This love is shown clearly when I do things like hike, or in the case of this weekend, camp (with only minimal-for-me complaining).

For over a decade, there has a certain group of "us" that have known each other.  Before we had 14 kids between all of us, most of those being mine and Kyle & Dacia's, we used to spend hours together.  Talking.  Playing games like "President" where if you just play smart, you can beat Andy.  Eating delicious food was always involved--Brandi's famous Mexican dip is to die for and I will always call her dip, no matter who developed the recipe.  Jenny's infectious laughter and wit, combined to torture poor Jeff, as it seems that the thing to do is for everyone to gang up on Jeff--I haven't figured this one out yet, easy target maybe?  Cindy with her fun-to-be-around personality and love for life.

I began as a bystander to this group of people.  There was a core group.  Kyle & Dacia (they are not separate-it's just always been Kyle & Dacia to me), Kris, Brandi, Jeff, Jenny, Cindy.  They knew each other long before the rest of us came along and I think that throughout their lives, there will always be something that binds them together.

By marrying Kris, I was fortunate enough to marry into this eclectic group of individuals.  Other's came along.  Andy and his unintentionally rude and very competitive comments during simple card games.  Abbey and Christian married into this group like I did, as did Tara.  Dean married in, and Mike hasn't yet married in but he should.

It was decided at the beginning of summer that a very significant amount of time had passed--too much time--since we all hung out.  So we picked a date and had been preparing for this camping trip all summer long.  Some were even looking forward to it.  At times, I even found myself a little excited, simply because I can remember camping with babies in playpens and it is just NOT the life I want to live!  But now that the kids are older and can fend for themselves, it would be easier and thus, more fun.

So camping we went this weekend, to the beautiful Lake Carlyle in Carlyle, IL.  I prepared a crockpot full of delicious chili for dinner Friday night, for my family, and for anyone else who wanted it.  My premonition that this camping trip wouldn't be all it was cracked up to be began as the torrential downpours blasted us during the hour and a half drive out there.  The evening was worsened when, by a freak accident, my crockpot full of delicious chili fell from its perch, to the ground, splattering hot chili all over Katherine's feet.  Dinner was ruined, and inwardly I thought, "I hate camping."  And I may or may not have voiced that very comment, one or two times.  My mood was gloomy through dinner, but as conversations began and the fire blazed, I swathed myself in my favorite blanket (it was FREEZING!) and began to relax a little.

Not sure why Livvy is making that face, or why I look like I have converted religions...

By 10:30, my medicine had done it's job and I was falling asleep in my camping chair.  Kris led me to the tent, to the air mattress I was extremely skeptical of.  I had asked him if we were going to zip up the sleeping bags, but he lazily in all of his wisdom, he decided we would be OK if he just covered us with them.

I will point out that he was wrong.  Oh so very wrong.  My entire body ached when I woke up on Saturday morning, from clenching up, trying to stay warm.  This did not bode well for how the day would turn out, thought the eternal pessimist that is ME.

But as usual, my bad attitude was transformed throughout the day.  A shopping trip to the local Walmart with Abbey and Brandi was just what I needed!  A healthy dose of "you're-not-really-camping" left me feeling ready to tackle the rest of the cold, cold day.  All day I was thankful, though.  Thankful that it was not 172 degrees outside.  It was a good day.

We played.  

We talked (did I mention I was NOT HOT?). 

There was this brief moment, where some couple tried to steal my son, but alas, they wouldn't give us enough money.

We ate (sadly, not my chili).  Why are there no pictures of the food???

We celebrated Dacia's 40th birthday.

Kris got to angrily throw a "disc" while playing--of all things--disc golf.

Kris and I have a cute picture from the trip, a beautiful memento of our redeemed marriage...

And we saw a gorgeous sunset over the lake.

It was really a good weekend, filled with great memories for kids and adults alike.  We promised that we would do this again, at least yearly.  And Saturday night, with the sleeping bags sufficiently zipped up, we were not freezing the entire night!  We packed up bright and early Sunday morning and headed off to be with our other family at The Outpost, to finish out the weekend.

Sadly, Andy & Tara missed out this time around, but perhaps next time we shall coax them into the grand adventure.  After all, if I can do it, so can they!  Just think, Andy.  If you play smart, you can win.  Even at camping.