Camping with April and Heather

We arrived at Indian Creek Equestrian Campground a little before 8pm. It was still light, the rain which had fallen much of the afternoon had stopped, and after greeting my sister April, we got to work setting up the tent and starting a campfire.

April's husband Dean showed up from a trip into town with gigantic marshmallows and a bunch of glow sticks, and as the sky darkened, the kids had a blast roasting marshmallows and playing with their glow sticks. April and the kids and I had fun singing and playing games as I was still kind of giddy from the exhaustion of my long day.

Finally, we settled in for the night, and tried to get to sleep. Sleeping on a campout is always a bit hit-or-miss. Our brand new air mattress didn't seem to hold air quite as well as we would have liked. When I was packing, I had forgotten to grab our pillows. I was cold, but had to choose between using my jacket to keep me warm, or as a pillow. I did eventually fall asleep, only to be woken the next morning by a raucous bird screaming at the top of its lungs.

My sister Heather and her family had arrived during the night (or early morning), so when Steven and I crawled from our tent the following morning, we had a mini family reunion. Steven made pancakes for breakfast, and I helped a little bit. (I love a husband who does most of the cooking on camp outs!) After breakfast, Steven cleaned up from breakfast while I rolled up sleeping bags, deflated the air mattress, and started taking down the tent.

After the camp was cleaned up, we decided to go for a hike. The seventeen of us headed out along a narrow game trail. We stopped at a huge rock to take pictures for a while, then continued onwards and upwards until the small ones were tired, and then we turned around and headed back.

Heather and Tejay provided a delicious lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs, but we cleaned up from it quickly as rain clouds drifted over head sprinkling on us. It never did rain harder than a sprinkle, but it was enough that little ones were clamoring for umbrellas. After lunch we relaxed. We tossed around a football, and played games, until about 3pm, when our family climbed back into the van and headed for home. Heather and April were planning on staying another night, but we needed to go.

We arrived home around 5:30. We were exhausted. I had a headache. We unloaded the car, and heated some canned soup for dinner. Steven ran some movies back to the library and grabbed a few things at the store while I got the kids into the bathtub and shower (It was great that our new water heater had enough hot water for four showers and two baths that evening!), and reviewed a primary lesson I would be teaching the next day. Hannah made plans with a friend to see "Malificent" in the theater that night. I don't know where she found the energy. I went to bed as early as I possibly could. The camp out was a lot of fun, and I was glad that I was able to see April and Heather and their adorable families, but I was very, very tired by the time we got home.

More pictures I took on this trip are available here.