Blast of a Memorial!

Well I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend....we had a BLAST! And I figured I'd better blog about it before I forgot some details of our trip.

So we decided to go camping with Jason's friend, Jake and his girlfriend Alyssa out on Jake's grandmother's property. There is a creek that runs through the property and we were just hoping the creek would be running! So we packed just about anything and everything we thought we might need for our first camping trip with the kids! We had clothes, water noodles, swimsuits, creek shoes, toys, food, camping gear, a tent, chairs, coolers, fishing poles....let's just say we ran out of room in the back of the suburban with the 3rd seat taken out! We were going to take the kitchen sink, but we ran out of room! :o)

Saturday:
We took off to Jake's grandmother's property stopping in Liberty Hill for minnows and Lampasas to eat at Storm's (mmm-good!) We finally made out to Jake's grandmother's property where him and Alyssa were waiting for us! We drove down the road and onto a county road where we stopped at a creek and Jake and Alyssa had everything they needed in their Argo (definition of argo: half car, half boat; will drive on dry land as well as float in water!) So they took off down the creek and we waded in the creek playing in the water and throwing sticks down the running stream. Jake came back and him and Jason took a load of our stuff down to the campsite while the kids and I continued playing in the water attempting to catch minnows and some sun! Jake came back for us and for the final trip and loaded up the rest of our million and one things to take camping as well as the kids and I and we headed up stream to our "campsite."

When we got there we unloaded the boat/car and the kids immediately headed for the creek and I began attempting to set up our tent. Jason and Jake went back in the Argo to move the jeep closer to the creek in case we needed something we wouldn't have to rely on the Argo to slowly get us back to shore! The creek was nice because right in front of where I started setting the tent up, the creek was very very shallow, pretty much just water running over the bottom of the creek so I felt comfortable with the kids wading in the creek there. I finally got the tent set up (it looked like a tent anyway) and I headed to the creek myself to cool down! Whew.....

That night, Jake made dinner in Jason's Dutch oven that we've had since our wedding but had not used. We attempted to lay Baby Girl down in the tent but she didn't want to stay and was SUPER tired! So we ended up laying a sleeping bag down near our campfire and she fell asleep there without hesitation. Jonah ate dinner and went to "just lay down with Baby Girl" and was soon fast asleep as well. So the rest of us stayed up drinking, talking and fishing! I caught like 3 catfish and Jason had to keep getting up to empty my fishing pole line string. (I am not an avid fisherwoman and am not fisher savvy as to the wording of fishing stuff.) So Jason would unhook the fish and put it on a string to keep alive and put back into the water. It was so cool and nice and refreshing, having a glass of wine in one hand with the stars brightly shining above and a fishing pole in the other hand.....ahhhh....this is the life!

Sunday:
We attempted to "sleep in" but it started to heat the tent up early and we figured since the kids were already up and looking for their bathing suits, we should probably get up and get breakfast going! We ended up having "leftovers" from the night before so we wouldn't have to cook something else. Yummy! After cleaning up our dishes, and by cleaning up I mean putting them in the fire, we all got back into the water! Jake and Alyssa had things to do while they were there on the property like cutting wood and other stuff....I'm not really sure, but Jason, the kids and I stayed back, playing in the water. We (the fam) headed up stream because the sun was striking straight down on our campsite and was shadier up stream. We took some snackies, fishing poles, water noodles and the camera and went to this little sand bar about 3/4 of a mile up and sat there fishing and catching minnows. Jonah was fishing with his Scooby Doo fishing pole and kept catching some little bass fish....he loved catching them! They were pretty small and not worth keeping so they just got thrown back so that Jonah could catch them again! Jason was holding Baby Girl while sitting in the water at the "shore" and she fell asleep so we laid a towel and a water noodle down and she napped under a big oak tree using a water noodle as a pillow and a towel as a blanket. Jason, Jonah and I continued fishing and catching minnows! What a BLAST!!

When Baby Girl woke up, we went back to camp and cooked some hot dogs and ate lunch and of course re-applied more sun block! Jonah and Requay played in the dirt/sand there making "sand castles"....well they put sand in the cups and used spoons to dig up holes and then turned the sand cups over to make a pile of sand and called them sand castles. They were the best sand castles I'd ever seen! Jonah even buried his legs and feet in the sand! After cleaning up lunch, we decided to head down stream this time so Jonah, Requay and I took a water noodle and swam on our bellies up stream with Jason swimming on his belly ahead of us! We probably went a good mile down stream and found this really shallow part where we all laid down on the creek bottom and probably could have fallen asleep but didn't. We found designs in the clouds and saw some little frogs hopping around. The kids threw rocks into the creek, like there weren't enough there to begin with and we just relaxed, laying in the creek and enjoying the day! The kids started getting bored of throwing rocks after a while (By the way, neither Jason nor I had a watch on the whole weekend so we never really knew what time it was....when we got hungry, we ate and when we got tired, we slept and when we had to go, well we went.) So with being oblivious to us, we finally headed back to camp swimming with Baby Girl on Jason's back and Jonah and I on a water noodle! When we got back to camp, we sat and talked for a while and the kids and I caught some baby frogs and kept them in a plastic bottle! (yes, the bottle had holes for the frogs to get some air and some water so they could stay hydrated) So after catching about 7 or 8 of those, we went back to catching minnows. We had taken Jonah's little "bug catcher net" and caught minnows with that! Jonah would put them in a cup and then Requay needed a cup too to put little fishies in her cup!

Oh I forgot to tell you that when we were on our way back up stream from laying in the creek, we saw something in the water that we weren't quite sure what it was. We approached the object slowly and Jason realized it was an alligator, so he sneaked up on it and wrestled it under the water and out, spinning madly in circles in the water and when he finally had that alligator under control, he threw the stick up onto the shore! (It was just a stick but the kids thought it was a real alligator and that their Daddy wrestled with him.)

We swam and caught minnows and fished pretty much the whole day and at dinner time, we cooked some sausage and had sausage wraps and the kids again fell asleep on the sleeping bag near the campfire. This night though was a little different because this night, the kids were a bit sun burned and having problems sleeping on their little backs. We ended up giving them both some motrin and putting some aloe vera on their back to help with the stingingness. They were pretty wiped out after swimming up and down stream, catching all those big fishies, jumping to catch frogs, wrestling with alligators, finding turtles and bears in the clouds, making sand castles that could reach the sky and just completely loving the outdoors where you can wash your hands in the creek, throw your left over food to the fishies, pee-pee on any little rock or stick you could find and spend the day in your swimsuit with no worries about spilling or making messes! It was the best!!

Monday:
Our last day of camping and Jonah kept saying that it was "a sad day" because we had to go home that day. It was really sad because we had to pack everything up, take the tent down and take off our swimsuits! Jason cooked breakfast tacos and I spilled all of our breakfast potatoes in the sand and those got fed to the fishies! oops....Anyway, the kids continued playing in the same way they had the rest of the weekend while Jason and I attempted to gather up stuff that had been strung out from one side of the sand bar to the other. Jake and Alyssa took their one little argo load out and Jason, kids and I finished gathering stuff up and packing it away. Jake came back for a load of our stuff and took Jason back with him so they could bring the burban closer to load everything up. While Jake and Jason were gone, the kids and I finished the last of the packing and went on trash patrol picking up any and all of the trash we found left on the sand bar....we don't want to pollute our Texas creeks and land! gosh....Jake came to pick up the kids and I and Baby Girl fell fast asleep on the bumpy, noisy ride back to our truck. We all changed into dry clothes and headed back home. :o(

Not too long after being on the road back home, the kids were out and Jason and I were trying to talk to each other to keep the other one up too! We were just completely "desausted" but had an awesome time camping! Jonah asked when we might be able to go camping again!

It was a GREAT Memorial Day Weekend! Hope you all had a good one too!