"Two Little Squirrels In the Park..."

Camping was a success. We had a great weekend, and if I weren't so tired, I'd put together a nice post, with the best of the best pictures. Instead you get one of those posts with a few pics from Kasey's camera and random commentary about our weekend below. Enjoy.
The kids went fishing early saturday morning and came back with a rainbow trout. They caught another one (with Aaron's "help", of course) that afternoon. Aaron and jimmie filleted them and fried them up with dinner. I bought tiny camping chairs for the girls. They loved them and packed them around all over our campsite.

Yeah that's me lookin' SUPA-schweaty. I kicked that campsite's butt on an early morning run. 5.9 miles baby! If only I'd known I was so close to a 10K, I would have kicked it up a notch and done another quarter mile. Still, the Run for a Child 10K is 3 weeks away, and I am SO ready. I just hope my time won't suffer from all the crazy steep hills on the race course-they are insane!

I can honestly say that the ONLY good thing that came from Aaron's brief carreer as a US Border Patrol Agent was that cool T-Shirt he is wearing. Oh, and the sporty backpack that now houses Reese and Quincy's 72 hour kits.
I am officially the worst mother in the world. Yep. My sweet little baby has a blistering sunburn. I kept him in the shade of a HUGE tree ALL day long, so he really shouldn't have been burned...but unfortunately, we all took naps in the shade. During that time when we were in sleepyland, the sky became overcast and the sun moved. We were totally unaware that we were no longer in the shadow cast of the tree and basically cooked our baby.

The Cheeto is now rockin' the title of "Baked Cheeto" and sometimes, "Flamin' Hot Cheeto". Hopefully, all that aloe I've been sliming his cheeks with will help cool the burns enough for him to just be Cheeto again. Or more like "Cheeto Puff" these days.

My first attempt at Dutch Oven cooking. I thought I'd be cool and put the whole mess of coals on the lid to help my peach cobbler cook more thoroughly.

Nope. Less is definitely more. Peach Cobbler had a full layer of BLACK (burned sugar and butter) on the top. The stuff underneath was still pretty tasty, though. Lesson learned.

I asked Reese what her favorite part about the weekend was and she answered, "When I scared Jimmie with the fake snake and he was like, 'ooooh! I'm so scared!' and it was really really funny. And I liked sleeping in the tent with you and Daddy and Quincy and all being together in the same bed and I had my own flashlight and Daddy let me eat junk foods the whole time."

Good food. Happy kids. Decent sleep. MORE good food. Good run. Good campsite. Good fishing. Good friends.

Good memories!
I will camp again for sure.
Great weekend!

"Then BANG CRASH, lightening FLASH!"

My friend Jenn took this photo of the storm clouds from Monday night. Looking at that little funnel cloud forming might not mean much if you haven't lived in the Midwest, South, or experienced a severe thunderstorm. They can be pretty scary, and a large red patch across the doppler map on the tv is never a good sign. I realize how psycho we were to be outside running in the storm that swelled with it. It was quite an adrenaline rush, but let's hope for some nice, cool, dry weather for the rescheduled 5K on Monday night.

News Flash

Dear Aaron,

You are white.

"You know that I was hopin' that I could leave this star-crossed world behind..."

This weekend we are going camping.
Aside from cabins at girls camp, and my parent's RV, I've never actually been camping before.
In an effort to not make a fool of myself, I've decided to do a little research. After talking with friends and searching the internet, here is what I've learned so far:

1) I have very unrealistic ideas of what camping is like.
2) Apparently, you do NOT have to own one of these to camp.
3) According to the rest of the world, camping in an RV is indeed, NOT actually camping.
4) If roughing it in a tent just gets too rough, more comfortable accommodations are available only another hour away...
5) Really.
6) There will be dogs. People camp with their dogs.
7) No rustic trail in the wilderness. Our tent will be set up on a grassy lot with a number and a picnic table. This part sounds VERY nice.
8) You don't actually "hunt for firewood". You bring it in yourself in a Rubbermaid tote, and then it will be inspected by a park ranger to make sure it meets firewood regulations.
9) there are firewood regulations.
10) You park your car on your campsite. I was thinking there would be more privacy...what? There will be another group of campers 20 feet away? What are these, parking spaces? Will people make fun of me if I go sit in it every once in awhile? It could be hot this weekend, and the RV had A/C. So I'm thinkin' as long as the car is RIGHT THERE...why not cool off a bit? Maybe we could plug a mini frig into the outlet and store some popsicles? no? Ice Cold Dr. Pepper?...anyone?
11) Wait...you mean I have to PAY to sleep in a tent? There is no electricity. Why not just get a hotel? What exactly AM I paying for?
12) Probably the campground POOL. Excellent. No river swimming for this girl. This sounds perfect.
13) There is a possibility that critters will get into my food, and I should hang it from a rope in a tree. Why not just lock it in the car? It's right there...
14) Camping was very popular in the 80's. I have a theory that the lack of electricity on a family camping trip actually sparked the idea for the butane curling iron. Be prepared for a photo-free recap of our adventure. No electricity+mego's big hair=scary stuff.

more to come, I'm sure...

Because it is Wednesday

Went to the mall.
Rode the horses.
Ate some ice cream.
Didn't do dishes, laundry, or any of the 500 things on my to-do list today.

Rah! Rah! RahRahRah!

The men of the house are ready for some football.

"Let it rain. Let it pour. Let it rain. Let it pour...."

Post Edit:

Got my camera back.
BEFORE:
Runners were asked to wait on the indoor practice field. My first thought..."what the? ...Practice field? Indoor turf?" Yeah. This was at a High School...there's some serious cheddar backing up the Football Booster Club here. And apparently, this is the "ghetto" high school, with the crappy facility. Nice, right? The actual field also has turf, and the stadium has box seats and instant replay screens. Talk about Friday Night Lights! Notice how soaked my windbreaker was after walking from the car to the building.
My hair isn't long enough for one ponytail yet, so I get to look like my 4 year old when I run.
Ready to run, rain or shine!

AFTER:

What a beauty, right? Just keepin' it real for you, friends.

(that's the only post-run-in-the-storm-photo I have)
The big, fat thunder clouds rolled in around 4pm. The sky turned BLACK, and the temp outside had dropped 30 degrees by 6pm.

The 5K I had planned to run in tonight was postponed until next week.
We showed that thunderstorm who's boss and ran 5K anyway.

In the pouring rain

and under the crazy-town lightening and crashing thunder that KellyKapur would describe as "bananas". Kasey, Lara, Tia ran in the rain, too...and Fergie joined me on the shuffle.

I am SOAKED....But it feels great. Tonight MIGHT have pumped enough adrenaline through my system to help me do it all over again next week, cuz rain or shine,

"...she's going the distance! she's going for speed!"