Adventures of Camping

Well we are BACK and yes I survived......a little less sleep, a few cuts and A LOT more mosquito bites!

Now like a mentioned before this was not my first rodeo in camping adventures.....

My dad would always take Brent and I camping near the end of the summer.....mom stayed home which now that I think about it, it was probably a vacation from us.....BUT we always had a grand time playing cards, swimming, fishing and literally sleeping on the ground....that is until I became a little to much of a girly girl and wasn't so excited about going camping.

These days camping has become a little less primitive.....

Yes that is our air mattress and I did make sure that we would have the capabilities (electricity) to blow it up so we could sleep in "comfort" during our camping adventure. And no we were not the only couple who brought their air mattress.....ALL of us brought air mattresses. My other requirements before agreeing to go....working bathrooms and a shower. (I would say both were fairly primitive but they got the job done....I don't think I've ever seen so many bugs as in the bathroom at night or in the morning....I tried to do a funny dance to keep the bugs from biting me....pretty sure it didn't work)

Here we are shortly after arriving with our humble abode.....the Ladd's 2 room tent....which the 5 of them used to use when going on vacation......before going on this camping trip I made it clear that my idea of a vacation is NOT driving to various sites in the US and camping our way there and back.....we stopped at Alan and Christy's on Friday night and had a practice run of setting up the tent and to make sure all the pieces were still there. I'm sure the neighbors thought we were crazy putting up a tent and then immediately tearing it down. On Friday night they were reminiscing about the good old times....in particular about how they got soaked one time when it rained......

Saturday was GORGEOUS and we went tubing down the river......There were 4 couples total and 2 of the couples have done this 3 years in a row.....as we were going to put on our swimsuits the girls pre-warned me that the river was going to be muddy....I said it wouldn't be a problem.....I mean the Stafford lake will prepare you for anything :-)

Now most of you know we honeymooned in Jamaica and as you can see my husband is a "little white" so we stockpiled on spray on sunscreen which let me tell you was one of the best inventions. I LOVE IT! Its so easy to put on and works great. We had a few cans left-over as did the over couples who have recently gone on honeymoons.

Now I didn't bring my camera on the river but wanted to give you an idea of what it was like! We did have a "drink" tube that we made sure was manned at all times. We floated for 3 hours and dodged lots of downed trees and cows crossing the river. In all honesty I got clobbered by a tree but I made it out a okay.....Again this wasn't my first go-around using tractor tires in "muddy water"

Brent and I floating in the lake....not quite as "exciting" as the adult version of a float trip.

Now you might have wondered what I meant by cuts....well as we were climbing out of the river we had to navigate a rocky bank and my foot slipped......I have this lovely cut and a rather large scratch on the other side to remember the trip by.....and since I don't heal very quickly I'm sure it will be there for 6 months to come.

NOW....remember how the Ladds reminisced about how they got soaked when it rained......well it started to rain in the middle of the night and I was GLAD that I made Eric sleep near the door. It took several attempts on my part to get Eric to get up and close the tent flaps so the rain would stop blowing in and in the morning our tent and a little puddle of water also accompanied us in the tent. I was pretty glad we were only staying one night since I'm going to work on Monday because I'm pretty sure it was going to rain most of the day and that would have been "not so fun" in my eyes to be camping in drizzly/raining weather.

AND NOW we are drying out our air mattress in the basement and all our camping gear in the garage.....Oh they joys of sleeping outside.....AND we got invited to participate in an annual camping/float trip.....OH YEAH! Really I had a good time but I wouldn't call it a vacation by anymeans....AND guess what I'm doing next weekend....that's right going on a float trip but this one is a guided tour for a bachelorette party....it will be interesting considering that on the trip this weekend the boys took care of everything.

AND tonight.....SUPER excited to sleep in my own bed with the tent not blowing so hard that I worried Eric and I may have a tent collapse on us :-)