Tuesday

Playing war inside the tent (notice how Jacob is wearing his jacket over his jammies...and josiah doesn't even have his shirt on!)

We headed down to one of the trails - a 2.5 mile loop through the woods. (Jacob has a knack for finding and growing attached to "trash". Here's a soda bottle he found on the ground and filled with lake water and rocks. it's not in his mouth - just pretending so as to freak me out!)

David found everyone walking sticks and Caleb wanted one too!

I mean - is he the cutest or what? (We realized that morning that we forgot to pack the backpack to carry Caleb in. UGH!! He was a trooper though - walked most of the way!)

We passed this huge fallen tree and Jacob declared "that tree is 4 daddies long!" I thought it was hilarious that he was measuring it in terms of daddy! So they used David's walking stick to see - and it was actually 4 3/4 daddies long! :)

Found the biggest slug I'd ever seen...

Quick water break from the canteen (David's impulse buy when I sent him to buy a few last minute things before our trip)

:) Happy Caleb! Then I thought "this would be so cute to have all 4 kids on this tree for a picture" about 5 seconds later, and tried to get a picture....

this is what I got! It's amazing how quickly things can turn!

The trail came out to this beautiful part of the lake, so we stopped to take a break and play in the water for a bit.

After our stop at the lake, Caleb totally passed out on me and slept the rest of the way (my back was killing me having to carry him back like this!) He slept for 3 hours in the tent!

Painting some of the rocks that we found on the hike.

Caleb was napping, so David stayed with him while the kids put their suits on and I took them down to the lake. They played and piddled at the water for the next couple of hours. It was so great to see the three of them playing so well...with absolutely nothing but sand, sticks, rocks, and each other! No sand toys, no beach buckets - it was nice. But I was still sad that we weren't ALL there - I like for us to ALL be together and it frustrates me when that can't happen.

Dinner was sort of a disaster that night. I had brought some chicken breasts from the freezer that were in a marinade, but they were SUPER thick (must have been from a dolly parton kind of chicken!) and I knew they weren't going to cook through on our little camping stove. I had forgotten to pack a sharp knife so I couldn't really cut through them and slice them either. Also realized I forgot a can opener (who forgets to bring this on a camping trip!!! DUH) so that meant no green beans. The mashed potatoes turned out fine, but half of the kids wouldn't eat it, and the burned/raw chicken was just bad. I was so frustrated by the end of it. The kids were tired - they had been up until 9 the night before and were just worn out.

We decided to try and make homemade "roll in a can" ice cream to try and redeem the night. I've heard about this before and jokingly told David that if it didn't work, we were going to have to pack up and go home!

It didn't work. I don't know if our ice was too melty, or if I didn't use enough rock salt, or we didn't shake it/roll it enough, but it didn't freeze. I wanted to cry. We had s'mores again and got the kids in bed earlier. Caleb was still funky in the tent - he figured out how to flip out of his pack&play and onto our air mattress, so he tried that game for a bit, but finally settled in when the big kids fell asleep. David and I got to enjoy a game of cards and a few hours out by the fire to unwind and redeem the night for me! I hate having to still deal with behaviors and attitude issues on vacation, but I know it's necessary. I told David that I feel sort of bad making them get in bed and not just stay up late when we're on vacation like that - but it's because I know it turns them into monsters the next day! They were up super late the night before and we paid the price for it tonight. Sigh. You don't ever get a vacation from parenting! :)