Memorable Memorial Day Campin' Pix

Eden was so excited to head up to Fishtrap Lake and get camp all set up....it was a toss up as to whether or not she'd skip school Friday and get to head up with her Gma/Papa, Auntie, Uncle, and Cousin Conner.  We let her decide.  But when I saw her come home from school with this make shift Camp Fire Hat...I started laughing so hard.  She said "Oh, this?  I just made this during free time!"  I said there was no way she wasn't taking that hat to go rally up some fun at the campground a day ahead of us...

~So once again the 7yr Tradition of Motorhome Dashdog Duty was on~

So the van packing began.... all that below just looks like LAUNDRY now when I look at it....campfire smoke soaked 11 loads of laundry. ;-)  Always worth it though....

Then of course the painting of toes

(not for vanity....simply to cover the camping dirt for 4 days of no showers or cell phones or internet. Love it!)

Auntie and Eden called while en route to request a bottle of purple polish be brought up!

and then the final snacks packed for easy access for arrival at camp.

It was windy and overcast and rained off and on.... most the time.... didn't seem to hurt the fishing and eating around the clock.  I ate a serving of my apple crisp at every bfast, lunch, and dinner and a few fourth meals here and there....pistachio nuts in such excess that my tongue may have been bloated!

 

I just love her in this little camo Cabella's hat!

Her Papa has never been more pleased to admit he's been skunked fishing than when it's Eden who's out-fished him!

Braving a break in the rain/wind storms to head out for more fish!

Hallé all ready for the fish and rain and wind and sun with her

Footy Jams, Sunglasses, Crocs, and Princess Pole!

She hates me making her pose on a boat...This girl is not a poser...she can F-I-S-H. fish!

A few hours after seeing them off here at the docks....I was back in this same spot but in a Rain Parka anxiously waiting for them to come around the bend in an absolute downpour/wind storm they got caught in.....All I couldn think about was Hallé and what her reaction would be to the freezing cold wind/water on her face the whole 2 mile ride back from the other end of the Lake...

Next thing I know I see the boat and before I can even make them out...I hear my baby and her  hysterical shrieking.

OH MY WORD. my heart sank. 

She was rashy faced, sobbing, and barely breathing because she was crying and screaming and kicking so much.

I rush to the boat; grabmy little Tinker Bell and think I need to console her for this scary-crazy storm she's just braved.   GUESS AGAIN.

SHE WAS PISSED!!!

SOOOOO FURIOUS that in the midst of this storm she didn't get to ride in the captain seat and steer the wheel for the high speed venture back across the white capped waters!!!??

Turns out I had snatched up my TINK...mid-tantrum.  It was so cold. I was soaked.  She was soaked. Everyone was soaked.  But she could've cared less about the storm...it was just crazy-making to her to have been told NO! 

Everyone was wet except CONNER. In the pen, under the canopy-by the fire!

He'll thank me one day for throwing on that baseball hat after I filled his pen with 40 My Little Pony toys!

SPEAKING OF MY LITTLE PONY:

I thought my girls would love having them all brought along to play with.

WRONG.

I kept asking if they wanted to play with them and realized I had the wrong approach. 

When I finally asked them if they'd like me to:

set up all the Ponies on a hillside, collect a bucket of huge pinecones, let them declare WAR, & slaughter all the ponies off their rocks...the reply was beyond an enthusiastic YAHOOOO!

~I love that memory~

Another memory I'll hold dear forever was the hike that just Eden and I went out on....We very proudly found TWELVE different types of wildflowers to blow us away once again at God's creativity and detailed ways He leaves Himself all around us. 

The flower hunt was of course a memory of warmth to my heart but Eden loved that on our hunt we climbed up a steep incline on a hill a bit too far for this one orange flower.  We had one of every color but orange and just HAD to have it.  We were STUCK!  Panicked for a moment...slid and skid a bit... and full of giggles when we finally made our way down.  It was an adventure she loved to tell.

Next hike I went out on with her....I turn around and she'd gotten stuck halfway up this rock wall and needed guiding down. 

Funny how I went from proud of Eden my adventurer in the above picture to terrified of my fearless Hallé in the below picture who decided to follow her sissy.

(yes....IN FOOTY JAMMIES. IT WAS COLD!!)

Once we all made it up the rock wall....the next adventure story she loved telling happened a few moments after this.  I stupidly let her be the only one rock scaling and field exploring in flip flops.   I ended up almost stepping on a med. size Bull snake.... we were all jumping and getting the little ones out of it's path and laughing and realized poor Eden was on a rock in flip flops a whole lot more worried than the rest of us watching this snake slither around our feet!!

A Post-Adventure Picnic with friends and cousins

Maybe we should've minded all the signs a bit better!! oops!

campfire entertainment with some wasting of paper plates!

AND bowls...

Eden said this was a belt she made around her waist. I took the picture and I said:

"Well, This'll need a caption!"

Eden Slept by herself in her Princess tent 2 nights...

Well....One and a half b/c she got wet on the second even with about I'd guess... around 100 some feet of canopies & tarping above, below and around us!! LOL... We blame the hill...err "slope"...

Hallé waking up to the storm all around us and peeking out at the standing water in front of the tent....First she asked for:

MOVIE TIME

(a shot of our water moat! It was POURING rain!)

Then she asked for her Boots and Umbrella

(one of my fav. pictures of the trip)

and a-puddle-hunting she went!

(she looks pretty happy for the 103 fever she had at the time!)

Then it was time for this little DASHDOG to make her appearance!

Then...since it was STILL raining, we decided to sacrifice our canopy....grab a knife and cut a smoke escape hole in the top of it and put it over the firepit!!

Because who DOESN'T give their kids S'mores for Breakfast!?!

Esp. when their kid can't eat the graham crackers and it's a S'mores with a chocolate bar on top and bottom of a marshmallow!!!

(GROSS!)

Yup, that's more Chocolate and another outfit below....maybe an hour or two later!

Conner decided to top all the girls' adventure stories by ending the last few minutes of the trip with a crash and burn in the RV

Party OVER....

Time to pack up and ......

HIT STARBUCKS!