The Great Outdoors

We just got home from camping at Gibson Reservoir. Literally. I still smell like campfire. The kids are covered in dirt. That right there proves we had a great time, right?

We loaded up after church and headed out. We set up camp and I attempted to cook dinner. I say attempted because I had this genius idea. I bought charcoal briquets and lighter fluid so I could just cook with them instead of having to build a fire every time I need to make food. Smart, right? Nope, guess not. I went through two batches just to get my dutch oven to brown my hamburger. I finally put Adam's boy scout skills to the test and made him build me a fire to finish the meal. It worked great! I retired the briquets after that.

We went fishing after dinner down by the boat ramp. Let's just say we are NOT fishermen. We bought Paige and Porter their own Barbie and Buzz Lightyear kiddie fishing rods before we went. Adam let them carry them from the Suburban to the water (i.e. not that far) and in that time Porter managed to break his. Apparently if you give a fishing pole to a 3 year old he will wind and wind and wind and wind and wind and wind it until all the line wraps up in side the spinner and breaks off. It's pretty sweet. Adam got him and Paige's rods set up and I sat on the beach with a pair of pliers taking apart Porter's rod so I could assess and repair the damage. In the meantime, Sarah fell over a rock and took out a chunk of her right cheek on the tackle box. (Did you even know that was possible??) Once I got the repairs finished, we got Porter set up and the three of them went to fishing. They managed to catch nothing and lost about 6 hooks to snags on the bottom. Paige just kept asking when she was going to catch a fish and why it was taking so long and telling us that just sitting there was boring. Seriously. I swear if you look up fishing in the dictionary it says boring. Fishing = Boring. The end. (lol)

Sarah was exhausted and cranky by the time we got back to camp. Adam helped the older two with Smores while I got jammies out and made beds up. We all finally got into bed and it was like someone had slipped Sarah something. Paige and Porter crashed almost instantaneously and Sarah was just bouncing off the walls. She is the craziest kid like that! You put her in her crib and she crashes. You put her in bed with another human being and she gets a second wind and goes crazy. I had to lay there and rub her back and tell her to lay down constantly before she finally gave in. I don't even know how long it took because one minute I was laying there fighting her and rubbing her back and the next minute I woke up and everyone was asleep!

After breakfast this morning we drove down the bridge and took a little hike. We showed the kids the Indian handprint stuff on the cliff-side, Checked out wildflowers - me and Paigey's favorite, and looked for places for Adam to fish. We found a nice little place that had a sandy beach and a rocky point where Adam could go out and cast while the kids played. It was almost like magic. The kids were happy as could be playing in the sand and Adam was out there casting and withing 5 minutes he caught this little brown trout. I'm not sure who was more excited, him or the kids! He came running over to show the kids the fish on the end of his line and looked at me with this big smile and said, "This is the first fish I've caught since I was 12!" We got pictures of Porter and Adam with the fish, then Adam decided to put him in a little water to let him breathe and that little sucker came back to life and wriggled right off the hook! Well, after one success it was on. Adam was determined to catch another one. He kept moving us further and further and further and further down the trail looking for another little place to catch a fish. He started telling the kids that he would pay them a dollar to catch him a grasshopper for bait. Paige was pretty much appalled at putting a grasshopper on the hook. So funny. She looked at Adam as he was baiting the hook and asked, "Is he DEAD??" Adam replied, "Well, he ain't happy!" You should have seen her face...hee hee. We finally convinced Adam to head back to the car. As we were climinb up the hill to the trail, Porter said, "Mom, I'll give you three dollars to carry me up the hill!" We tried to drive down to show the kids the diversion for the irrigation canal but there is a NO TRESPASSING sign courtesy of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. I wouldn't let Adam take us down there. Seriously, who wants to get busted by the Feds??

After lunch I was sitting in a chair around the fire pit. Adam asked what I wanted to do with the afternoon. I looked up and told him I was doing it. He was pretty unimpressed. We eventually took another hike down Mortimer Gulch trail so he could show us the back part of the lake where he and Mark had ridden last summer. (For more on that story you should check out the post last June about Adam being crushed. Morbid side note - Paige looked at the river at one point and said "Mom, can dogs drown in that river?" Me: "Um, yes... they can." Do they ever forget anything??) Let's just say that afternoon hikes with tired kids in the hot sun don't work out so well. We made it down to a point where we could see more but these crazy wind gusts kept coming up that were freaking the kids out. I can only imagine what it's like to be that little and have such a wind come up when you're standing in the middle of a somewhat narrow trail. Sarah almost fell asleep in my arms by the time we made it back to the car. At one point, Adam was even carrying both Paige and Porter. We got back to camp and Adam tried to go lay down with Sarah in the tent so she could take a nap. See above. She went crazy again. I went to go lay with her and Adam took the other two. Guess who fell asleep. Yep, me. Sarah crawled out and went to play. Another side note - Adam learned that if you think that taking your children's shoes off will keep them from wandering far, you're wrong. Kids can't feel pain apparently. Shoeless children will run all over the place in the forest.

We decided to cut things short after dinner and come home. All we were really missing was one more night sleeping in the tent cause we had alread cooked our smores right after dinner anyway. Those crazy wind gusts kept coming up and who cares about sleeping in a tent when you can sleep at home?? Not me!