Dogwood Camping, Day 2

Friday morning was not as chilly as Thursday. As you can see the children are still bundled up, but comfortable. Here Simon gives me the best smile I think I've ever gotten from him before. I love that face!

This is my super creative campers breakfast of Cheerios and milk with strawberries. It was a huge hit. :)

My heart becomes still at the sight of the forest. I love LOVE the forest. The beach? Eh. You can take the beach away and I would never miss it. Sand and water. Done. The forest reminds me of my childhood. As a child I spent hours at a time in the forest playing out my imaginary life. There is life every where you look. There are hidden little creatures and birds and dozens of plants. There is quiet rustling. Oh, I love it!

We tried keeping Simon's hat on his head to prevent scarring as much as possible, but he liked it better when it was cocked to the side. That silly boy. So the hat became more of a decoration than anything else.

Since Saturday was the forecasted warmest day of our weekend we took the opportunity to go to Lake Gregory. The water was pretty cold, but the kids had a great time playing in the sand. Simon quickly walked into the lake too deep, lost his footing, and ended up having to be saved by his loving mother. That was that. For the rest of the day he stayed far away from the water.

Proof that I too was at the vacation.

I love that the nine-year old still plays with sand toys. She and her siblings became fairies once again and they played in the sand with those toys for almost three and a half hours.

Simon is now sunning after his near-death experience. Which one, you might ask? Yes, I'm being a little dramatic.

After sunning he lounged a good long time with one of his all-time favorite people.

Nathan's hair... sigh. I was so relieved when Brad took him on Sunday afternoon to have a hair cut! Thank goodness! At the lake side Nathan found an old bait bottle, which became his favorite toy for the rest of the weekend. It held bugs, water, rocks, broken toys that he found as he went along with life, etc.

I know. Pictures just don't give it justice. I couldn't get over the beauty of the deep greens and the vibrant greens and and the yellows.

As I always say: It was a field trip well done when children fall asleep in the car.

Here is the dead stump that became a great source of entertainment for the children. They hammered and whacked at that thing until chunks became fire wood and there were oohs and ahs over termites and what the kids were convinced was a queen termite.

Brad was never in need of a helper when it came to anything fire.

Here is fairy land's river and lake.

Me minus make-up and brushed hair. But just look at those cute kids next to me! And I really should get a reward for the healthiness of my plate. :) It helps that I ate the hamburger meat before I took the picture.

The reason Kaeley likes camping. She likes to cook the marshmallow until the entire thing is on-fire! Then she eats the charcoal and re-burns it. I will never read a health magazine before camping again, because on the way out there I read how all those char marks have cancer-causing materials in them. Sigh. What's a good parent? No burnt marshmallows or burnt marshmallows. That really is the question.  

Night times went pretty great. The kids had a new queen size mattress they shared beautifully.