I just love camping. I dont mean the fake kind of camping where you drive up with your motorhome full of tv sets and ir conditioning units. I mean like Daroga. You drive up with your car loaded full of all your good crap that you think your gonna need then you hunt and peck for a two wheeled cart so you can start packing it across the field and over the narrow walkway to the island. Unfortunately for us we had only one cart so We piled everything up on the baby stroller and used one of those pull tight zip lines to hold it all together for the journey. The last thing we brought was the air mattress and we had to blow that up at the car before we took off to the island. By the time we got it blown up it was getting kinda late and as you know...when the sun starts to go down at Daroga the winds picks up. We were about half was across the walkway when the air matress started fighting us. We worked as a team and finally got that puppy over to our site. We had so many people that everything was set up lickety split! I think we roasted marsh mellows every night. I loved early in the morning when the bird would start pecking around for food and making all their good morning sounds. Then one by one the camp sites would start to come alive. Usually you heard the babies first-ours too. Then all the pots and pans clanging as people got the breakfasts going. Morning was a good time to check out the wildlife. The beavers were working overtime on a section of the lagoon and late in the day the turtles would be out on logs catching the sun. There were also lots of Osprey out all over and at night they would swoop down on our camp. I wasn't sure if they were attempting to eat the bugs are is they were actually swooping in for the bats that were circling around for the bugs. The evening wind usually lasted about an hour and then everything would calm down and the games would begin. Badminton, volleyball, some type of game where you throw balls connected to a string around a pole!? What the heck? anyways, we played alot of cards and did alot of laughing. One day we took off and went to visit a dam and they had this really cool museum with hieroglyphs etched into rocks that came from the Columbia basin before they flooded it. We saw the fish ladders and inside the dam area you could see the fish going up them through the glass. Bubba just loved that part. One day we took the girls to Ohme Gardens and of all the children I think Mia had the best time. She said she would like to go back for her birthday. We also went to the drive in movies and saw Night at the Museum 2. It really was a good move. I would say it was probably better than the first one. I miss the old drive ins when they had the boxes you would put in your car window. We did stop at an old diner on the way home that actually had things from the fifty's all over in it and they had some of the old boxes from the drive in. I thought that was pretty cool. We spent most of our time in the water, wake boarding mostly. Fallon and Jenny both got up on the boards Yeah! Good job girls! And Mia is now the master of the three man floater. Jen is got the most guts for riding the single tube at super fast speeds. I was really impressed. Her feet were flying up around her face and she was just laughing and smiling like it was the best ride in the world. She is so much like her mother. :) Every day at 2:30pm the lawn sprinklers would come on and Bubba would just squeal. He would take this racket and spend the entire time trying to swat at the water. He also learned how to ride a scooter. well kinda. He walked the goofy thing up and down the walk every day and would watch the other boys on their scooters. He can ride one if someone else rides it with him and I bet you by this time next year he will have the hang of it. He's so smart. It really is great to get together with your family and make great memories. I know that our gang will remember this trip for along time. I always think that we are a pretty tight little family until we go on one of these trips and then I see that one or two of the kids seem to get a little tighter. I guess theres always room for just a little more! I just love the picture of Chellsea and Mia on the hill. They are so close. I really really really love this time in my life right now. Everything seems to be really smooth and calm. Is this how it feels before the storm? Hope not. But I am grateful for the loveliness of my family today and for however long it will last.
