The Awesomeness of Fenced-In Camping

Ah, the wilderness. The peace and calm, the relaxation it brings. And ahhh, how much sweeter it is when your kids are trapped in a finite area of wilderness. That's what was the case in our extended family campout this year (same as last if you're following closely.) This year Cindy and I were "in charge," which didn't mean a ton, but we did do some planning for the group and get ourselves there. The kids played themselves into the ground. Seriously, Noah fell asleep before the car started moving on the last day. We adults got to relax and chat. Were we not in a fenced-in area, we would have been chasing kids . . . see the beauty? Oh, yeah.

 There was no fire allowed, but that didn't stop us from making a circle and telling stories. We heard some good ones, too. I guess the statute of limitations on secrecy has passed for a lot of stories, because some good ones came out of the woodwork this time around. So funny! Sleeping turned out pretty great for camping - it wasn't too cold, and Lissy didn't mind her crib being set up in a tent. Good times.

See those woods behind Andrew and Beckett? The kids call it "the woods." The climb a little hill and slide down their bums on it. You know what's awesome? There is a fence back there. That's right, they can only go so far. That's what camping with kids is all about.

Lissy likes her some camping.

Cousin Christopher brought his flag-football stuff, and it was a HIT with the little boys.  They though they knew what they were doing, and it was adorable as they did not. Love it.

Nothin' like jumping in the back of a truck with your cousins . . .

 . . . except when there's more cousins!

We went on a "hike" along a trail that led to a bridge and stream-access. The baby boys were there for each other.

Before you think I'm smart because I had Gary be the one to hold Lissy in the pack for the hike, realize that I ended up carrying Andrew a lot. Not so smart now.

Phew! After the HOT walk, this freezing stream was amazing!

Cindy gave Lissy a chance to wade - she doesn't like frosty toes.

Yeah, Noah thought it would be best to wear his shoes in the stream.

It's the crew on the bridge . . .

Excited to balance on a rock

What are these skinny boys doing? They were dared by their Uncle Nate to dunk their entire bodies in the stream. They all earned $2.

Lissy loves hanging out on the four wheeler with Aunt Lainer!

Beckett and Andrew are funny little dudes.

Andrew and Beckett played in the sand all day. Barely left for anything.

Noah dug a pretty sweet pit, too.

One of the activities was spray-painting an old shirt. A lot them them turned out really cool, and they were wearable right away. See ya, tie-dye.

Yes, you are viewing pictures of small children with cans of spray paint. They loved it!

It's Lissy, sitting somewhere again. A funny look on her face, but it was so cute to see how she loved playing in the grass. She was in the grass somewhere most of the time, loving her life.

The men and their "paint shirts." Happy, as you can see.

We played a game where you fill a paper bag with water, then throw it over your head. The object is to see who can throw the farthest, but really it's just fun, because when the bag hits, the water hits everyone standing by their marker in the field. My bag went really far, by the way. :)

Aunt Lainer played with us

Afterwards these boys wanted to keep going. I though their teamwork to continue to fill the bags was really cute.

We also had a little crafty time where we made stuff out of duct tape. As you can see, we had many varieties. The best was Dale's hat and Aunt Lainer's cheetah purse. Why don't I have a picture of those? Hmmm.

And Andrew was just in the sand, the entire time . . .

Noah was so proud of his shield, and another kid gave him a sword, so it's an awesome set.