Monday, May 12, 2008

Camping: nature's way of promoting the motel industry.

This past weekend we took the girls and, along with 3 other families, went camping *GASP* at Cedar Hill State Park. I cannot tell you (James probably could) how many times I went back and forth and back again, deciding whether or not go to on this camping trip. In the long run, I knew it would be a complete trial....but that our family would benefit from the fresh air. I'm so glad we were able to spend time with such great friends, too. All in all, it was a great trip......next time we're gonna go when it's a bit cooler, when James can get there before 8pm, and maybe when we can do more hiking, water play, and stay an extra night.

I grew up camping with my family....my mom and dad LOVE to camp, they still go alot with my siblings. I never thought that our little family now would ever do anything but stay in hotels! In the end, we did learn that it wasn't as bad as we thought (ahem, James) it would be!

As always, the biggest challenge of a camping trip is the night. Whether it's getting a small child to sleep in a strange environment, or getting your older child to actually GO to sleep while the campsite next to you blares their music and laughs drunk-ily away.....yes, that's right....we had some very interesting neighbors this weekend. You could tell they had a fun night planned, with
their party lights and twelve packs of something NOT in the Dr Pepper family. They talked and played their music loudly for hours, then suddenly it was just the annoying music. James went over to ask them to turn the music off, but since nobody was there, he turned it off himself. And we had some PEACE....FINALLY...but only for a few moments (though it could have been hours, don't quite know) and then they returned, bringing their foul language and music with them. And soon after they returned, so did a Park Ranger....turns out our "lovely" camping neighbors thought it would be fun to throw picnic tables in the lake (a picture posted by Keith on the Manblog gives a great visual). We all got a great kick out of the Park Ranger's threats of "haulin' ya'll off ta jail" and "givin' all ya'll $1500 worth of fines", etc. Turns out having alcohol out in the open is illegal...so thank goodness they were asked to leave. We saw no more of them after that, except for a smoldering campfire and some tent stakes Ü. What's camping with out a little drama?

Drama aside, we had a lovely time....foil dinners, smore's, and grubby hands included.

15 comments:

Jennifer said...

Gorgeous pictures.. I need your help on how to make my "collage" like that!! I'm so confused!

Simply Sarah *K* said...

I think I have all your pictures, too...I will make one up and then send it to you.
I can't take credit for ALL the pictures, my friend Missy took some awesome ones! But I figured out how to give mine a cool look thru Photoscape.com....which is actually where I do the collage's, too. If you download that, then use the "Page" setting, all you do it drop the pictures where you want them! Totally easy!

Anonymous said...

Why do you have to exaggerate? I was there by 7:45

Jennifer said...

I'm getting a man's business page..

Jennifer said...

OH figured it out! That sounds like fun.. INteresting about the table though.. :) But I'm glad you had a good time since you're totally not a camping person :) REmember the California camping experience?? Yeah..

Simply Sarah *K* said...

Yeah...that California camping trip was a bust! LOL...

Unknown said...

HOW FUN! please please tell me how you make those darling picture collages? I love it! I need to know!

Simply Sarah *K* said...

I will do a "tutorial" on PhotoScape soon....
I was wrong about the address for the download...it's www.photoscape.org

Shannon said...

Sarah! I love your account of the trip, and your picture collages are of course wonderful! I might have to finally try that out, looks great.

Kelli said...

I love those pictures! It was a lot of fun, but trust me, I was as back and forth as you were, even though I brought it up to Bryce. Even that day, before we left, I was like, "Are we sure about this?!"

Anonymous said...

i'm looking at your blog on our wii. ¿injeanious?

Missy said...

How did you do that, Anonymous? Inquiring minds want to know!

Anonymous said...

You can download the internet channel for 500 wii points ($5). We bought 1,000 points for $10.83 and used the other 500 points to download Super Mario Bros.

Cheree said...

You guys are so brave! All of the kiddoes are very cute and they look like they had a great time! Too bad their parents are all wii nerds. :-)

Anonymous said...

don't knock it until you try it, Cheree. You're the one that likes squash-flavored ice cubes.