the camping pictures!

We got to the campground right around 3pm (this was after going to Church and loading up the car. DH was a big help!) We were the 3rd family to arrive. One had been there since Friday night.

Darly & I set up our camp in our usual manner, but one of the other moms (the one who had been there since Friday) thought that we had a very good system. And we do. First we find a location for the tent, clear the area, set out the foot print to get an idea of where the tent is going and how to situate it...then we roll out the tent and get the polls ready. There's one point where someone has to go inside the tent and hold it up while the other person puts the tent polls onto the pegs. It used to be that Darly did 3 of the 5 polls and I did the last two cuz she wasn't strong enough to do them...but now she can do all 5 polls herself! I'm proud.
After we get the tent polls, I carry our bedding and stuff to the tent for Darly to set up while I get the rain fly on and then get our "kitchen" set up. She does a great job and gets the cots all set up for us.

As we were setting up more of our friends arrived...and we watched as their campsites went up. I also set up my handwashing station. I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but there's a nail on a string poked into the milk jug. the nail serves as a plug. when you need to wash your hands you remove the nail, and the water comes out. Wash up and then return the nail. Tah dah! "running" water.

right after we got the campsite ready, I went ahead and lit a fire to make our dinner. I had some wood issues though. I'm not sure if my firewood was too green or too dry, but it would light up in a flash and then smolder. I never got my large logs to light up at all. :( After I got dinner cooked I realized that was the first time I had sat down since we had got there.

Lilly decided that she didn't like any of the other dogs. So she didn't get to play and for a while that meant that I didn't get to go visit either. But I decided to put her in our car later on and she actually went willingly. I think that she was glad to take a nap.

Even though I had fire issues and it rained, we DID have smores...each night. We also had some pretty good campin food. for breakfast I had brewed my coffee at home, so I just reheated it on the stove. Darly had cereal...I brought her oatmeal, but she wasn't in the mood for it. Lunch was sandwiches with chips. and then for dinner... the first night I made us Hobo dinners, but Darly just ate her hamburger with cheese on a bun. I ate her potatoes. My hobo packet had some zucchini in it too...yum! and Lilly got the leftovers. I then realized that while I remembered her dog food, I had forgotten to bring her food dish. No worries, she ate off our dirty dishes.

I got a lot of reading done. Darly got a lot of playing done. Lilly got a lot of eating done. LOL!