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Monday, April 14, 2008

"Camping Queen"

You can camp, you can hike, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the camping queen

Friday night and the lights are low
Looking out for the camp fire glow...

... Camping queen, feel the heat from the fire ring
You can camp, you can hike, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the camping queen

[To the tune of Dancing Queen]


We're back from our trip.
Did you miss me?

Maybe not so much after that lame attempt at a song.

I was really looking forward to numerous emails and comments about how much you missed me and how you wished you could be camping too. I'm trying hard not to laugh out loud at myself while I write that.

Is that an unrealistic expectation?
[I thought so.]

I. am. so. kidding. ...You know, about the emails and comments. You still missed me though didn't you?

We actually got back yesterday morning, in time to go to church and see one of our Life Group members get baptized.

Congrats M, we're so happy for you and your sisters!


So, you know how I said we'd take pictures and post some of them? Well I'm a we're slackers and did not take very many. So sue me!

Camping and pictures are a funny mix. Sometimes there are a lot of things to take photos of, and other times there aren't. Other times people (like me) simply forget, because you're having too much fun.

I'll chock our lack of photos up to keeping busy and having fun.
Yeah that's it.

J and I got to our site on Thursday evening, set up camp and walked around a bit. It was wonderful to be out enjoying such a lovely spring weekend.


Friday morning at 8:00 am, we were able to pick the other two sites for our whole group, and then we went to the store for a few groceries.



Let me say that W-mart can be interesting on a weekday morning. One woman had two shopping carts full to overflowing with items. I kid you not.

I'm really not sure how she expected to get it all into her car along with her baby. Yes, she had an infant with her. I would have been afraid that my child would become buried in all the frozen pizzas, Ore-Ida potatoes, and goodness knows what else she had in that cart. You'd think there would be a kid-cicle somewhere with all the frozen goods.

That afternoon, after much fun was had at Wally-mart, we ate lunch and relaxed until the others arrived.

[Good ole swam-wiches and BBQ Pringles]

We even played cards.

I think I beat J, 3 to 2. It was then when he said he was done playing for a while.
*grin* What a stinker.


Two of the families got there fairly close to one another around 3:00 pm, and we pitched in to help unpack what we could. Food goes here, tent goes there. Where do you want the canoe?

Hardly 15 minutes after they got there, Kim's little boy, B, tripped, skinned his knee and elbow, and hit his forehead. Poor guy! It hurt, but he was okay and no one had any other accidents the rest of the time.

Everyone enjoyed the nice weather. You know, since all the rain finished up on Thursday / Friday around 5:00 am while J and I were trying to sleep. It wasn't that bad. We've been through worse.

We had campfires and roasted lots, and lots of marshmallows. Thankfully we didn't get sick from it.

Before J and I left on our trip, I remembered two "recipes" from many years of camping trips as a child.


Banana Boats

Ingredients:
bananas
chocolate
marshmallows

Directions:
Split a banana leaving the skin, open to create a "boat," put mini marshmallows and squares of a Hershey's chocolate bar in it, wrap in foil and cook in coals until the banana meat is soft. About 10 minutes.

Spoon out of the boat to eat.
Be careful it will be hot!

It helps to cut and take out a slice or two of banana from the middle, to leave room for the marshmallows and chocolate.

It's like a banana split without all the additional calories from ice cream. [Ding, ding ding!] Plus it's warm and oh so good!


HOBO pies

You will need:
a Pie Iron / HOBO pie maker

Ingredients:
fruit filling
butter
bread

Butter one side of two pieces of bread. Place in the pie iron, butter facing the iron. Spoon a little fruit filling on one piece of the bread. Close the pie iron, and place in coals or the fire. Check in about 5 or 10 minutes, by carefully opening the iron, and looking at the bread.

Try them, you'll like them!


Saturday morning we all got together and made breakfast burritos. Eggs, cheese, hash browns, and Mr. Jimmy Dean's sausage. Holy moley were they good! I know when you're camping just about anything tastes good, but these were fantastic!

Next time we'll need to remember some salsa. That was the only thing we were missing.

Saturday afternoon, J played some games with one of the kids. I had fun watching. Pick-up-sticks isn't really easy to play on a table sitting on uneven ground. They did better with cards.

J and I decided to take a nap after lunch. You know, that full belly, warm, sleepy sensation. What's better than to take a nap when you have a nice breeze passing through your tent, and you don't have to do anything else. No phone calls, no work, no appointments.

[Two hours later.]

We woke up and felt refreshed. Wow, I didn't realize we would be out that long!
Maybe that was the lost time we could have been taking pictures. *wink*

For dinner we all got together again and made two batches of enchiladas in a Dutch oven. Delish! Just thinking about it is making me hungry.
[drool]

Note to self: Go get ingredients for chicken enchiladas. ASAP!


We all sat around the campfire, sang songs, and had a little devotional since some of the families decided they would head home that night. Everyone had fun, especially with the songs, and of course who could forget the marshmallows and S'mores.

There's nothing better than watching a handful of 3 to 8 year olds hyped up on sugar, with a side of sugar, try to go to bed. (I'm not sure about the exact age range there.)

Seriously though, they were all really good. I love the kids in our Life Group. They're all so sweet and fun to be around. It's been fun the past couple years, getting to see them grow up.

In one conversation over the weekend, we decided that our group should make this trip a bi-annual thing. One in the spring [check] and maybe one in the fall. Sounds good to me!

I was even dubbed "Camping Queen" by Jennifer and Kim Saturday night for arranging this trip and getting everything going. Thanks for the laugh girlies! Camping queen? Well okay then. Yes, I love to camp, but I don't think I'm the queen of all camping. Maybe the princess. *wink* Only joking.


Today has been back to work, doing laundry, catching up on emails, busting my hump to keep on schedule and meet deadlines. How can a weekend do that? I didn't even receive the emails until Sunday afternoon... seriously, they were dated and time-stamped for Sunday. I don't work on weekends, but it seems like my work load has grown exponentially over that time.

Do do do do! [Twilight Zone]

Must. get. back. to. work.

I need to eat a little smackrel to tide me over, and I really should figure out what to make for dinner... especially since I haven't been to the store, and I don't have the car today.

I'm up for the challenge.

2 thoughtful comments:

glee said...

Sounds like you had a great time! I think you could be dubbed "camping queen" only if Kira turns down the title!

Thanks for (virtually) taking me along with you!

mommiebear2 said...

Glad that you two had a good time!

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