Camping...Plan B

So - we decided to get away for Saturday night and Sunday and go camping out at the lovely local state park. Jim took off early from work and headed out to get our camper. I went to the store to get some groceries for dinner. About the time I got home, Jim called and informed me that the trip was off. Apparently, we have received so much rain lately that our camper was stuck in the mud. Needless to say, there were some disappointed people in our family - and we hadn't even told the kids the bad news yet! We could have gone ahead and camped at the state park. After all, we do have all the tents, backpacks, sleeping bags, etc. that we need. (It's just all packed away since we haven't done any backpacking in - oh - about 7 years.) However, the weather forecast was not totally promising. We decided that four small children in a tent in rainy, windy, possibly hailing weather was not exactly a relaxing get-away. So...along came Plan B.

We set up our largest tent in our play room and let the kids move into it with their pillows, quilts, and beloved objects. We then went about our evening and the next day as if we were at the state park. Well - almost. Reese did end up sleeping in her own bed since she wouldn't let her siblings get any sleep of their own. Jim and I also slept in our own bed since our largest tent (which used to seem quite spacious) all of a sudden looked really small and confining with four kids inside it.

Here are the kids and the tent inside the house.

The next morning we went for a hike at a park where the kids had never been. We got to see a very full creek thanks to the recent rains. After our "hike" we had a picnic lunch and then tried our hand at fishing. I don't know if the creek was just flowing too fast or if all the fish had gotten the memo that we were coming, but nothing was biting! Fortunately, the kids have done this enough to know that the fish don't bite every time you bait a hook.

Can you believe this creek is in our neck-of-the-woods? It made for a great sight on our "hike."

A little Daddy/Daughter fishing time

Afterwards, the girls needed their naps (in the tent, of course) and the boys went with Jim to try (again) to ride their bikes without training wheels. Troy got it! He did great and didn't even look wobbly. He tends to accomplish things of a physical nature this way. He won't try it until he's 95% sure that he can do it (which makes him a little older than other kids doing the same thing). Once he thinks he can do it he will give it a try and voila - he's got it. He has done it this way since the very beginning...rolling over, crawling, walking, you name it. Needless to say, he was excited. Trent doesn't have the hang of no training wheels yet, but is still happy to try it.

We ended our day with a "Daniel Dinner" and some nice reading time and then it was off to bed in the normal places since the tent had been packed up. It wasn't quite what we had planned for the weekend, but we all enjoyed it and the kids are already asking when they get to sleep in the tent inside the house again.

There's nothing like curling up with a good book!