Camping trip: Part 3

This is probably the final installment of my very boring series (may I suggest Jess's blog for a much more interesting version).... perhaps my next post will spark some more discussion as I have a pretty controversial and probably inflammatory opinion post forming in my head. Or maybe I won't post it and I'll just type it out to relieve my frustration.

Anyway. We slept in much later on Sunday.... us gals were woken up by everyone else giving up on being quiet. We got up and breakfast was already underway.

Watermelon!!

Our little camp kitchen area......

My sis, the bacon mistress.

Scrambled egg sandwiches.

Then we went out for our last time on the lake. We did a lot of the same things that we did the day before..... but a new occurrence was Daddy letting me sail the Sunfish! Jess and Nathan were brave enough to ride with me... and after a small incident where I almost crashed into a nice motorboat while casting off (I DIDN'T hit it!) I did a pretty good job... if I do say so myself.

Packing up. Yep, all that actually fits in (and some on top) of the suburban. The 6 of us were pretty squished with baggage riding next to, around and on top of us though.

Our Sunfish, packed up and ready to go.

And I just remembered that I still haven't shared Sarah's pictures... so if I ever get that to work I might have another post. But that's it for now... try to contain your disappointment.

~Lizzie

Camping trip: Part 2

Before I get started on another long post about our fantastic camping trip, I want to mention this article that Natalie linked on her blog..... "20-Something Reasons to Live at Home". It's really good and has given me even more reasons to continue living at home when I'm older. Thank you, Natalie, for sharing it!

Now to continue with the description of our camping trip.... since there's nothing else for me to blog about and I'm sure all of our faithful readers are on the edges of their seats in anticipation.

Jess, Sarah and I were up at 6:30... and we were hungry. Unfortunately for us, all the food was in our Suburban, and the Suburban (or "Sub" as we affectionately call it) was locked. Aaaaaand, the keys were in my parents tent, and most likely in an inaccessible place (My guess: my dad's pocket). So we suffered for a while before our trying to break into the Sub aroused my parents enough to ask what was wrong with us and give us the keys. We wolfed down some fruit yogurt and popped our Starbucks frappuchinos into the cooler to get cold. The rest of our group appeared in small clusters and we played cards while we drank our frappuchinos.

Joel discovered his 3rd alternate identity...... for those of you who don't know, he already has his normal self, which goes by the name Joel. Then he has a goofy character with a high-pitched voice that goes by Lenny. He put on a camo hat backwards and found Bubba. Bubba is an Italian trucker person...... I still haven't gotten used to him. (I know it sounds like some weird thing, but really, Joel's just pretending..... he doesn't have multiple personality disorder. Just to clarify). Jess started an add-on story about Bubba, where we disclose his life story and some very traumatic secrets about his unfortunate personality. (Sarah has a picture of Bubba which I tried to upload, but as you'll see in more detail below, I'm having difficulty with her pictures.)

Then we had a full-fledged breakfast of pancakes and egg-sandwiches before heading down to the beach. We played an slightly improvised version of water polo (with no goals..... go figure), floated in floaties, swam and sailed our Sunfish. Here are a few pictures that I took:

Daddy, Marck and David on the Sunfish.

Hannah and Chandler on their "boat."

Mr. M, my dad, and Joel, putting the Sunfish away for the night.

A neat shot.... not sure how I got it, it was entirely accidental.

This is a shot of a kayaker. Believe it. Ha, I'm not sure what setting I put it on, but for some reason it "clicked" for about 5 seconds.... thus the fuzziness. I decided that it looks kinda like a modern piece of artwork and decided to share my diverse artistic talent.

And because Sarah said that she won't do a post with her pictures, I asked and received her permission to share some of her photos (infinitely superior to mine). Unfortunately, I have spent the last hour trying to get her pictures to upload to blogger and it isn't working. So they'll have to appear later. *frown* Maybe from her computer....

So anyway. This is going to sound somewhat anticlimactic.... we all watched the sunset, and everyone started heading back to camp. Jess and I hung out on the beach until it was decidedly dark, discussing serious topics.... and when we got back, there were only 2 marshmallows left! So we each got a very small s'more and then we all played Infinite Questions (near cousin to the game "20 Questions") until we turned in.

~Lizzie

Camping trip: Part 1

We got together a group camping trip at Jordan Lake this past weekend, with us, the M's, the J's and Jess and Marck. (Some others were invited, but they couldn't make it.......)

At first we had a bit of difficulty with our campsite. We thought at first that we needed to stop at a separate ranger station, but after a call to Mrs. M, determined that we should just go on to the actual campsite and there would be a way to register our site there. Jess was waiting at the separate ranger station, so we called her and she headed over to Vista Point a few minutes behind us.

We got to Vista Point and told the guy at the booth that we wanted a group campsite, and he asked for our reservation. "We called twice and were informed that it is first-come, first-serve," my mom replied. The guy told us that that's true for individual sites, but you can and should make reservations for group sites, and that all their group sites were full. He called Crosswinds for us and found that they had some duplex sites available, which should be big enough for our not-so-big group.

We went over to Crosswinds and spent a while trying to pick a site, since all the sites on the water were already taken. We finally picked one, and Jess and Marck arrived. Jess, Marck and I pitched 2 of the tents with little-to-no help from anyone until the J's arrived. Nathan very obligingly hammered in stakes for us while we kicked back.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on what you want to read) I can't give a very detailed account of everything that we did after that, because I was tired. I know that we went down to the beach to watch the sunset. And I got some pictures.


Then we played Apples to Apples and Hearts before supper. We had hotdogs cooked on the campfire, and s'mores. Then we brushed our teeth and went to bed.

~Lizzie