(warning: VERY long post)
Well, the weekend before school started we went camping. By "we", I mean me and the boys with my parents/siblings. Poor Josh has to work. :(
It was quite the adventure! I had to buy a tent. Then I decided I needed to set it up beforehand and seal all the seams. Because...well...that's what the reviews said to do and I like to do my research. Only problem was, it's over 110 degrees outside! No way am I setting up a tent in that kind of heat. So, we did this:
Yes, that tent is huge. It barely fit in our front room and only because we moved all the furniture to the kitchen. I seam sealed the crap out of that bad boy. And the fumes gave me a wicked migraine to boot!
We left Friday afternoon in order to get there, and set up camp while it was still daylight. The drive up was faster than I expected! Amazing you can go from 110 degree desert to 70 degree forest in only 2 hours. My little sis Sari drove up with me and I only scared her once with my driving. Success!
Once at camp, I started setting things up. The tent went up with no problem and I opened the windows because it was so hot and stuffy inside. (remember that, windows to tent are OPEN).
Papa sent the boys to find firewood. A task they were VERY excited about!
It doesn't matter if you don't buy toy guns for your kids, they will find ANYTHING and think it's a "shooter"!
Samuel was having fun too. 
For some reason this kid kept laying down everywhere! Don't believe me? Observe:
Yup, he's a weirdo! But he's MY weirdo. :)
J.J. discovered many bugs. Unlike his mother who has an insane irrational fear of bugs, J.J. LOVES bugs. He was in bug lover's shock when he lifted this tree stump.
After we got camp set up, Papa and Aunt Nikki tried to play horseshoes but the boys kept interfering. Samuel especially liked the game.
Then it was time for dinner. How can you camp without roasting various food items on a stick?
And you just HAVE to drink sugary drinks that Mommy doesn't usually buy at home. 
Samuel would not sit still the entire trip until he finally found peace, sitting on Uncle Matt's lap with a Cheeto in each hand.
The whole concept of having an open fire and being able to throw things in it was VERY exciting to my boys. They threw in plates, forks, sticks, pretty much anything they possibly could into that fire. Samuel didn't seem all that interested until he decided to pick up Papa's flashlight that he's had FOREVER and not throw, but PLACE it into the fire. And then keep a hold of it. With his hands. And arms. IN THE FIRE. I don't think Mommy has ever moved that fast in her life. Luckily he just had a little redness where his arms were resting on the metal fire ring and no serious burns. In fact, he was more uncomfortable that Mommy made him sit down and hold an ice pack on his arms than he was when his arms were in the fire. 
Mimi saved the flashlight, in case you were wondering. And it still works, Trey made sure of that!
(sigh) They just don't make things like they used to...
Everyone kept a pretty close eye on little Sammy after that. But then...he wanted to walk over to Papa. I didn't know the Dutch Oven was over there and on his way over, he stopped and PICKED UP A BURNING COAL. Yes, you read that right. I don't think I will ever be able to forget the image of my baby's perfect little hands wrapped around the grey ash of the coal, with the burning orange showing cracking through. I flipped out. Papa grabbed him in about 2 seconds and I must've looked like a chicken with its head cut off. I remember starting to run over to Samuel, then thinking I should get some ice and running the other way, then remembering I still had that ice pack and running back to my chair to grab it, then finally getting to my baby. I grabbed his hand and shoved it into the melty bag of ice. I had read somewhere you should do that....and let's face it, I was panicking. Once I got home and Googled I learned you should hold it under cool running water, no ice. Oh well. I guess I'll know that for next time my baby decides to pick up a burning hot coal. Once the pain set in, Samuel screamed and screamed. We gave him some Tylenol (at least I was prepared and brought half my medicine cabinet with me). He was very angry we were trying to hold ice on it and that I wouldn't put him down. He kept trying to wipe his hand on my shirt as if to wipe off the hurt. It was very sad. 
I finally got Samuel somewhat calmed down by walking around the campsite slowly and singing to him. Then it started to sprinkle. I hurried over to the pop-up shade and sat down, grateful that Samuel had calmed down.
Then it started to really pour rain. And then it hit me...THE FRONT DOOR TO THE TENT WAS TIED OPEN!!!!
I yelled to my dad for help and he ran over to put the rain flap down that was tied open to a tree. (stupid design flaw on the tent) I ran to my van and got an umbrella and ran over to the tent to help. I knew it was too late to try to keep my dad dry, so I stood there trying to hold the umbrella over the open front door of the tent. When suddenly it hit me...THE WINDOWS TO THE TENT WERE OPEN!!!
I ran around zipping them shut but it was too late. The tent was wet, and so was most of our gear. My sister came out and held up my lantern while I dried the tent floor with some towels I had brought. (prepared!) But the damage had already been done. Most of our clothes were wet. Luckily our sleeping bags were in the middle of the tent and I hadn't unrolled them yet.
I decided it was time to call it a night. The boys and I prepared for bed. I pieced together the only dry clothes I could find for each of us, and we laid down. J.J. and Trey fell right asleep, which was surprising since it was thundering, lightning, and raining outside. Samuel on the other hand...was wide awake! This was surprising considering the eventful day he had had. He was sharing my air mattress with me and we had some cute moments together. Every time there was thunder or lightning he would reach his hands up and say, "Wassat?" I could see him every time the lightning would flash and he just looked so darn cute. Plus he was so cuddly when he finally fell asleep.
I had a nice little peaceful moment there, laying in our tent with my sleeping boys. I REALLY missed Josh right about then. I wish he could've come with us. We were nice and dry in our tent (the seam sealer worked like a charm once I actually CLOSED the windows and door.)
I however, did not sleep all night. I was kind of expecting this since I am one of the lightest sleepers known to man. I almost brought my white noise machine and some batteries but decided that was stupid. Turns out, not so stupid! I kept hearing footsteps, which I later found out were freaking cows wandering around. Don't ask me why there were random cows in the middle of the forest.
The boys woke up at the crack of dawn, as usual. In order to avoid waking everybody up at 5:00 A.M., we decided to go for a little nature walk. I brought the camera along and that's when I realized another casualty of the night before. In all the commotion of Samuel burning his hand, I left my camera on my chair. Which in turn, got soaked in the rain before one of my siblings saw it and grabbed it. Not sure how much damage was done but I did manage to take this cute photo. 
When we got back to camp, the boys woke everybody up and we decided to try to ride the quads. Then it started raining. Again. We drove up the road a bit and the boys rode with Papa and Aunt Sari. They got just a little bit muddy.
I opted out since I was wearing the only dry clothes I had left. Instead I rocked out to Tom Petty in my minivan with my sister Nikki. 'Cause we're cool like that.
Mimi and I dried some of the wet clothes for the boys once we got back to camp by turning the heater up in their camper, and my van. We also discovered that squirrels had visited our camp. Let's play a game. Can you find the bag of marshmallows in this picture?
At this point, the rain was not letting up and we were pretty much figuring the rest of this camping trip was a bust. The boys were bored and getting annoyed mean Mommy wouldn't let them play in the rain since we were limited in our dry clothing supply. 
So, we decided to pack it up and head home. The boys were NOT happy. But, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! And sometimes, that means packing everything up in the rain and mud.
So anyway, the boys' first camping trip was eventful to say the least! And we did have some good times.
So yeah...hopefully our next camping trip won't be quite so difficult! By the way, Samuel's hand was just fine. He had two blisters on his fingers but they are completely healed now. What a relief! And a nice big shout out to my sisters, I stole some of their photos off Facebook/blog.
