Big Lake- Day 2

Day 2 began way too early thanks to the car alarm all night long. But there’s no sleeping in when you are in the woods, so we got up and got to playing.

Everyone was itching to go fishing, since we were all too tired to do it on day 1. While Scott went looking for more firewood (we’re way too cheap to actually buy it!) Me and the kiddos went exploring, which turned into a very cute photo shoot. I thought I could photoshop the dirt off of them, but really you can’t tell that they are filthy!

Finally we went down to the lake, our camp site was just far enough away that we had to drive down there, and found a spot on the shore that no one had claimed. Chasetin could have fished ALL DAY!  Tanner was discouraged about 10 seconds after his hook hit the water, and Sienna took over my pole almost instantly. Eventually we teamed Tanner and Sienna up.   We took their hook off and Tanner would cast it out, and Sienna would reel it in. It entertained them for like 3 whole minutes!

They also spent some time picking me every Wild Flower on the Hill. I felt so loved!

Finally we went back to camp and let Scott and Chase go fishing by themselves, entertaining a 2 yr old and a 6 yr old near a lake was too wet of a task to do. We stayed back and played card games with Grandma and more Corn Hole with Papa. Papa let Tanner keep score, therefore he had a blast “Kicking Papa’s butt!”

When Scott & Chase got back, Chase still hadn’t caught anything, so he wanted to go again. So I took him out again. We’re sitting there on a rock, both have fishing poles in the water and he says to me “Hey mom, do you know how to take the hook out of the fish if we catch one?”  I said “No, do you?”  He thought for a minute and then said a little sheepishly, “Well, no… but I guess we’ll figure it out!” It made me laugh. It was good to spend time with him, just the 2 of us. That doesn’t ever happen! Fortunatley in this case, we didn’t catch anything, only crawdads, and a bunch of snags.

We had some awesome beef stew and dutch oven biscuits for dinner that evening and all slept gloriously that night.

To be continued………….!

Big Lake- Day 1

 Somewhere in the White Mountains of Arizona (about 5 hours from here) is a lake called "Big Lake" - creative right?  Since our favorite spot near Big Lake burned down, we went with the next best thing. And I was pleasently surprised to find Flush toilets and running water! Can camping get any better?

Scott had the fabulous idea to leave at 4am. His theory was that all the kids would stay asleep. Ya, that didn't happen this time. So, we're all awake at 4am, and driving each other crazy during a 5 hour drive.  After we got camp all set up, I wasn't surprised to find this:

Scott had some fun building this "Corn Hole" game.   Tanner kicked butt, until I started keeping score, then he started changing the rules on me. You should google the game, it was easy to make and alot of fun!

 

Say "cheese".  This little girl LOVED the forrest!

And of course, we had to have a campfire!

We were all exhausted by bedtime! Unfortunatly, the stars were not inline for us to sleep this night. For starters Sienna was so excited to be in her own sleeping bag, that she took turns hopping from bed to bed. Then she ended up in our bed, by Scott, then by Me, then she wanted her back rubbed, then her feet rubbed. Finally she fell asleep and I moved her to her bed, then she fell off the air mattress, and I found her asleep on the tent floor. I woke her up trying to put her back in, so then I layed her by Scott and tried to sleep in her sleeping bag, then she tried to find me again, and we both slept in her sleeping bag. If that wasn't bad enough, our neighbors were leaving in the morning and had alot of alcohol to consume before they left. I have no idea when they stopped partying, but at about the time they did, a car alarm started and went of every 10 minutes for the rest of the night! It was exhausting- and then the crows woke up with the sun, waking up anyone that might have fallen asleep. The next morning, when the car alarm went off again, the whole camp ground started yelling. Aparantly, I wasn't the only person having trouble that night!

To be continued...............