The Camping Trip

Yay! Here we go ... Are you excited? :)

Our trip got off to an exciting start Friday. We have our loaner-camper parked at my parents' house. We were there loading up and hooking up Friday morning. We left Alan buckled in his carseat and Dale was entertaining him off and on. At one point, Dale says "Alan's dirty". Uh-oh...clue #1. How does Dale know Alan's dirty if he is buckled in his carseat? Clue #2 - Dale starts gagging. This cannot be good. So sure enough, Alan gets unbuckled, the seat gets cleaned out, and then I held Alan by his underarms while Greg took the water hose and hosed him off! I just love summer! :)

Once Alan was all cleaned up he and I left out ahead of Greg and Dale. We stopped about halfway and bought groceries. Greg and Dale caught up just as we were getting done and we all climbed in the van for a quick fried chicken picnic lunch before getting back on the road.

As we drove into the campground, one of the campers had a red flag out front with the Arkansas Razorbacks mascot on it. Dale saw that and said, "Daddy, why is there a big angry pig on that flag?" LOL!!

Not suprisingly, we hadn't been at the campground FIVE minutes before Dale had gotten dirty. I'm not sure if it was dirt or soot from the previous campers. No use getting worried about it though - little boys are supposed to get dirty when they camp! Grandma, Grandpa Rick and Aaron arrived within half an hour. They hadn't been there five minutes before the boys found an earthworm. Sad thing is, I can't think of that earthworm without thinking of it's untimely demise. Can earthworms regenerate like starfish? Let's hope so!!

Our campsite was very close to the playground (just a road and one other site between them), so we took the boys several times, including at least once the first day. I was very impressed with Dale's boldness with the older kids already playing there. One girl was just kind of hanging out at the top of a tall slide, and Dale went right up to her and said, "Move please! Go down so I can go!" Yay Dale!

Aaron was a brave little soul on these wobbly things:

Both boys loved going in and out of the campers, back and forth between our site and Grandma's. They had toys both places. At one point, we were all at Grandma's and Dale went to our camper to use the bathroom. At about the time I was starting to expect him back, I heard him crying really loud. I thought he must have fallen out the door and gotten hurt. I came running around the corner and he was still inside, still crying. As I went inside, I could understand what he was saying. Crying hysterically at the top of his lungs with the bathroom sink running full blast: "I can't turn the water off!!!!" Lol!

Day 2 - Saturday

After breakfast Dale was ready to get out and start his day, so we dressed him and watched him walk over to knock on Grandma's door. He was met at the door by Aaron... and they were dressed in exact matching shorts!

We went into town and spent the morning at a children's museum. Must have been a slow day for them.... we had the whole place to ourselves! :) The first room we went in was all about the body. One of the activities here was a kid-size smock with places to velcro on your vital organs. I later went back and put it on Dale so I could show the picture, but the first time I laid eyes on this activity, I couldn't resist this pic:
Alan gets a new liver!

Sorry....liver humor! :)

Here is what the smock looked like:

(You can tell Dale was impressed...)

Dale loved the giant sound-board. Every colored wooden puzzle piece could be pressed for a different musical note or sound effect. One of his favorites (of course) was the sound of an engine starting. If you held it long enough you could listen to it idle.

One of my favorite rooms was an upstairs room all about the senses. Here are Grandma, Grandpa and Alan looking at a display all about how our eyes see colors:

There are so many more museum (and other) pics I want to share, but I think I'm going to take a cue from my friend Sam and do a montage for you ... too many to post here! :) (Hi Sam!!)

Back at the campground we filled Dale's trusty green swimming pool and the boys had a blast together. There was a LOT of splashing involved. Overheard from their direction:
Aaron, talking about Dale's splashing: "He's gettin' me wet!"
Dale, to Aaron, about Aaron's splashing: "There won't be any water left!"

The rest of the trip passed pretty uneventfully. We ate, the boys played, we went for walks and to the playground. Late Sunday afternoon Greg took Dale and Aaron to the swimming area at the lake. One of the boys' favorite games was to make a fish (i.e. - grab a handful of sand) and throw it into the water saying "Go get it fishie!" ????

A stroller makes a great place for a nap!

The boys never got back into the little green pool after that one swim, but it was great to play at. One morning they sat looking at it for a while, and then began to throw stuff into it. This would entertain them for quite a while. (Why is it that their favorite games always involve throwing things!? Hmmm...)

Alan watching the action, taking lots of mental notes, I'm sure!

At one trip back to the playground I asked Dale if he wanted to climb this rock wall. He said, "Nah... maybe when I'm 15." :)

I'll end with a couple of jokes, and then I really have to go to bed! Eating supper one night, I told Dale this joke:
A daddy tomato, a mama tomato, and a baby tomato went for a walk. The baby tomato kept getting behind, and daddy tomato finally went and stomped him, squishing him flat, and said "Catch up" (ketchup)
Dale responded to this joke by telling one of his own:
Daddy mustard, mama mustard and baby mustard went for a walk. Mama mustard kept getting behind, so Daddy mustard stomped baby mustard and said, "Hot Dog!". :) We laughed 'till we cried!!

Wish I could share every little detail, but hopefully you can just imagine the great fun we had. I will be sure to post a link here if I get a montage/slide-show made!! Happy trails!