Ah, dirt, bugs and rain...

Well, it was the 4^th annual Happy Head Horde camping reunion this past weekend. This means that I am now achey, burnt, and very, very itchy — but also happy and relaxed in a way I haven't been for quite a while. (And no shower feels as good as the one you first take when home from a camping trip!)

Here we have a couple pictures of Chris with the girls in my hammock. Note the face Nora is making on the left — that's her idea of smiling for the camera. :-) In the picture on the right you can see our tent in the background.

We got in with plenty of daylight to set up our site, anearlyly enough to have a good choice of sites. Basic grill food for dinner (burgers and dogs), and all the fun of meeting our friends as they arrived. We were happily surprised when one couple we haven't seen since their wedding showed up. As it got dark, the campfire was stirred up and s'mores were made.

The next morning we were awakened way too early by a rather excited three-year-old — Mairi really liked camping. I'm not sure how many little kids were there, exactly, as I never stopped to count, but there were certainly enough. There were swings hung from the branches of one tree, and in another the older kids were building a fort. And everywhere, there was dirt:

Here we have Mairi and Nora playing with our friend Serra. The first picture shows Serra making a sand angel, something all three had been doing. I don't think either Nora or Mairi could quite believe that they were being allowed to play in the dirt, and get as dirty as they did. *grin* We had a bit of trouble explaining to Mairi and Serra that Nora wasn't so much allowed to throw dirt, it was simply that there was no way to make her understand she couldn't (next year, on the other hand...).

At some point during the day most of the campers did make a trek into Lake City to swim in Lake Missaukee — but that just made the dirt stick better when we got back to camp, I think. It was amusing to me to see just how dirty they did get:

Mama's two little dirt devils. :-)

While in town we were treated to ice cream by "Uncle" Tony, after our swim. Chris showed me the yard sDan dan had discovered, which Chris and Lee had then gone to. I found yarn. :-) Back at the camp we had turkeys cooked in garbage cans — it sounds odd, I know, but they were some of the most delicious birds I've ever eaten!

We stayed up late, more s'mores were eaten (yum!), and whbroughtrough Mairi to the tent her complaints were perfunctory — she was asleep before I left the tent, something truly unusual.

Out tent consists of a center square with two "wings" forming a squat L-shape. The wings have entirely mesh ceilings, for air flow, and I pulled the rain fly back in the afternoon to make sure that was maximized. I realized after the girls were asleep that I hadn't put them back in place, so I did so in the dark (a fun adventure). Therefore, when on Sunday morning I heard the rain start, my first thought was, "Gee, good thing I put the fly back in place."

My next thought, as I felt water on my face, was "Hm, better close the window."

My next thought, as I realized the rain fly was not in fact keeping the rain out and that the dripping was coming through the mesh ceiling, is not going to be recorded — this is a family friendly blog. *wry grin*

So Chrishurriedlyurridly packed our belongings into the Subaru, while the kids continued to sleep. Once everything else was packed, we woke them, settled Mairi, Chris and Nora under the pavilion, and Tony helped me pack the rest of the tent. I was inclined to be rather annoyed by this rude awakening at the time, but in retrospect there was a definite silver lining. From just as Tony and I finished packing the tent through till when Chris and I departed with the girvariedvarried between a light rain and a downpour. We were actually fortunate to get everything packed when we did, as it turned out.

So, this weekend's adventure is past, but we've made plans to gather for the RenFest in September and for Halloween at Amy & Dave's. It's a very good feeling to know that we have such friends, even if the fact that we see them so rarely makes it a bit bittersweet.