As Leanna likes to say, Tom and Steph plus 4

I forgot to mention this before-when we went camping Tom went to work on the tent right away and I took kids to the bathroom and unloaded stuff and started getting food out. At various points Tom had one of the kids helping him, mainly Justin. When I was feeding the baby Tom needed help with the top of the tent, and he tried having Leanna stand on tiptoe or jump up to help him. Didn't work, he ended up waiting for me to finish feeding Jacob. Later that night as we headed over to the playground a man who was in the campground accross from us started talking to Tom. He told him he enjoyed watching Tom and his crew of little helpers putting up the tent. Very amusing! It was better than TV, he chortled. Much better! he added, laughing as he walked away.

Camping

I forgot to mention, our camping trip. I'd post pictures if I could. We went to Spruce Run Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon. They have bathroom(not an outhouse) and showers, playgrounds, boating, fishing, swimming (although that was unfortunately closed when we got there), and hunting. But when we got there I discovered that I'd left the camera memory card in the device we use to unload pictures! Doh! So I could only take video and pictures on our video camera. The quality of pictures is rather poor. And I know there is a way to get the pictures onto the computer but I don't know how. You need a separate cord to attach to the camera and I have no idea where that might be.

We had fun camping though. It was a learning experience. I'm actually glad that the first time we did it, it was only for one night. We packed in a hurry and forgot some things, and just didn't have others. The kids loved it, particularly Justin and Timothy. Each campsite has a grill and firering. The boys loved the fire. We didn't buy or bring wood for a fire because we didn't know we would be allowed to. So Tom and the kids kept scavaging for twigs, branches, and paper to keep the fire going. It was work to keep it going. It occured to me that we really do take so much for granted-way back when they must have spent a large portion of their time just on survival. So much time spent on starting & keeping the fire going, finding or preparing food, finding shelter.

We would like to find another campsite though. Not that this one was bad-just wasn't quite what we were looking for. You are only allowed 6 people to a campsite, so if we have another child we would have to purchase two(which is stupid), and they were very closely spaced. I had imagined a bit more privacy. It would have been much more enjoyable if I didn't constantly have to worry that the kids were being too loud for the people all around us. We had to be out by 12 the next afternoon, so we didn't even get a full day there. And you had to be on your campsite by 8, so although it was still light out, we had to make the kids leave the playground because it was 8. There were a lot of rules and regulations. I guess because it's a state park. Like I said, it was a learning experience. The kids all asked if we would be camping again. : )

So now you know what to get us for Christmas!