Camping

Growing up we spent a few days every summer, camping with our Lindblom cousins. This tradition was started when my dad was a boy and persisted until this year. It was finally time to accept the fact that organizing a camping trip for 200 people was a tad insane. Surely, even the squirrels had come to dread that weekend in July. However, we also have very fond memories of these trips and so Marcie suggested we start our own Lindblom family camping weekend! It worked out for the first weekend in August, so the boys went to their first day of school on a Thursday, then missed their second day so we could head to the mountains that morning! Shelley invited their friends, the Bartons, and drove up Thursday afternoon so they were the first ones to secure the spot and order a port-a-potty to make our stay a bit more pleasant. Marcie and Austin pulled up Friday around 9am and our family made it shortly afterward around 11am. One of the first things we noticed was that all of us sisters happened to have on our Nashville shirts!! Haha, I love it! No planning there... just sister ESP!

The Figs brought a giant river raft as a sort of camping, bounce house for the kids. They loved it.

And this boy loved getting an endless supply of sticky, red licorice to attract all the dirt to his face. 

We looked over and laughed at this cute sight. But as I walked closer for a picture I could hear Scarlett grumpily, but passively saying "Stoppp. Stopppp." Poor girl! I guess she wasn't a fan of having her hair curled by sticks but didn't feel like she could make a run for it!

I love that these three have each other!

We spent most of our time under these canopies eating, playing games and visiting! The weather couldn't have been better. It sprinkled the first day but we didn't have any downpours or serious mud to deal with!

Tanner is sporting a baby toupee! 

We got a cut-throat tournament of corn hole going. No mercy! The best part was watching Abbey wipe the floor with Casey's team, haha. She was so good we all had our jaws dropped! She just laughed the whole time, shrugging her shoulders like, "I dunno! Beginners luck!"

Shelley's kids are high rollers and all have their own quads! So do the Barton's boys. They were super nice and let our kids ride them the whole time. Literally, we did not see them for two days. This must be the reason I don't really have pictures of them on this trip! I kept saying prayers of thanks to Heavenly Father that none of them had crashed and especially that my boys hadn't wrecked them! I was so nervous! 

The sprayed mud look, looks good on you, Weston! 

The camp fire was highly anticipated. Luckily, all the fire restrictions were gone! Shelley brought all the goods for s'mores and the Bartons busted out gourmet, Handel's ice cream to share. I was extremely sorry I couldn't eat dairy. Just wasn't worth hogging the port-a-potty all night.  :( 

Shelley wanted a family picture around the campfire, but Lindi was in the middle of a melt-down. Isn't that how it always goes when you want your kids to cooperate?!

Some of us are daintier s'more eaters than others. I'm looking at you, Mrs. Crossed Legs.

I don't know what it was about Scarlett's beanie, but that combined with a dirty face and scraggly hair just had the homeless vibe going on and it was really giving me the giggles. She is so darn cute. It's truly the best part about camping... we all looked pretty homeless. 

I think Weston takes about 3 serious pictures a year.

Ok, THIS.

You couldn't have TRIED to make this happen the way it did for a million dollars. Right after we took our family picture, I awkwardly tried to stand up right when Travis was standing up with Tanner and my hand holding the s'more punched through the air, right over the top of Tanner's head, lodging it in his hair!! I mean, I was the one holding the s'more and I still can't believe how it happened! His hair and that marshmallow became one and we all couldn't stop laughing! Poor child didn't know what the heck was going on. Not so much fun to pick out.

After we got all the kiddos in bed and played a few card games, Shelley mentioned they had seen some of the Montague kids drive past camp yesterday on quads. Somehow the idea of us ambushing their camp with marshmallows took root and next thing you know, Abbey, David, Travis, Shelley, Marcie and I are cramming into David's truck on our top secret mission! My mom was adamant that she wanted nothing to do with it because "they have guns and they'll shoot you". A notion that apparently stuck in Shelley's mind, because after a 20 min. drive in the dark at 11pm, we pulled to the side of the road, falling out of the car on top of each other giggling like children, but suddenly Shelley was nowhere to be found. She had convinced herself that we were all about to be shot by the rifle toting Montague kids and stayed back by the truck. In the meantime, the biggest casualty was us girls trying to stifle our laughter so much that we may have peed a little. We darted from tree to tree as gangster-like as middle aged, suburbia parents get, until we were within throwing distance, then let Travis and David take first shots. The fact that they didn't hear us crashing through the forest has to be a testament to the "Lindblom hearing".  They finally starting looking our way, so someone made a war cry and we fell on them, wielding our squishy ammo as they calmly looked on, surely wondering what in the heck was happening, but not so much as flinching, let alone go running for their ARs. It was only Molly, Jenny and about 5 of their teenagers up talking... not quite the raucous party of dominos we thought might be taking place, but it was still fun to chat with them for a while. We were formally educated on the term "Frank-weenie" (At least, I'm pretty sure that was what they called it. Leave it to teenagers to make up weird names to call their Mormon make-out parties) so the night wasn't a total loss. ;) Perhaps that's what started the wholly unorthodox sex-ed talk David gave us on the drive home. I can only hope and pray I forget ALL of it. 

The rest of this hoodlum night, however, is going down as good times!

The kids slept great! Apparently, Landon was up all night crying, but I slept right through it. 

I'm so glad Olive got cleaned up before she hit the hay.

It's a travesty that no one took pictures of the breakfast spread my parents, David and Abbey provided. Literally pancakes, buttermilk syrup, bacon, eggs and fruit to feed a hungry scout troop of 50. 

I spied Kevin teaching some of the younger kids how to shoot a bow and arrow. He said they were naturals!

If Abbey expected to take a nap, she was sorely mistaken. All that beautiful hair on level with three, 5 year olds is just asking to be combed. 

I bought Tanner some MC Hammer pants and they were killing me! The kids thought his pants were saggy because he needed a diaper change.

Casey wanted to take us girls out on a RZR ride. Stupidly, I thought it would be a leisurely drive since there were no dunes to take advantage of. I was so, so wrong. I quickly realized the real purpose behind his offer. To make us scream.

Mission accomplished.

I tell you, the best rollercoasters are nothing compared to Casey behind an engine! They also got these fancy headsets that you can listen to music on and hear what everyone is saying during the ride. Super fun! The Goodmans definitely brought the party to our camping trip!

This video of us screaming might be one of my all-time favorites.

It was too short! We started packing up to leave shortly after lunch so we could be on the road by 4 or 5pm. Notice Landon's eye in this picture. He woke up with one eye swollen and red and it seemed to get worse as the day went on. We didn't know if it was an allergic reaction to some peanut butter M&M's he got ahold of yesterday or if a bee or bug had bitten him. So sad! But after all that underaged quad riding, I suppose one swollen eye is better than broken bones! I'd say it was a successful first year of S&C Lindblom family camping!