For about a month we had planned to go camping August 8-10th. Menus were planned, spot was researched (I even tried to get reservations, but it was a first come campground), boys were excited, and then the weather report started looking really bad. Okay. I've camped in the rain. It stinks. Lance has camped in the rain. It's miserable. Wet. Cold. No getting warm. If it pours, you are in the tent. Imagine trying to keep five boys from touching the fabric of a tent so the water doesn't come in. That was enough right there to keep me home! Then Dallin woke up SICK Thursday morning. Poor guy, he really didn't feel good: coughing, then eventually throwing up, chills, low fever, weak. We stayed home and had an indoor campout.
Thursday we started the day out wet. Lance got drenched at a site meeting in Boise (he got to do a good mornings of work--that was worth being here!). While he was gone, Thayne and Bruce made rain gauges for a Bear arrow point activity. Eventually Thayne moved his rain gauge to see how much water he could catch under the rain gutter. It filled the can. By early afternoon we figured we had about 1/4 inch of rain. We had a lunch of Pasta Roni's White Cheddar Cheese and Shells and hot dogs. If we had been camping this would have been made at home and then made into a "tinfoil dinner" and heated up in camp fire coals (Thayne's request). Lance and I would have had regular tinfoil dinners, but we had leftovers instead.
We decided seeing a movie fit with staying home. Then the boys could eat some of the camping snacks on the way to the theater: handisnacks (cheese and crackers with little red cheese spreading things--Hunter's request) and Doritos! We went to see Monster vs. Aliens in 3D. So fun, even though it costs more than the $2 we thought we'd be spending. The $4 per person really was worth it. It was so fun to look down the row and see everyone in their nerdy looking 3D glasses. It was the first time for any of us to see a 3D movie. We really did jump as things flew right at us; I saw Luke reaching out with his hand trying to touch stuff (I think I may have done it too). Lance thought it was freaky when it looked like things were coming from behind us and I thought that was the COOLEST effect. I think we'll be doing that again.
We came home and had Root Beer Roast, Sour Cream Potatoes, and roasted marshmallows over candles at the kitchen table then made smores with fudge covered peanut butter cookies. Yummy. Then the boys, minus Dallin, all took their sleeping bags upstairs to sleep. Bruce and Luke both ended up in their beds before falling asleep. It POURED all night!
Friday we started the morning out with Mountain Man Breakfast in a Dutch oven and Hot Chocolate. Still very wet outside. Weather forcast--100 % chance of rain. After just hanging out some and kids riding down the stairs in their sleeping bags, we had a lunch of tuna sandwiches. Then we made trail mix with a choice of peanuts, raisins, yogurt covered peanuts, mini baking sized M&Ms, and pretzels. Packed hiking backpacks (another Bear activity) with trail mix, water bottles, and pudding cups. We headed up to park our van in a parking lot by 12th and the stop light going into Walmart, and we hiked the greenbelt. Where we started it is paved, but then the paving stopped and we had a hike through some mud along the Wilson Drain. It was a trail, but just really wet. Then after crossing Iowa the trail is paved for several miles. It just follows along the Wilson Drain. There are trees most of the way, so the drizzling rain didn't bug us too bad. We crossed several roads and got to us the fun orange pedestrian flags, we saw lots of ducks braving the "rapids of death," a cat that looked a LOT like Cali, a moose (wood cut out) and several really fun backyards. We hiked just to the westside of Midland Blvd. before turning around. One really cool highlight was the snails we found on the trail between Midland and Amity Road. We had no idea there were so many around Nampa. On the way back we took a street to avoid the mud after we crossed Iowa again. We hiked close to 4 miles. Then we took our wet selves to Albertson's to buy chicken for Dutch oven chicken and potatoes and rented The Pink Panther 2 for a evening movie. It rained 100% of the time during our hike.
The four younger boys all slept upstairs. They stayed up super late (after 12) watching another movie, but they were being very kind to each other and having lots of fun.
We slept in super late on Saturday (that never happens when I camp outdoors) and then we made bacon and eggs in a paper bag and muffins in an orange and more hot chocolate. The muffins in an orange turned out great! We really liked that and it's simple to do. Cut the top off an orange (we used small oranges) and scoop out the insides, fill the orange 2/3 full of muffin batter, wrap with tinfoil leaving room at the top for the muffin to rise, cook on hot coals for about 10-15 minutes. Dallin made all the orange pulp into orange juice for himself. The bacon and eggs were awful! They took a long time to cook and didn't taste good. The bacon stuck to the bottom of the bag and was soft instead of crisp--except for the parts that were burnt. We won't do that one again. I thought for sure that it was really good when I did it at Girls Camp as a Young Women years ago--nostalgia will do that to memories! The breakfast experience pretty much ended our campout. Then we went back to doing laundry and weekend jobs--bummer!
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