A Camping We Will Go....

Well, I promised to try to keep our blog up to date, so here's my first attempt. Thad spends the majority of Labor Day weekend at the NHRA Drag Races, so the kids and I decided to trek to Perryville, MO to meet Mom and Dad. They stay at a local KOA there and we made reservations to camp (yes, in a tent).

We arrived late Friday night after a long, six hour ride. Traffic leaving Indy was horrific, but once we got outside of town it was smooth sailing. The kids really enjoyed seeing the St. Louis Arch at sundown. It was a beautiful view.

We arrived much after sundown, but I was able to pitch the tent using the lights of the truck. Thad had packed the truck assuming it would be dark, so the tent, mallet, and flashlights were all together. After a couple glasses of wine, it was bed time.

We woke up early Saturday and Mom cooked pancakes and bacon. We moved the tent so it woudn't be completely in the fire pit (oops) and unpacked the rest of the truck. The campground was having a customer appreciation day, so they offered lunch and hayrides. The owner's son was pulling a cow train on his lawn mower and Emma had the most fun doing that. She especially thought it was great that she got to go more than once.

After lunch, Mom and Dad left to go to Dad's Class Reunion. I took the kids on a two-mile nature walk and that's where Emma lost her first tooth. She wouldn't let me carry it -- in fact, she carried the tooth in grubby hands all the way back. I knew this had been coming, so I'd prepared her that if she lost her tooth on the trip, we'd have to save it so the Tooth Fairy could come get it from home.

That night, the boys and I cooked hamburger's on the grill for dinner. Everything tasted great. We had s'mores for dessert and after a very welcomed shower, we hit the sack.

Sunday morning, Troy became the fire master. He and Justin both helped cook sausage and warm up biscuits for breakfast over the open fire. It tasted great! We cleaned up and headed up to play putt-putt.

First hole, first shot, Emma gets a hole-in-one. Just as we were finishing up our round, Mom and Dad came back. Emma had to show Grandma how well she played. We spent the afternoon swimming and fishing. Emma caught the most fish and Justin caught the biggest. Poor Troy didn't get a fish, but he deserves all the credit because he was the only one willing to take a fish off the hook. Grandpa took us all out for dinner at a china buffet. We came back, had a fire and a shower, and we were back in bed. The last night was the only difficult night in the tent. There was no breeze and my old, tired body was over sleeping on the hard ground. Apparently, two nights in a tent is max ;-)

We woke up early and started packing. It took a little over an hour to load up all the gear and we headed out about 11:00 our time. We had a great trip back. The kids were wonderful and we didn't hit any traffic coming back, so the trip was smooth. We were all really tired, but we got the truck unloaded and had a quiet night.

Emma and Daddy put her tooth under her pillow that night and the Tooth Fairy came!

To view all our camping pictures, click here.