Six Days

God reportedly created the world in 6 days—I merely survived a 6-day cabin/camping trip with the Little Bambinos. We met up with my parents, aunt, and siblings (and their respective tag-alongs) at one of the tagalong’s family mountain cabin on Friday and stayed until Sunday.

Day 1:

Keith with the remote controlled-boat that he constructed himself. Just before it died.

Brian with his very pretty and super-great girlfriend, Sandi.

A small pond that the girls first whetted their appetites for getting wet in icy water.

Gramma holds Wesley, wrapped in a sister’s jacket.

The scenery. This doesn’t do the area justice, as the perfectly blue lake reflecting the beautiful day isn’t shown here.

This is the lake on the first day, before we give up and take off Kyla’s clothes. Piper is sound asleep in the stroller and is disappointed later to find she has missed out on all the hypothermia. My resolution to be in the lake with Kyla was to 1) prevent her from drowning, and 2) keep tabs on how quickly our legs were going numb.

It’s pretty clear to the average blog-follower on what happens to Kyla’s clothes between these two shots.

Uncle Keith tries to warm Kyla up by engaging her in a soccer-game….

But she gazes longingly at the lake.

Day 2: Back at the lake

I don’t remember much else about that weekend, or the rest of the camping trip, because right after I took these pictures, Piper ignored my frantic callings and kept walking straight into the water until she tripped, went completely underwater and struggled to come up (the frigidity of the water made it worse). So I dashed in behind her, grabbed on to her with both hands and carried her back to land and the extra towels I had packed. Sadly, my camera was strapped to my wrist when I went in after her and it didn’t recover from its icy plunge as quickly as Piper did.

A moment when Piper is, surprisingly, not trying to drown herself.

All those scabs, cuts, and bruises on Kyla’s sweet little legs? Just a down payment for the rest she would get over our little camping trip. She’s come to me with a huge cut on her elbow and not even notice it, but if her sister takes a swipe in her direction, she screams for revenge! But she is kind of cute…

Once my camera was in a coma, so was my memory. I need those pictures to remind me of what we did. Luckily, Dad was able to send me a few he took, so I know that they got their first s’mores around the campfire. (Piper just wanted to eat the chocolate.)

Days 3-6: After leaving the cabin, the kids and I followed Gramma and Grandpa a few hours down the road and camped in a gorgeous new tent. I do not recommend putting it up on a windy day, if you have a choice in the matter, and you’ll need at least 2 adults and 0 kids to get it standing. BUT, once the queen mattress, the two kids beds, a potty, and all our bags were in, more than half of the floor space was still available to strew all sorts of toys, clothes, and food over. It was great!

I don’t want to record much else here, in fear that it will keep me from ever taking the kids camping again, but I did finally read two good books during that time.

I have read his Dancing at the Rascal Fair, and it the ratio of pleasure of reading it to number of pages was low, but this one was still entertaining by the end. We’re reading it for book group and I read it over about two days. It is good historical fiction, but unlike The Help or Prayers for Sale, it didn’t transport me there and submerse me in the setting.

Sheryl from book club recommended this to me months and months ago. I put it on hold, didn’t pick it up on time, blah, blah, and finally, I got hold of a copy last week. I should never wait so long for a Sheryl-book—she’s always right about what I would like. This one is certainly a YA (young adult) novel, which is a genre I especially like to read as they often have to be pretty compelling to have any staying power. This is the first of a trilogy and the third will be released this August. There are rumors of it being made into a movie, but I can already guarantee the book is better. This took just a smidgeon over a day to read (and yes, I did read the ending before I finished the rest of the book. I couldn’t wait.)