For spring break we made plans to drive out to Pomona Lake and camp with our good friends, the Guenthers. Sure, we were having a super awesome time staying home and fighting over screen time and how many seconds so-and-so went over his allotted turn playing Minecraft or Breath of the Wild.....
But still.
We all needed some fresh air and some perspective. So I packed up the kids, both dogs, and jam packed the van with every conceivable item that we could fit. Mark had to work, so if there wasn't a spot for it underneath somebody's legs, we weren't bringing it.
Ethan managed to sneak his guitar in at the last minute, but if I had my way, I would have swapped it our for an air mattress. In a heartbeat.
Daphne questioned my judgment.
Luckily, we arrived at our campsite about an hour before the Guenthers. That gave us just enough time for the boys to have a fight over the proper assembly of the tents, Everly to scream for a quarter of an hour because the wind was blowing her hair into her face, Ethan to take a long walk and calm himself down, and attract every last fly in the vicinity with our sloppy joes. Now, the Guenthers are our friends and I'm sure they have a good sense of our particular brand of crazy, but there are limits.
Once we were all set up and we had cooked our dinner, we got down to the business of hanging out and throwing as many rocks as possible into the lake.
I was so glad we brought the dogs with us. They had fun running around and smelling all the smells.
Aaron and Everly having a chat
The kids relishing their freedom. They were all shockingly unsupervised!
Mathew
did not actually jump in the water. Which was good because Daphne did and her hips didn't work for the rest of the weekend. Chilly!
Ever wonder what cocoa and Hi-C taste like together? Mathew says it tastes like a tootsie pop. Which makes perfect sense to me.
Tootsie had a nice time. It worked nicely with her daily routine:
Beg...
And nap in someone else's chair...
I made way too many campfire cherry pies. So yummy!!
Anna found the daffodils that were blooming on the trail to the bathrooms. I almost scolded her...but then I figured...eh. They'll be dead next week anyway. Might as well enjoy them.
Megan immersed herself in a good book.
I even got a turn on the hammock!
I had to bat off a few kids first. But I took a chilly nap there before I was joined by two squirmy girls.
Friday, afternoon Mark arrived and brought me the air mattress I left behind. I was so relieved. Next time I will do a better job of clearing our tent area of sticks and rocks. Lesson learned.
We took a final walk down to the water and built an Ebeneezer. That's a fancy word for "stack of rocks".
Four girls and an Ebeneezer.
