Mother's Day weekend has come and gone. This year I wanted the family to unplug from the world, and enjoy real family time. So we went camping. As a family we enjoy camping, most of the time. Of course Dad usually goes just because the rest of us enjoy it (his idea of camping is a 3 star instead of a 5 star.) We went with another family who we are good friends with.
We also took our new occasional brother, Toje, with us.
He and Aaron are now best friends. They enjoyed have boy time together. They both need to time to be rough and tumble boys. They ran, wrestled, and make fart jokes, what could be more boy.
We visited Lake Whitney Texas State Park. We enjoy tent camping but this time we stayed in shelters. The adults got the shelters and the kids had tents.....well that was the plan anyway.
The tent we planned on for the boys was missing the poles. So we had to go with our back up plan. It was a small pink tent. Johnny Lovesdogs (10) did not want to sleep in a PINK tent so he went with this parents in their shelter. Well that left Aaron and Toje in the pink tent by themselves. Well they were unsure of sleeping there by themselves so guess who slept with mom and dad?!
Our sites were right on the lake. It was very windy but being that close to the lake made it that much worse. The wind and lack of rain in the area made it necessary for the park to be under a burn ban. That kind of made meal planning difficult. With the use of a propane stove and the Weber grill we managed. Friday night we were allowed a small fire in the fire ring. Dinner worked well for foil packs.
At least we got our roasted peeps in along with the s'mores.
The wind was so strong the first night that the girls who slept in our new tent got very little sleep. They said it was so load with the tent's rain fly flapping around. The following night Ashlyn and Jesse joined the two little boys in the shelter with us.
We were within an hour and a half of Dinosaur Valley State Park. So we spent Saturday afternoon exploring the river where the tracks can can be seen. With my bad knees it was kind of scary to see me walking on the algae covered rocks.
However I was determined to enjoy what the rest of the family did. After crossing the rock bridge and coming back though I opted to stay one the bank, and watch them enjoy themselves. Stephen got in the river with them and before long they were a half mile down the river. I was great to watch him and 7 kids ranging in age from 17 down to 8. He had so much fun right a long with them.
We got back to Lake Whitney so late but still made dinner and ate at the park. The kids roasted hot dogs over the coals in the Weber grill, since the rangers decided that the wind was too high for any type of open fire. We roasted the corn in the grill and cooked the baked potatoes in the dutch oven on the propane stove. We then made chocolate cake in the dutch oven with the coals from the grill. Then the steaks were pan fried on the propane stove.
It was a new experience to camp without the staple of a campfire, but it was fun to try new wasy of cooking outdoors. Our family bonded and enjoyed the fellowship of our friends.
