Our 8 man tent slept 5. No room for another mattress. Not sure where Luk will sleep? I don't think Eric wants to tent camp with us ever again, if that's the case the four kids and I will all fit.
She was the only one to help with cooking, cleaning and chores.
The view from our site. Never gets old.
Waiting for the sun.
Penny and her gang. There were other people around, took a while to get a shot with just our group.
Lili and Haley taking Jia for a row.
Fei and Hanna taking Jia for a row.
First two out of the water.
Ah ha!! Finally!! The boat all to herself.
Jia took herself for a row.
The annual Kissinger trip. This year I decided it would be the weekend we use a tent. I take the girls tent camping once a year. So they can experience it. So they can learn how. So that one day they will be able to take off with their friends and have confidence. This year however, Eric decided to go with us, mostly because he loves Kissinger and partly because we'd be off the grid in the middle of no where. Eric hasn't been tenting with me since we first got married 21 years ago. He hated it then and he isn't any more fond of it now.
We arrived in cloudy weather and before the tent was up it was storming. We didn't get the fly up and ended up quickly throwing a tarp over the whole tent. Girls were inside, playing, setting up their beds etc. Big girls sat in the vans at one point and played ds's with Haley and Hanna. We did easy snack and got to bed earlier than planned. Jia then kept us up until 2:00am. Never in the history of time has anyone been more excited about camping in a tent.
We woke up early and it was still raining so we all stayed abed until it stopped. Eric got a tarp over our table and we started the camping part. Food was good. Supplies all worked. We had everything we needed. It was a waiting game for the sun. I told the kids in the morning that they wouldn't be swimming until two and at two, twenty one the sun came out (yes, Lili is precise with her times). I didn't go in, too worried about never warming up again. Everyone else had a good long swim. Jia was more interested in the little yellow boat than swimming and she rode around with all of the girls while they took turns paddling. In the end Jia finally got the boat all to herself, pure joy.
We all slept well the second night. Beds weren't as damp, we had the fly on the tent. Jia crashed fairly quickly. Then we woke up to rain! Arg. Tear down in the rain. Eric ended up wadding the tent and ground tarp in a ball and just shoved it in the car. He says he won't go tent camping with me again. I have to admit that all of our weekend tent trips involve rain. Lili and Fei think it's because I plan that weekend and we should leave it until the last minute and just watch the weather.
Clean up was a pain with everything needing to dry out. In the end it all dried, it all got put away and life carried on.
