Camping

Man, what a rough night. We camped at Vernonia's Anderson Park yesterday and then the high tailed it out of there first thing this morning right after breakfast. It turned out to be a great day yesterday once we got out there, Jon set up our tent while the kids and I went down to the river and skipped rocks and waded in and out. We saw some craw fish and it was really very pleasant. Sam got a little more wet than she intended because she throws like a girl and inadvertantly swung a rock around that was a bit bigger than she estimated, thus throwing herself down into the water with the rock. She never did get her hair wet, just wet from the neck down and that was enough for her. Austin went right in and had no reservations. Alex, had no intentions of going in past knee deep, but the current had other plans. I think the comment he made was something like, "This is such a dumb water!"

We brought hot dogs to eat for dinner, but as it turns out they don't have campfires, persay at each site, so we ended up using the Carter's little gas grills and it turned out nice. We camped right next to them, which was good because Andrew and Austin and Landon and Alex were tied together all day yesterday and this morning. Sam just kind of wandered everywhere, poked her hand in things she shouldn't have and made herself known as the Aloha 1st Ward Pest.

When it was time to sleep, it was actually going smoother than I anticipated and Sam curled up next to me and feel asleep. She was pretty exhausted. Somewhere around 11pm-12am or so, Alex woke up startled because he found himself trapped in his sleeping bag down at the bottom and he couldn't get out. Austin then woke up and found himself in the same prediciment. Unfortunately, Austin carried on a bit worse than Alex did and woke Sam up. I can only describe what happened next as something seen on America's Funniest home videos or some comedic movie, but Austin stood nearly straight up with his sleeping bag over his head grunting. This grunting was what broke the camel's back and Sam woke up. She sat up saw a monster in the tent, yelled, "Monster!", began shaking uncontrollably and screaming hysterically. If that wasn't bad enough, Austin wouldn't shut his trap. So, Jon got up (I was trying to coax Sam back over to lay down next to me but she was trying to claw her way out of the darn tent), went over and grabbed Austin by the legs and began "dumping" him out of the sleeping bag, he repeated the procedure with Alex. By then, I couldn't even help myself, I was cracking up so bad that I nearly wet myself!

That was the beginning of the end. From that point on, no matter what Jon or I did, Sam was convinced the darn monster was hanging around our tent and was going to get her. Man, do I ever feel bad for the people sleeping next to us! She cried on and off, and each time we got her calm down enough to almost fall asleep, she would sit straight up and whip her head in all directions looking for that pesky monster. Several times she would get up quitely, when Jon and I were in a state of zombiness/sleep, she would walk around the tent and rip the boys sleeping bags off of them looking for that darn monster, which would make the boys whine because they were cold and bothered and woken from a dead sleep.

That went on until 4:45am, at which point I was certain that our neighbors were just as tired as we were so I got Sam up and took her to the bathroom and then stuck her in her car seat and got in the front seat. At least if she was going to be noisy she could do it in the car and it would make less noise. I thought that maybe if she was in her own seat she would fall asleep, but no. She kept watch until morning while I drifted off to sleep, finally.

What a night. I'll tell you about breakfast later, Sam just came in her and wants me to hold her...I'm sure so that she can finally get some sleep.