Spring Break Camping

While most of the time I can fully embrace the noise and chaos that encompasses being a 'boy mom,' there are some lines I won't cross.  Camping would be one of them.  The dirt, discomfort, and overall 'ew' of having to pee like a dog does not, and will not ever, appeal to me.  I appreciate too much all my ancestors have done to build walls, roofs, beds, and bathrooms to go acting all 'I-don't-need-your-modern-conveniences.' 

I do, however, recognize that I am the mother to three boys and I do think they should have some camping type experiences in their childhood memories.  Yogi Bear Rustic Creek Ranch seemed to fit the bill perfectly.  Add to that some friends with even more boys and we had what seemed to be the perfect "boy" spring break.

 Our cottage had this, plus a set of bunkbeds.  Like I said, glamor camping or 'glamping' as we called it.  We could spend all the time we wanted outdoors getting sweaty and smelly, but before we climbed into that super-comfortable bed we could shower and turn down the air conditioner to a cool 64.  Oh, and not miss morning cartoons on the flat screen t.v.  We could feel even more rustic with a flip of the switch and have a roaring gas fire in the fireplace. 

We did cook all of our meals outside. I know, how rustic, right?!

 Each family took a night making dinner for everyone.  We had hamburgers, ribs, grilled chicken, and even a catfish fry.

Harrison and his studious self reading the Magic Tree House books he received for Christmas.  I captured this picture just in time, because a few minutes later that lovely swing turned into a 6-Flags type ride with three boys on the swing and two more behind pushing with all their might!

Evan says, eating is a lot more fun when your food looks back at ya'!

I have almost as much fun planning trips as I do living them.  More often then not the reality can be a let-down because it hasn't gone as I had hoped or plans have fallen through.  This vacation, however,  turned out just as I imagined.  I wanted to chill-out, relax with good friends while the kids played outside sans any electronics!  The weather, food, and company was perfect!

Riding in the back of the truck on their way to play laser tag.  

Gavin and Steve played a stimulating game of "who can blink first"  You get creative when you don't have electronics to distract you!

I really looked forward to the nightly fires.  Probably because it meant I was one-step closer to getting to make s'mores!  Turns out it takes a steady, quick hand to get that marshmallow toasted and not burned. 

I think most everyone had the most fun playing hide-and-go-seek-tag in the dark.  Take some post college athletes mixed in with some teenagers,  top it off with a deep competitive flair and it makes for some exciting games!  I knew I was in over my head when Jason (pictured in the orange shirt) was "it" and cleared the fire pit in a hurdle-style jump to tag someone out.  By the third night the kids were just warmed up and wanted more but most of the adults were feeling the consequences and repercussions of running for your life to get to home base!

Alissa and I were the only ones who had made poor-mans donuts as a kid.  We decided it would be a shame for our kids to grow-up without knowing the deliciousness of fried dough.  The recipe goes like this:

Buy the cheapest store brand biscuits.  Don't try and get fancy like Steve and think Grands will taste better.  Go cheap or just go through a Dunkin' drive-thru. 

Take a water bottle cap to push out holes--creating the typical 'donut' shape.  You can either eat the holes raw (Alissa's favorite) or add them to the oil and have actual donut holes.

Add your dough to the hot oil (in our case this was propane heated oil, but a small pot on the stove is how it's traditionally done) Cook for a few minutes.  Cool on a paper towel and sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Now, if you're really feeling fancy-schmancy you can add a little milk to the powdered sugar and make a glaze.  Doing much beyond that is just showing off--killing the 'poor man' experience. 

We ate donuts until we were sick.  It was great!  The experience has stuck with my kids, Harrison wrote about it at school and Gavin still says, " 'member those donuts at camping?  Dey were good!"

Although no fish took our bait, it was peaceful watching the boys. 

Our cabin  was so roomy G-Jo was even able to join us one night.  With G-Jo always comes games to play.  The kids played "who-can-get-the-first-onion-ring-to-hook-onto-a-tree," soda can stacking, Fruit Loop toothpick carry, and pass the ball using no hands. 

We weren't short entertainment, with eight boys there was always something going on.  Garrett had us all laughing with his "happy dance!"