Weekend Camping Trip

Brad, Bob and I took all of the older kids (Evan, Sophia and Jacob) out camping this weekend. The weather was gorgeous in the 70’s during the day. The leaves were at full peak revealing a wealth of colors not normally seen without the aid of LSD. It was a youth hunt in Wisconsin so we had to keep the blaze orange on the kids at all times. Brad and I also gave them whistles in case they wandered off too far. Between the blaze orange and the constant blowing of the whistles it was unlikely that the kids were going to get shot—on accident. Everyone was able to show up on Friday and those little blaze wood elves couldn’t have been happier to see each other. They spent time hike with us but also a lot of time at camp with Grandpa shooting the BB guns and making forts. Under the direction of Grandpa Bob they made a nice lean to as well as a pretty good teepee. He also was in charge of keeping their sugar levels up and starting them off in the morning with a good infusion of Sugar Puffs, Sugar Smacks, Fruit Loops etc. The kids of course loved this and it was only slightly more unhealthy than my breakfast plans of oatmeal and chocolate pudding. Molly the dog came too, as all camps need a camp dog. It worked well because she kept the ticks off the rest of us. By Sunday she was ready to go home and just kept climbing in Brad’s van while he was trying to pack up. We never did see any other hunters but did hear wolves on Saturday night—although we did not see it as a wise idea to wake up the young ones to listen. Sophia and I shared a tent and all the other boys were in Brad’s new tent. We also found a dog skull near the camp site so the kids were able to ‘play’ with that and check out the teeth in it. In many ways the weekend was a prelude of the pending economic depression: eating soup out of the can, beer out of mason jars and a lot of Dylan, Prine and Gutherie sang around the camp fire at night. We had orignally planned a geocaching trip on the other side of Hwy. H for Sunday. But in the end we figured that three kids and only two GPS units would lead to a fight Brad and I weren't interested in refereeing. All in all it was really cool just to watch them all run around in a woods that has so many fine memories for me as they offer a prelude of so many more memories to come. Jake also contacted me to add the fact that the kids spent about an hour throwing glowsticks into the woods and then running into the dark woods to find them--shockingly nobody lost an eye or twisted an ankle.