back to the real world

last evening, we drug 3 very tired kids into the house....stripped them down & threw them in the bath.....like my dad said - this bath would be like washing your car, you'd be able to see your progress! ~lol~ after getting clean, getting pj's on, brushing teeth and saying prayers, i think it took all of 20 seconds for them to pass completely out

we had such a great time! saturday was absolutely beautiful until after bed time (then it poured)! there was some rain here and there on sunday, but nothing more than a sprinkle.....and hey, that just made for more fun in the mud & puddles!

we got started a little late on saturday, after delivering the lego cake, so we missed the hubby callin' and armpit seranade.....but we played for a while and had lunch, then curtis took the kids down to the river to get in some fishing time before we had to head back home briefly that afternoon for bryan's 4th birthday party (my sister's son).....the party was great - and we had water play outside - what kid doesn't love that?!

then we headed back to the campground (it's about a 45 minute drive from home)....in the car, i realized that gabby's mild seasonal allergies that had popped up for the very first time last tuesday, were actually turning into pretty severe allergies - that evidentially were triggered big time by freshly cut grass! this is what she looked like when we got back to the campground and had taken a dose of children's claritin, so the swelling had gone down some....the only thing i can blame it on, is her going down the slip and slide repeatedly at my sister's house.....then having the freshly cut grass clinging to her wet body.....also note the busted chin from riding a skateboard on her belly at my sister's house
then, here she is yesterday - more than 24 hours after the party, and after having continuous doses of the claritin....but of course, after being outside the entire weekend (and before the rain, you could literally see the pollen settling on the cars)
poor thing! she still managed to have a blast and didn't complain much at all - just occasionally complained that her eyes hurt & would ask for a cold, wet cloth to hold over them...what a trooper!

now back to the camping....we got back after the party, just in time for the pig roast! my mom made potato salad and there were lots of sides & desserts brought by the campers - one huge pot luck! mmmmm! we missed the tasting/voting for the Bubba-Q cook-off, but made it back in time for them to announce the winners...mom entered her venison recipe that included ramps and won 2nd place! from what I heard, she probably would have won 1st except that a lot of the campers weren't keen on trying deer meat. {why in the world are you here camping on Redneck Weekend and you won't even try deer?! beats me!} i totally forgot to take a picture of the winning campsite in the Most Redneck Decorated Campsite award - let's just say it definitely deserved to win! my favorite part were the beer can wind chimes! ~lol~ we checked out the karaoke that night and got in plenty of fishing & hiking/biking to the waterfall on both days! all the kids caught some fish & grandpa even grilled one of the huge trout that daddy caught - the kids were in awe at the whole cleaning/gutting/cutting it's head off process ~lol~ and they all tried a bite of the grilled trout - the girls & i ate most of it

another highlight of the weekend was gabrielle learning to ride her bike with no training wheels! she nailed it in about 5 minutes & amazed us all! grandpa has managed to teach jaden, deandra (my neice who's 2 months younger than jaden), and now gabby, how to ride their bikes at this campground....next year, it's corinn's turn! ;0) we ended up putting the training wheels back on gabby's bike so she could ride around the campground's gravel roads without help....but as soon as it stops raining this week, we're heading to the grassy field at the park for some more big kid bike practice (after a dose of claritin, of course! ~lol~)

here's a slide of our fun & 2 videos of gabrielle on her bike....i hope you guys enjoyed the weekend where you are! :0)