Wonderful Wee Webbers: Adventures In Camping

Over mother's day weekend we got to go camping in the Corralitos mountains with my family. It was at a camping/retreat facility (so we had a full industrial kitchen and a nice field) that my dad got to have for the weekend in trade for draining and cleaning out their pool in preparation for the summer. It was the first time that we had been together with all of my siblings (and their significant others) and my parents since Kacie was born! The weekend was so fun, but was not without some less-than-fun events!

The kids and I went up there on Friday afternoon and while they ran around and played I set up the tent (after taking FOREVER deciding where to put it). What I didn't know was that they weren't just running around and playing. They were playing newt rescuers! As the pool was draining, the trillions of newts that were living in it were exposed. So, armed with a Home Depot bucket, my kids swooped in for the rescue, filling the bucket about halfway full with newts, which they dumped into the creek that runs through the camp!

Carey came up after work and joined us for dinner, but ended up going home not feeling super well. It was a fun night though, the highlight being Abby and Haley playing frisbee with aunts and uncles. I had already gone to bed with Kacie and Seth, but I could hear the girls having so much fun out on the field (the frisbee glowed which made it all that much more fun). They came to bed around 10:00 and everyone slept peacefully through the night. Well, everyone except me. I woke up to a sound that I first thought was air gushing out of an air mattress but quickly realized was a sprinkler...UNDER OUR TENT! Yep, under the tent. I got up and, holding Kacie, went to get my parents for help! My dad told me I had to "wait it out" but my mom walked all around in the dark with me, trying to find the sprinkler shut off. We finally gave up and I went back to bed and she stood outside my tent for another 20 minutes, turning the sprinkler on the field that was hitting our tent (this was a different sprinkler than the one under us) so that it wouldn't hit us! I know, best mom ever:) (When those sprinklers finally went off, I heard different ones come on and could hear that they were hitting a tent which, I found out in the morning, was Nate and Cass's.)

The rest of the weekend was really fun (and dry)! We helped clean out the pool, played more frisbee, wheeled around in wheelchairs (who knew that could be so thrilling), colored, played with the dogs (between all of us we had 4 dogs up there) and ate and ate and ate. Saturday night Poppa Phil and Uncle Nate taught Abby how to play chess and Haley was mesmerized by Cass playing the flute. And no more sprinklers in the middle of the night because we found out where the shut off was!!!

Mother's day morning we had delicious breakfast and hung out for a while before packing up to go home. I had all the kids and our stuff loaded up and ready to go, said my last goodbye's, hopped in the van to drive home, and realized that my keys were in the tent...packed in it's bag...under all the stuff in the van!!!! I jumped out of the car cracking up, because it was laugh or burst into tears, and Auntie Melissa and Uncle Judah jumped into gear and had my tent out and unfolded enough for me to grab the keys in no time!