Camping

We went to the church camp out a week ago and had a great day on Saturday. The kids went fishing, canoeing, tubing, swimming, and jet skiing. I am sure that they did other things too, but those were the highlights. Clifton loves to be on the water and he stayed in the tube until Ray parked the boat. (Thanks Ray!) He then found a new friend to take him out on the jet ski (Brian I think, once again thanks!) When I came to drag him back to the camper he was crying "No! I am going tubing with Jeff now!" This was after he had been in the water for 7 hours with a brief lunch break! Nate also like to be in the water, but he is happier closer to shore. Fishing and a little bit of swimming are more up his alley. (Thanks Ray also for the casting lesson!) Josh and I were worn out from packing to get us there and didn't have much ambition. I did go out on the tube with Clifton for a while and let Josh take care of Ryan on shore. We had been trying to sell our camper so we had to completely repack it before we could leave. Ryan ended up sleeping with us in the double bed (we have a king at home) except for when he slept in the laundry basket beside the bed. He is almost to big for the laundry basket. (see picture below)

We had not tried to use any of the pluming in the camper, but I did figure out how to turn on the water pump Saturday evening. Sunday morning I got up to fix breakfast. I started my fire and got out my dutch oven and turned around to get my eggs when I realized that our coolers were gone. At first I thought maybe Josh and put them in the pick up, but it quickly became clear that some one had taken them. While I wondered if it was a practical joke of one of our fellow church friends we decided no, we really did get robbed. They took 2 coolers, one full of food, and the other with several containers of water. The camp stove that my parents purchased in 1982, a 12 inch cast iron skillet, and a 10 inch cast iron griddle. They left the regulator and the propane bottle for the stove.

While Josh was looking for his shoes to come out to investigate he stepped in a large puddle of water. The whole fresh water tank had pumped out on the floor in the back of the camper. Josh had forgotten to hook up a couple of hoses and I left the pump running out of ignorance. SO.....our camping trip ended on a sour note and I haven't much felt like blogging. Further more some people called and would have purchased the camper that day but we didn't feel right selling it to them full of water, so I guess that we will be keeping it and fixing it up. Josh is celebrating I am bummed. I would much rather take the tents and the suburban. He loves the camper and his big diesel pick up.