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| Sad to be going home! |
(click here for today's pictures)
For some reason it was much draftier in our tent last night. We had worked on the tent yesterday, making it straighter and putting the rain fly on properly so surely that isn't what caused the breeze. But the only other idea we have is that it was windier and that caused the breeze. Either way, it was colder but we all still slept better.
Whitman fell sound asleep in his bed and laid there covered all night long. Anderson was the one that I was the most worried about since he was near the edge and pretty much only wanted his light sleeping bag on him. Of course the minute that he fell asleep we piled blankets on top of him.
Robby and I stirred a few times during the night and Keaton had a coughing fit but other than that everyone snuggled down in their blankets and our heaters worked over time. It is amazing how quickly the tent warms up after the sun comes up. Though, we certainly would not have been able to survive without those heaters.
Those silly birds woke up us again this morning but we were all so tired that we just went back to sleep and slept until almost 8. As soon as we were moving, we heard Tony getting the fire ready. Robby worked and worked squeezing the air out of all of our sleeping mats. Reagan and I loaded the bins up with our blankets and sleeping bags and then breakfast began along with the tearing down of camp.
Breakfast was the same as yesterday but I do believe that Robby has now mastered the dutch oven biscuits and Tony's hashbrowns did improve. Whitman was so excited to see Shannon pull out the orange juice that he could hardly contain himself and that boy probably drank the half gallon himself.
We all ate-the kids first today and then the grownups, that way our food was still hot. And then everyone started packing things away. The kids played in the woods, played ball and even rode their bikes for a little bit. Really, we were just at a perfect spot and they had plenty of room to explore and roam.
The hardest things to pack up was our tents-the eating tent and the sleeping tent. But it was both a win because we were able to get them both back in the bags that they came in. Surprisingly, loading up didn't take too long and we even sat by the fire for a few minutes. We were pretty lucky today because by after breakfast yesterday, it was sunny and we were hot but today it was cloudy and we didn't get too hot while loading up (actually I am yet to warm up.)
We all drove to the bathrooms before heading down the hill but Robby didn't show up and called since his car battery had died-the poor thing just couldn't handle all of the opening and closing of doors. He has his fancy jumper (which has been well used) and caught back up with us in no time.
It took us about an hour to get home from Petit Jean and it was a beautiful drive. Once home, we all started to work. Since we all smelled like campfire, we tried to keep most everyone outside working until they had their showers. First we emptied and cleaned the cars and then we started putting everything away.
The shower ran for well over an hour-first with Reagan and Whitman, then Graham and Whitman, then Anderson and Whitman and then Campbell, Keaton and Whitman. Robby was next and then me. That along with the washing machines that have been running constantly, our water bill will be through the roof this month!
Everything was finally put away and everyone was clean around 4:30 but we are already packed and ready to go again. We took a pretty good inventory and now have a few things to add to our Christmas lists for our next camping adventure.
After a bit of downtime, it was then time to load up and go down the road to the Wilson's house. They had some leftover camp food that we had to eat up. The girls brought at least 20 pounds of baby doll and baby doll paraphernalia to play with and Whitman brought about that many trains but he spent most of his time watching Thomas.
After we ate and visited for a while, we headed home to put my people in bed. Tomorrow is a school morning but even more than that, tomorrow is laundry day!
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