Memorial Day Weekend 2010

Well, we had a fun weekend. The weekend started off with a party at Ben's school. My boss let people off early, so I was able to leave at 2:30 and go spend time with him while he ate goodies and played in the water with his classmates. It was lots of fun, he was pretty clingy and didn't want to let me out of his site (heartbreaking)- but he got a little wet. Mostly because all the bigger kids than him were hogging the little water things (I don't know what they're called) and took at the water balloons before he could. But we left and then I brought him home and sprayed him down with the hose. That was a lot more fun to be honest! Also Friday was Ashley's birthday and so to celebrate we went to dinner with her and some of our other friends at On the Border. Of course it was delicious and we all enjoyed it, but the best part of the night was going to her house to see her open up her surprise present that Jacob got a bunch of us all together to go in on. A new camera! A nice one too! She was so happy and excited and it was fun to see her reaction. I sure love that chick. She is a great BFF.

Saturday we woke up bright and early to prepare for our first family/friend camp-out! This was the first time Ben had ever camped, and first time I'd ever camped with Ryan OR Ben, AND the first time we have ever taken Ally (our dog) anywhere besides Nana's house or the groomer/vet! We were bound and determined to go this time, because EVERY SINGLE TIME we plan a camping trip, it RAINS. The weather reports didn't seem to promising either, but we'd already paid for our campsites and we weren't going to let it stop us. So we got all of our stuff together (TOO much stuff) and met up at the Terry's and headed to Carter's Lake in North Georgia for a two night camping trip. Our friend Martha chose the sites, we had two, and it was awesome! It was so good to be back in the nature again, I've missed it so. We set up our tent, we cooked burgers and hot dogs on the grills at the campsites and Martha and I made DELICIOUS tinfoil dinners. Ally and Bowser met each other and pretty much stayed out of each others way- mostly because Bowser is still a puppy and wants to play and Ally is a crotchety old woman who doesn't like to play with strangers. SO after being overly frustrated with my adorable 2 year old- we FINALLY got him to go to sleep at around 10pm- Ryan had to lay in the tent with him until he fell asleep. We all gathered round the old lantern and talked, all while being attacked by NASTY Palmetto bugs. Eck, those things are nasty. There were millions of "biders" as Ben calls them, mostly just weird looking Daddy Long Legs... but they were EVERYWHERE. We went to bed, and of course slept like poop. The ground is not comfortable anymore. Time to purchase an air mattress or two! Plus Ben was a floppy little fish the whole night and I kept having to put him back on his pillow for fear of kicking him in the face or something! We had a good breakfast the next morning, and then basically chilled out the rest of the day. The Terry's had to leave early, so it was us, the Burke's and Geoff. We went to the "beach" at the lake and saw the most WT I've ever seen in one place in my life. Wow. Ben had lots of fun in the water though, he wasn't scared at all. He had his little floaties on and sunglasses and he had a good ol' time. After we got back we started preparing and making dinner, Dutch Oven Chicken (thank you Tiffany Reed) and clouds started gathering and it started to pour. The chicken had started to boil believe it or not, and we thought while sitting in our tent that the rain was going to put out the fire and ruin the chance for our chicken to survive. But after not too long, the rain stopped the fire reignited itself and we were back in business. We made our sides and dished up and.... the rain started threatening again. So we ate quickly covered everything up again and got in the tent just as it started to pour again, this time with lightning and thunder. This scared Ally, and Ally being scared concerned Ben. While in the tent he grabbed my cheeks and intently looked at me as if to REALLY get my attention and said "Mama, Mama... go home". NOW, we would've stayed and just gone to bed... but the darn P.O.C. tent we (I) had started to LEAK. UGH... Geoff's did too. The Burke's tent wasn't though. We made the decision (at about 7pm) to pack up and head home, the weather reports weren't promising and we just didn't want to drown in our sleep in a tent! Ryan and Geoff were the best, and got everything in the car in the pouring rain while me, Ben and Ally hung out in our empty tent and watched Sesame Street podcasts and sang songs together. Well, me and Ben anyway- Ally can't sing very well! As soon as we got in the car, Ben fell asleep and we got home safely and went straight to bed. We were POOPED. Yesterday was spent basically vegging out. The house was/is in shambles but yesterday, there was NO desire to even touch it. It'll be clean by the end of the week though... I hope! We all took naps... I believe though, that mine was the most glorious of all of them. Holy Moly (is that how you even spell it?) that bed was comfortable. The pillows were great, the sheet was perfect the wind from the fan... all worked in harmony to woo me in to a beautiful MUCH needed rest. I do have to say that Ben won for the amount of time slept out of the 3 of us. He slept for a whopping three hours, but he obviously needed it. Anyway, we had a really fun time- plan to do it again. Ben was a natural which makes his momma proud. Ally did great, better than I expected. And Ryan loved it too. We plan to purchase a new BIGGER tent (especially now because when setting it up to dry it out the poles all broke... ), some air mattresses and pack less next time and just go when we want. I really have missed my outdoorsy side... we got along really well, and when we were together- I felt a lot less stressed. SO, we plan on getting together more often. :) Believe it or not, I didn't take any pictures with my camera- just my phone, so this is what we get. Oh well.