We went camping last Thursday night, for one night.  It was Gaby's first time camping, so we made sure she knew how to put up a tent.

I had grabbed three tents from the garage, not knowing if they had all their parts or not remembering how big some of them were.  Turns out, the boys wanted to put up all three of them.

Here is the finished product.  Jbird and JB slept on the left, Gaby and I in the middle and B slept by himself on the right.

It was a cool little camping spot.  With the table and fire ring up above and the tent site about 10 steps below, on the river.

This kid was in his element....reading a book, eating a snack, with his powerade, a comfy chair and shade.

The small rose bushes around the camp sight were beautiful.

This picture is for you Steener.

This was the campground next to ours. Turns out the ladies brother goes to Xavier. I originally thought how cool if we ended up next to current students who knew you.

Better picture of our camp site the next morning...the highway just beyond the river.

At the end of the camp ground there is a 'red cliff' with a cave. We walked over with the boys. It is quite the slippery slope to get up to it (we found the 'easy' way after the fact). Bless Gaby's heart, she stuck with it, as did JB.

The view from the top.

This was the smaller cave on the bottom.  There was a larger cave up top, but we could not figure out how to get up the outside of the cave.  Then B found a hole from the smaller cave into the larger cave.  I was so shocked that he was the first one up it to explore it.

This is Gaby going from small cave to big cave.

I stayed put in the smaller cave........Here they are up above me.

JB coming out of the cave.

The boys loved the caves and went back there 2 other times before we left the camp site!
The trek back down.

A game of football with the "Xavier" boys next door.

I did not get a lot of sleep that night. I guess it was weird having the boys in different tents. I was just starting to doze off when I noticed a strange light. I knew it was not the lights from the highway and I wondered if someone was walking along the river (we were the only tents down by the river..everyone else was camped up by the camp ground road). Then I heard thunder. A hundred thoughts went through my mind. Gaby and I were in the 'good' tent that probably would not leak in rainstorm. We had lots of trees around us and what if the wind got bad. Should I go clear out the car in case we have to make a run for it during a crazy summer storm. What if the lightening wakes up the boys and freaks them out. I managed to squelch all the thoughts and waited it out. It never did more than sprinkle! Thankful! The boys slept all night and did not wake up until 9 - which is very rare camping, since it is light out at 5am. Hope we can hit that spot again!

4th of July/fireworks pictures to follow.