Annual Visit to Lost Creek

It just wouldn't be summer around here without one "Camping Trip with the Preslar Family" blog entry, would it?  It's hard to think of new things to say about the trip, but I just can't skip posting something about it - it happened, didn't it?  I must take note!  And besides, it will be fun some day to go back and read over the progressing years of these annual events.

This year was really different from the other years, funny enough.  Troy's parents were there, as well as his oldest brother Rick and his wife Tonja.  And us.  And that was it.  There are only two other brothers, but they are the ones with other school-age kids.  Rick does have three cute boys, but they're all in their 20s and haven't come on the trip for many years.  Tonja has two cute kids too - but again, they're in their 20s.  Apparently the 20's are not a good decade for family camping.

Despite our small numbers we really enjoyed the weekend.  It was kind of different for my kids who didn't have cousins to play with.  They were forced to interact with.... (dum dum DUMM!) EACH OTHER.  This mostly went well.  Not entirely, but really for the most part, yes.

We were able to put our new canoe to good use in the lake.  All five of us managed to get in without getting too wet (getting back out was a problem - we had no one to help us and so I had to hop into the waters of the shore in my jeans and hiking shoes).  It was a trick to balance, paddle and help the kids fish all at the same time but we did pretty well.  Except for the catching fish part. It was a bummer to come up empty-handed as we fished for an hour, especially while we caught glimpses of fish actually jumping out of the water only feet away from us.  And I had even remembered to bring all the things I needed for fire-side fish cooking.  Usually I totally forget about that and have to beg borrow and plead for tin foil, butter, salt and lemon.  Despite the lack of fish, I really enjoyed being in the canoe with the family.

The kids and I also had a lot of nice time just being mellow together.  Troy very generously bought us a big camping hammock that could accommodate me plus all four kids at once - we snuggled up in there more than once to read together and I even got Bitty started on her first knitting lesson and project.  Plus, get this.  I took TWO naps in the hammock.  My husband loves me, what can I say.

We had nice weather, tasty food from the ever-generous and wonderful Tonja, and just enough campfire to saturate our clothing and hair with smoke. Just how a camping trip should be.  Wouldn't miss it.