Camping

We went camping last week with my family. There were 22 of us in all.

Good news!

We didn't have to sleep on the ground this year!

Guess what?

I hardly took any pictures! I took one picture of a human.

See this innocent little freckle face with Kelsey? The morning I took this picture, I woke up at about 6:30. It was still dark. I had to potty. I debated laying in bed and ignoring the urge, as I had to hike to the bathrooms and then I'd be wide awake. However, when Kelsey woke up, and started moving around, I figured she needed to potty too, so I gave up.
I got up, went outside to grab the leash which was left on the table outside. I then grabbed a little flashlight, stood outside the camper and hooked Kelsey's leash, brought her out, closed the camper door, then zipped it shut. Kelsey and I both turned to head out for our morning ablutions.

Suddenly, Kelsey began to growl and bark in her fiercest manner! I darn near had a heart attack. What could it be? A bear? A cougar? A rabid coyote come to rip my throat out? I placed my hand on her collar and told her to be quiet so as not to wake everyone else...She ignored me....It's moments like this when I understand everyone saying she's my third child...

I looked up and saw a PERSON standing about 10 feet away with their back to us. Every hair stood up on my body, and my heart began to pound. The person remained standing stock still, not saying a word...

It was a small person. Wearing a floppy hat. I cocked my head to the side and looked closer.

"Elvis? Is that you?"

The little dude turned around and sure enough! It was my 9 year old nephew, out wandering around in the dark. He saw us coming out, didn't want to startle me, so he just decided to stand still and be quiet so as to give me a heart attack instead.

Obviously, he and Kelsey made up as you can see in the above picture. Apparently he'd been up since before , ready to fish. His brother was already out fishing, but when Elvis started down the trail where he suspected his brother was, he heard a "skunk in the brush," so he beat it back to the camp sites.

I have no idea why he'd think there was a skunk.

The night we arrived, Studmuffin had stopped to grab Sonic. He was late getting to the camp. He showed up around 9pm, and immediately got out and started to put the cover on the boat and fix all of the stuff I'd done wrong when erecting our camper. Apparently, I should have done more than just watch him fold it out before we went. In my mind, he was going to be a few minutes, not 4 hours behind me. That's the only defense I have, weak as it is. Anyhoo, in his haste to make everything right, he sat his half eaten dinner on the ground near our boat.

As he was carrying stuff into the camper he heard a rustling sound. This skunk was the biggest he'd ever seen. And not one whit afraid of him. Apparently, he has grown up around this lake, and he knows diligence and boldness lead to tater tots and popcorn chicken. Being the wonderful man he is, Studmuffin just knew it was a blogging moment. So he recorded it for all posterity.

Ain't he grand?