Sunday, July 13, 2008

A Change of Plans...

So when exactly, are kids OK with a change in plans?!? When exactly do they stop reminding you of the "old" plans and get on with the "new" plans?!? After this last weekend, I'm thinking never is a good answer to those questions.

We took the kids to our favorite camping spot this last weekend. It's up half way between Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear...Arrowbear. Clever, huh? Those mountain people really know how to pick a city name. Anyways, Stephen and I took the kids here two summers ago. It was beautiful. We had the perfect site. We had great weather. So...we went back.

It was just like we had imagined it. We set up our pop up and started a fire. It was, after all, marshmallow time. Twerp #1 got to light the fire with Dad. Twerp #2 was promised that on Saturday night, it would be her turn to light the fire. Things don't always turn out as planned.

We took the kids to a local arboretum for a short hike. It was just perfect...not too steep...not too long...just right (I feel like Goldilocks and the 3 bears is coming on). About half way through our mile hike, we heard something kinda weird. It sounded like a pitter pat...like there were animals running through the leaves. But then, the thunder and lightning came. We realized that the pitter pat was rain on the leaves high above us and we started to walk a little faster. Yeah, we ended up having a "Margala Wet T-Shirt Contest." Personally, I think I won, but whose to say...

We stopped under a large tree and I took this picture...

The boys and I were really enjoying our "shower" but Twerp #2 wasn't having any part of the coolness of a random thunderstorm. This is EXACTLY how she felt.

You could probably have landed a small plane on this lip. However, I made the mistake of telling her that if she sticks her lip out any farther, a bug would land on it. Oops. Big Mistake. Huge.

Twerp #3 was LOVING the rain. He loved how his hair went into spikies. He loved how his shirt had drops all over it. No lip for bugs to land on here...no way!

So we went back to camp, and spend the rest of the day in the trailer. Thank goodness for a pop-up. It was a great place to play Backgammon, eat hot dogs and play together. Real family time. That's what camping is all about. However, it's also where things went wrong. You see, you can't have a campfire in the rain. We would have looked LAME! Wet wood, wet chairs, wet food...it just doesn't add up. Anyways, Twerp #2 was terribly upset that she couldn't build the fire. She must have mentioned it 20 times! She ended up getting in trouble for not letting it go. She just couldn't handle the change in plans. I'm 100% sure that when we go on our big trip this August she'll FOR SURE remember that she's the one that gets to light the first fire. It just makes me want to shake my head and close my eyes thinking about it.

Before the storm, Twerp #1 built a trap. You see, when we woke up in the morning, we noticed footprints on our tablecloth. Strange. So, when we had to think up something creative for the kids to do, we suggested that they build a trap to catch the animal that was eating our trash. It took about 45 min. for him to lug these rocks here...dig a hole for the animal to fall into...what fun. The only problem is that in the midst of the rain storm, we forgot to put food in there for bait!

All 3 of my boys. Gosh...they're so cute. Stephen has his smile nailed. Twerp #3, he's always ready to smile. Twerp #1, he lost his smile around age 5 and is still trying to find it. I'm sure he'll find it soon...hopefully by age 8.

Twerp #2...she's accident prone. On our last trip, she broke her arm. This trip, she skinned a knee and an elbow (the good one) trying to beat her brother back to camp. She also got a big bump on her forehead when she tripped on a tree root and hit her head on the picnic bench. That darn bench...always in the way.

She's also a little "sensitive" when people don't do what she wants. Ahhhh...puberty starts young, people.

Here's a picture of Twerp #3 being quiet. We don't often get pictures like this...thought it'd be worth sharing...do you notice that his mouth is shut? WOW!
It was a great trip. It was short and if this campground had showers, I would stay there a week. Well, maybe. This time there were ants the size of my little toe. They were HUGE. I don't know if we went during "ant hatching week" or what, but if we weren't careful, they could have picked up Twerp #2 and just carried her off. They were really big, and I'm not much of an ant person.
Ahhh...the changes of plans. This weekend, staying in the camper for a lot of it...not what was on our plans for the week. However, we had a great time. We bonded as a family and made memories that will last a really long time. They are good memories. Especially since we didn't get carried away by huge ants...but then again, neither did Indiana Jones.

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