We had a very eventful morning - for reasons I won't mention here - but that involved leaving something important (not a kid) at the store and a mad rush to get it back, and the lack of a packing list and some other forgotten things. Several of the kids have been sick with coughs and there was also the impending chance of rain looming over our heads.
Nevertheless, we hurriedly packed the van and headed out with the sun shining in Baton Rouge.
Driving along - Andrew, Matthew and Peter all fell asleep. James saw me taking a picture and played possum.
Getting closer.
The entrance gate to Tickfaw State Park.
In the park. It's really pretty. Lots of trees.
We woke Peter up so that he would see the trees. He was the most excited to go. See the Peanut Butter Snickers in his cup holder? More on that later.
Some swamp.
A break from the pictures here because when we got to our campsites - two because of how many people we have. There is a limit of six on each campsite. Anyway, we decided to switch sites because there were a couple of better ones. So we switched at the front office and then we were set.
We explored the campsite a little bit and put up our screen tent over the table. We decided to have the kids change into their swimsuits and go to the spray park to have the birthday party as long as it still hadn't started raining.
Brian and the kids decided to walk the 1 mile trail through the woods and Matthew and I drove the van with the food, cake and presents.
When I pulled up to the spray ground the kids that were already there were waving their hands at me and I heard some talk about how the water had just stopped working. Two park rangers arrived soon after to try and fix it.
Matthew and I hung out in the van eating cool ranch Doritos. More on that later.
This is when the rain started. I began to wonder how long it would take Brian and the kids to walk a mile through the woods - now in the rain. Then it began to pour. Then the deluge started.
Remember, Grampa, when you came with us when we moved and you said you'd never seen it rain so hard so fast? It was like that. Hard rain and lots of it.
I closed the van door and sat on the water cooler while we waited. Still no sign of Brian and the kids.
Finally they arrived and headed under the large pavilion picnic shelter. We thought of reserving this online when we made our camping reservations but it was already taken. However, no one was there at this point.
So, Matthew and I ran to meet them. They were soaked! Peter was drenched but came up to me and said "Mom, you missed all the camping fun!" Then I heard Brian ask all the kids "Who got the most Super Camper points?" And I was like "What??" So, they told me all of the animals they had seen on the walk through the woods and how they got a point for each one. Pretty funny.
So we decided to have our picnic under the shelter - knowing that if someone showed up for a party we would have to leave.
We had turkey and cheese on buns, chips and grapes. Kool-Aid and water to drink with promises of birthday cake to follow.
Wet kids. See Peter's sandwich? It rubbed up against the cake and got blue frosting on it. He said "My bun has cake sauce on it!"
We ate as it thundered and rained around us.
I have a short video of the rain, but Blogger won't let me upload it. Bummer.
Matthew
A Transformers cake.
The birthday boys.
Again, I have a video but I can't upload it. You would have seen that I forgot the birthday candles. So, we used matches that I had to purchase on the way because I also forgot matches.
The cake was great - strawberry filling even!
Then it was time for the presents.
Spider man wrapping paper!
Hmm. I wonder what it is . . .
A new ball!
Woo Hoo! Jonathan is NOT going to let a little rain get him down. He was out splashing in the puddles a lot and volunteering to take things to the garbage out in the rain. His shoes are in the wash right now.
More presents! All of that rain in the background.
And this is when I got my own Super Camper points. I turned back to the table where we had eaten and saw a raccoon at the edge of the woods. He ventured out toward the shelter to eat a bun that I had thrown.
But he didn't go away - even though we were all there he kept trying to get closer to eat more of our crumbs. He was soaking wet too and shaking water off himself like a dog does. I yelled at him a couple of times but he would always come back so I began to pack up our stuff quickly while they finished opening presents/cards. Brian hollered at him once and he pretty much stayed away after that although he did circle around us on the other side before he disappeared for good.
Peter was a little cold.
Andrew
All of our gear packed up and ready to go.
About this time is when we noticed that the right side of Matthew's face was red and swollen. He was rubbing it pretty bad and so I took a towel and tried to wash his face. I remembered that he had gotten a red face from ranch dressing before - this also happened to some of the other kids when they were babies with ranch dressing (although they can eat ranch now without problems). So, we think perhaps it was from the ranch doritos. By the time we were back in the screen tent Matthew's face was fine.
During a couple of minutes where the rain was not quite so bad, we loaded up the van to go back to our campsite. We thought maybe it would stop raining and we could have a fire and roast some marshmallows. At this point we didn't plan to set the tents up because it was just too much rain.
The firewood that woodn't get used (hahaha).
We sat in our screen tent and had some snacks while Andrew and James built some of their new toys.
Peter also brought along a couple of new toys that he had purchased with a birthday gift card.
"WHERE'S MY CANDY BAR???"
I had taken it away from Matthew and set it in the front of the van about 3 minutes before this.
We drove to the nature center to find it had closed about an hour earlier. Bummer.
So, we packed up our soaked screen tent and headed toward home.
Where the kids had glow bracelets, played video games and "camped" out in the living room.
We've got to get our screen tent dried out today - hopefully it won't rain.
Also we hope to eat the watermelon that we brought with us and maybe grill some burgers and, of course, we have cake to eat!
We've still got the firewood so maybe we will try camping again sometime!
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