“This is how daddy sleeps!”

We just got back from a wonderful camping birthday party! This has become a birthday tradition and it was so fun. Thankfully this time we weren’t accompanied by 30 drunk Marines listening to Metallica as we were last year … that was totally crazy! We were on Bellows AFS and had the best campsite on the planet. Spacious, raised, private, and mostly sheltered. Despite forecasted rain we had really great weather, especially today. Sammy’s hiking buddies joined us for the camp-out – Anneliese and her sister Calleigh (with mom and dad of course). It was their first family camping trip and they had a great time as well. I’ll post pictures as soon as I can later today… Dave did a wonderful job cooking and setting up camp and then taking it all down again. The kids had fun just playing in the sandy soil, hide and seek behind the trees, making bubbles and hanging out. We had Gramma with us as well making this really special. We were also joined by some special friends – long-time friends Mike and Angel and their son David and his friend Nick came for s’mores, and my friend Dana made her famous carrot cake (Sammy’s request) which was decorated by mom and me with some rather unconventional stuff (log cabin, snowman…Sam and I were hankering for winter!). After s’mores, the kids went to bed an the grown-ups had a nice time chatting in complete sentences by candlelight. Poor Sam has a cold and a persistent cough, but he did great sleeping through it all. I went to help him at one point with a sip of water and he said after a little bit “OK mommy, go back to your room, I’m going to sleep all by my SELF.” SO cute. I didn’t sleep a whole lot due to the coughing and rustling, Ben wriggling in my stomach, and Dave snoring (softly) just as everything settled down. Oh well – the smells and rituals of camping are irresistible and we had a fantastic time. We almost stayed another night but decided to plan a longer outing next time. Pictures are up – just click on the photo above.  (Note: in the above picture mom had just asked him “How does daddy sleep?” and he made snoring noises 🙂 hee hee!)