Snow in the mountains? We'll just put the tent up in the backyard.

For a few years Brodie was Scoutmaster and I was Girls' Camp Director.  We acquired quite a bit of camping equipment and the love of camping, although I think we've only camped together about once a year.  Since being released from those callings, we're down to about one campout a year.  I thought it would be fun to go together and I reserved a spot in Little Cottonwood Canyon about a month ago for this weekend.  We got a call about a week ago cancelling our reservation because there is too much snow and we were told they won't be opening up until June 14th.  Kind of glad now cuz even without the snow it was a cold, rainy weekend.  Problem being that I had already told the kids we were going camping...

So we set up the tent in the backyard.

My favorite part of an evening Friday Fun Day is that I can get the house cleaned.  I have the time, as well as an incentive for the kids to help ("We can't have Friday Fun Day until the house is cleaned...").  I mowed the backyard in the morning during Clara's nap and after lunch the kids and I tackled their rooms, the front room, and the TV room.  I can't wait until the kids can do their rooms all by themselves.  Spencer is close, I just organized his books since he just shoves them all into the bookcase, but he did the rest.  Tessa is still young and pretty much just arranged her shoes on her shoe tree (which although I'm proud she has finally caught on to putting matches next to each other I still had to re-arrange them to keep boots together, church shoes together, slippers together, sandals together, and sneakers together) and threw her dress ups in her dress up chest.  I kept the lid closed and avoided the urge to organize those.  Other than that I ended up doing the rest of the clean up in her room.  We didn't have time for the toy room as I had to get to the store to get stuff for dinner.  While I was gone Brodie started a fire in the smoke box of our charcoal smoker/grill.  We then had the kids roast their hot dogs over the open fire.  We originally sat on a blanket on the grass to eat, but Clara was attacking too much so everyone moved onto lawn chairs except me as I still had to restrain the adorable baby monster and direct her to her own dinner.

After eating we had the kids fill the tent with their gear.  I had the kids bring out their foam couches to sleep on to provide some extra comfort and warmth.  They also brought out pillows, their Disney sleeping bags, water bottles, and flashlights.  And Spencer doesn't go anywhere to sleep without his tissue box due to his propensity to bloody noses.  It came in handy with Clara's cold.  Then the kids got on their warm wintery fleece pajamas with the feet attached.  I had bought the Giant Roaster marshmallows at Macey's (they are like 4 times the size of the large marshmallows) and the kids' eyes ended up growing about as big as the marshmallows.  Once again we roasted them in the smoke box and put them on graham crackers with Hershey's bars.  Clara just got a graham cracker.  The bigger kids only ate a few bites before asking to be done, but they enjoyed the experience.

 

After cleaning up from S'mores we moved into the tent where we read goodnight stories and ate the bag of taffy I bought.  Ever since our tour of Sweets Candy Factory (see prior post) I have been addicted.  And previously I thought Macey's only carried 2 of my favorites, Huckleberry and Watermelon.  But when I was buying hot dog food I noticed a couple variety mixes they had.  One was a tropical mix and I quickly spotted 2 of my other favorites, pineapple (green with yellow center) and coconut (brown-ish with white center).  Then there was another mix that had my very favorite--butter popcorn (paler yellow than banana but only slightly darker than eggnog.  Since this mix had red licorice, cotton candy, and bubble gum I figured it was safe to assume this was butter popcorn and not eggnog).  Is it wrong that I can tell about 50 different flavors just by looking?  Anyways, I couldn't resist and I bought a bunch of taffy for our "campout".  Clara wanted in on the action and stole our bag.  She kept taking them out, putting them in her mouth (with the wrapper on) then setting them on my lap until the bag was empty.  Then she put them all back in the bag and did it again.  I didn't let the kids eat all I had bought this night, saved the rest for Saturday. 

 

Then Brodie wished me luck in getting 3 sugar high kids to sleep and he went in the house to watch television (saying he needed to keep Pace inside to make sure he didn't pee on the tent).  Lucky me I had all three kids asleep by 8:30!  Then I covered them all with an extra blanket to ensure they stayed warm despite the rain.  I took out my Sony Reader and re-read my favorite novel, P. and P. for the umpteenth time.  I didn't finish it as I got tired of using a flashlight (couldn't find book light) and went to sleep.  I woke up around 3 after a neighbor's car alarm went off and noticed Clara had gotten her hands out and they were freezing!  I picked her up and brought her with me for the rest of the night.  From about that time on Spencer asked me every half hour or so what time it was.  Finally around 5:30 all kids were up so I let them play around while I laid half asleep, occasionally checking on Clara.  Just before 7 she crawled back to me and cuddled up and closed her eyes so I sent the big kids into the house to watch tv and Clara and I got another hour of sleep.

For breakfast Saturday morning we made breakfast sandwiches.  Spencer saw a commercial and has been begging for a Burger King cheese sandwich for breakfast.  Instead I toasted English muffins, cooked some sausage patties, cooked eggs in a nice circular shape, and sliced some cheese.  The kids assembled and enjoyed their sandwiches, but Spencer was set on the Burger King idea so he sweetly drew some pictures with a black crayon and stapled them together to create "coloring books" for he and Tessa as their "prize" with breakfast.  Then he got on the computer and discovered McDonald's has the new Happy meal toys, Kung Fu Panda 2.  I'm sick of McDonald's and the kids didn't enjoy the first movie so I have no desire to take them to the 2nd, or to McDonalds.  The next toys will be Pokemon Black and White and Liv, both of which I know the kids will enjoy so I want to hold off for a few weeks until these come out.  Remembering the toys we got when the first movie came out, I told Spencer to go downstairs and find those toys.  Turns out we have the panda, praying mantis, and monkey.  I told them to each choose one toy and now we don't need to go to McDonalds.  I was so surprised when it seemed to work and the kids were happy.  Wahoo for mom!

We left the tent up for most of the day and the kids had a blast playing in it and around the yard.  I even made them sack lunches to eat outside as part of their "camping trip".  We took the tent down shortly before dinner and a much larger rainstorm.  Boy was my bed comfortable last night...