We Survived!

For Tanner's birthday we spent a night in the Illinois wilderness of Pyramid State Park. As part of the birthday experience we decided that Tanner could take along two of his friends Isaac and Andy.

I don't think that I've ever really had a glimpse of what boys are like until this weekend. Half the time I spent repressing gasps of disgust, the other half was spent channeling that unique explosive energy that only three 7 year old boys can truly possess.

In retrospect it really was a great weekend and we had a lot of fun. But all things are best in moderation right?? hehe hee
Here are the highlights of our camping adventure.

We got there late Friday night and had to set up camp in the DARK. It was hard to keep the boys calm and quiet because they were so excited.

Finally we decided to divide and conquer. Ben told ghost stories which kept them hanging on his every word constantly asking "is this true, is this true", while I got some of camp set up. Finally it was time to go to bed i (girls in one tent, boys in the other). The girls were fast asleep within minutes. The boys stayed up for quite some time scaring each other with stories of ghosts and swamp monsters. Finally Ben's threats of no fishing in the morning persuaded them to get some rest.

For breakfast we had hashbrowns and bacon... in other words, dutch oven train wreck minus the eggs and cheese that Ben forgot at home. I think we'll call this new dish Ben's wreck... hee hee. It was good though and with full bellies it was time to fish.

No suspense... I'll just tell you we didn't catch a thing. This couldn't have been for lack of effort however. Those boys tried everything to tempt those fishies. First it was a cricket.... ok, kind of gross good thing Ben can put it on I thought. Then it was a grasshopper. Yuck, and double yuck. It was a BIG plump one that I'm sure made a pop when they skewered him.

But what truely set me over the edge was when they got the bright idea to try those little frogs. I thought I was safe. Ben was gone. They wouldn't be brave enough to stick a frog on themselves..... well, something definitely scary happens when three boys are together because they started catching frogs to bait their hooks and casting out lines. The dirty deeds had already been completed before I could pick up my jaw and quiet my queazy stomach.

Well ben got back from fishing accross the way a few minutes later and when I told him of my horror... he just scoffed and said " humpff... I just tried that, it didn't work at all." Well, I guess boys will be boys.

After the novelty of fishing wore off we went for a hike and saw all kinds of wild animal tracks including deer, raccoon, and possibly mountain lion tracks, ok maybe they were dog tracks but either way they were big! However in all the wilderness we romped through the only wild animals we saw were Tanner, Andy and Isaac. After some more fishing, frog catching and a hearty lunch of hot dogs (no fish), we headed back.

My soft bed and frog free home have never looked so lovely