Happy Campers

Over Mother's Day weekend, we took our first camping trip in our new camper. We went over to Tyler State Park, where we have tent-camped before and set up our camper before anyone else arrived. Guess what campsite we were assigned? Yep, our lucky number!

Carmelle, Chad and the kids came over after everyone got of school and Callie, Jordan and baby D came over just after dark. The weather didn't cooperate with us at all Friday night and Chad and Carmelle realized they'd forgotten their rain cover, so Adellelyn and Michael were thrilled to discover that they would get to stay in the camper with us while their parents made a trip into town to buy a tarp. Adellelyn was particularly excited by the fact that the trailer had its own potty, despite the fact that we were parked directly across from the campground bathrooms. Baby D did not enjoy camping at all Friday night and kept his mommy and daddy awake most of the night, but they treated us all to beignets for breakfast Saturday morning.

It was the first time the Texas group had tasted beignets, but they quickly discovered that it doesn't get much better than fried batter and powdered sugar! ;-)

The rain cleared up long enough for us all to go down to the lake, stopping to splash in a few puddles along the way.

The big guys fished in canoes and kayaks

while the younger guys and Adellelyn enjoyed their first swim of the year.

Adellelyn scooted around like a little water bug, as she looked for fish and other critters.

Until she saw some ducks, that is.

It was baby D's first experience with a beach and he was quite fascinated by the sand.

Each scoop of sand slowly made its way up to his mouth,

but his mama kept a close watch, splashing his hands before they reached his face.

After a lightening break under the pavilion, Callie and I decided to take a hike around the lake. She loaded baby D into the Ergo and off we went, while Jordan went back to the camp to take a nap in his hammock.

With more storms on the way overnight, Callie and Jordan opted not to risk another sleepless night in a tent and packed up and headed home. Before leaving, the grandkids presented me with a wonderful Mother's Day gift---a pillow with the hand prints of each grandchild. I LOVE it!!!!

The rest of us cooked burgers for dinner and later enjoyed s'mores.

Did I mention that we ended up having to bring both dogs with us since we had no one to care for them at home? Well, Joy did great---Emmi, not so much. She was a bit anxious about the whole experience and barked anytime I was out of her reach. In addition, the red dirt, made for a very dirty dog.

Sunday brought more scattered showers, but also more swimming (this time with Papaw),

more bird-watching,

and more bug hunting.

And, while I'm not really afraid of spiders, this creeps me out!!!!

When it was time to pack up, everything seemed to take much longer than we expected.

We used the dump station for the first time, as well. That, too, took longer than we planned because the hose broke as we were getting things hooked up. Carmelle, Chad and the kids met us there to say goodbye. Both of the kids were pretty curious about the dump process, but it also gave us time to eat a little watermelon while we waited.

The weekend included 6 adults, 2 children, 1 baby, 5 dogs, 2 tents and 1 camper. And while there was lots of rain and lots of dirt, there were also:
card games inside the camper and conversations outside,