Day Camping

It started with just our family and an idea. It was a free Saturday and we were in the mood for a camp out. But we didn't have enough time for a full camp out, so we went on a day camp out instead. No tents, no sleeping bags, no lanterns. Just wood and hot dogs, good shoes and a taste for adventure.

At the last minute, we decided to invite the Yeates family to come along with us. They have 8 great kids and a giant 12 seater van. When they moved in last year, we became fast friends, and many of their children line up with ours. Here's Max and Eliza walking through the mountains:

Six of the eight Yeates kids took us up on the offer to come along and they joined us along with their dad, upping our numbers to 11 children and 3 adults.

I then thought of my good friend Christine who is currently going through rounds of chemo for breast cancer while still striving to parent her five young kids at home. Knowing she needed some quiet time, I extended the invitation to any and all of her children who wanted to tag along, and the three youngest joined in the fun.

Vans almost full, we began to pull out of our driveway to head into the mountains when the youngest Shamo kid came running up our sidewalk. Brian and I gave each other a silent glance before we both nodded our heads and Brian rolled down his window, "Hey, Crue! You guys want to come day camping with us?! We're leaving right now - go ask your dad and see if Chandler and Kendall want to come along!"

Crue hopped three feet in the air with excitement and turned as fast as a snake to spread the word and soon we pulled out with a grand total of 17 kids, 3 adults, and zero seatbelts to spare.

We tried hard to keep our adult eyes on all of them, but mostly the big kids disappeared and reappeared according to the food availability. There are five of them playing on this rock below:

Eliza was the keeper of the waterbottles. It's because she thinks they're all hers.

Also, I'm pretty sure that apple rolled around on the ground seventeen times before she finally ate it all.

Carson has landed in such a great group of friends who are all far too cool to smile for a picture, but who are also not too cool to be great examples to each other about how to be kind and to stand up for what they believe.

Their favorite past time (besides the hot dogs) was the BB gun.

The fresh air felt great and we all brought a small mountain of red dirt home in our shoes. Successful Saturday.