Monday, March 9, 2009

Monday Memory - Camping With Tikes

Gayle at Planet M Files is hosting a memory day! This is good, because as I have been looking for one particular picture, I have found a host of great memories. Where to land (sigh) . . . So, this is the one I am choosing. The weather is camping weather here and so why not a camping memory.

After my divorce, I did go back to the house I left and grabbed one more item. The tent! I was taking the boys camping! We took a trip close by first. Went great. I then ventured out to a four day trip to the beach the following spring. At the time, there was a new gal in the cubicles where I worked. She had heard me planning the trip and heard the details when we returned. Turned out she and her family camped, and planned an annual weekend trip every fall with family and friends from Georgia and North Carolina. She invited us to join them on their trip in October to Lake Hartwell (Georgia/South Carolina line). A start to a great friendship.

October came and off we headed after work one Friday. What a great weekend. The camping sites were lined up along the water (which was down considerably) It was shorts weather, not necessarily swimming weather, at least not for most of the adults. But that did not stop a single child from jumping in.


See that red clay above? Oh how I wish I could have found the picture of The Man in his kahki shorts - the whole seat of the britches were stained red from sliding down the bank. A true Gain detergent commercial.


Demolition D was 7 and The Man was 4. All the kids played hard. There was time in the water, time on the playground time running between the camp sites, domino games . . .
And time for . . . .

Roasting Marshmallows


We should have taken a full group picture - there were about 30 of us, kids and adults.
A great trip, new friends made, great fun and another fun memory!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

lmerie, what a fun post! I think that is so brave of you to have gone on camping trips, just you and your boys. The group trip sounds like so much fun! I have never seen red clay like that. It must have been a lot of work to get The Man's shorts clean! The photo of your boys is so sweet. Those are great memories!

Thank you for participating in my first blog party! I hope you will come back again next week!

amariaf2000 said...

Oh, red clay - I live (and grew up) in NC and man alive, do we have some red clay!?! Thank goodness for bleach!!
Thanks for sharing!
~angela @ peonypatch

FancyHorse said...

Thank you for sharing these wonderful memories! There's nothing like tent camping with a group for forging deep friendships. Ous sons' Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops used to sponsor "family camping" trips, and they were great - roasting marshmallows, singing around the campfire, all the fun. You've brought back some memories for me, too!

word verification game
presses: synonym for irons, which I don't do if I can help it!

Anonymous said...

these are what special times are made of ...what a wonderful tribute to that special campout

Call Me Cate said...

Isn't the red clay insane? My first trip to Florida, I remember pulling off the highway somewhere and seeing this horse that was the strangest orange color. Then I realized it was from the clay. Poor dirty pony!

Jeni said...

What great memory! The cool or cold doesn't stop my kids either and I know all about that Georgia red clay!

Merrie said...

We went camping when our 4 were small. We "enjoyed" it so much that we just left the tent there and NEVER went back to get it! haha... it was a little hard to get 2 little girls who were just getting potty trained to squat to use the bathroom. The boys loved it, but their daddy hated it! (he was a city boy)

Don't worry about the sugar... I love it and eat it (way too much, for sure)... and don't stress over it.... this should be fun and a surprise is a surprise and is fun ... you can't go wrong, that's for sure!!!!