Successful!

Camping was a great success.  We had so much fun, and this year Simeon and I slept in the tent, which turned out to be just fine.  I think that all of us were so tired after our days outside that we could have slept almost anywhere.  Of course, the two Thermarests that I used and the nice warm sleeping bag a friend loaned me helped, too.  Simeon looked SO CUTE in his little sleeping bag, but I didn’t take any pictures of that – no good can come of risking waking a sleeping baby just to get a picture! 

The girls looked cute in their bags, too, but Hannah has not mended her bed-taking-over ways, and was found on more than one occasion to be taking over Naomi’s Thermarest.  Once she even was lying with her head on Naomi, and complaining that Naomi was trying to take her spot.  Heehee.  Of course, we were very relieved that her nocturnal stomach complaint from last year didn’t return. 

Fr. Jerome came with us again, and we really enjoyed having him along.  He is a favorite with all the kids, which was good and bad for him.  Naomi greeted him each morning, as he unzipped his tent, by jumping on him.  She taught girl cousin to do so, also, and Simeon joined the fun more than once.  Girl cousin also would often say, “Let’s play a game!” 

Fr. Jerome:  Okay, what shall we play?

Girl cousin:  Running!

Fr. Jerome:  [Noticeably lacking enthusiasm]  Um…okay.

Being a good sport, Fr. Jerome would play running.  It seemed to get his creative juices going, though, because he would soon come up with another game – without running – to play. 

Simeon and Fr. Jerome spent a good 1/2 hour or 45 minutes one day, throwing rocks in the lake.  Simeon even talked about it in his sleep one night while we were there. 

Hannah led many explorations of the rest of the campgrounds, accompanied by her siblings, cousins, and Fr. Jerome.  After one such excursion, we were amused to see them coming back, all lined up behind Fr. Jerome, in height order, marching.  The order didn’t last long, though, because Simeon objected strongly to being the last, and insisted on going up and holding Hannah’s hand. 

Naomi has decided that we should live at the campground.  While I did have fun, I’m not quite ready to go that far…