Believe it or not, I’ve been known to camp a time or two!  My dad introduced us to it when we were kids.  He does absolutely everything on the cheap.  Therefore, our family vacations did not include air travel and hotel stays.  It was a treat for us to spend the night at a Motel 6 for a night!  We would duck down in our van so the front desk personnel wouldn’t know that we were squeezing 5 people in a room.  A couple of us had to sleep on the floor in sleeping bags and we always brought a crate of food so mom could do all of the cooking.  These are memories I’ll never forget!  Thanks mom and dad for showing us that vacations don’t always have to include a Marriott!

In my adult life, camping has not really made it to the top of the desired vacation list yet, so other than camping in my parents backyard for birthday parties, it really hasn’t happened!

When my good friend, Jamie, suggested a mom/son campout, I was definitely in for making some memories with my boys.  However, I must admit, I was relieved that it was only a 24 hour trip!  Jake helped me get all of our stuff together and we took a caravan of mom vehicles out to Lake Perry, about an hour drive from home.We set up camp right on the water – a great spot!  Jake’s buddy, Payson, was a huge helper in getting the tents up.  His dad made him do a trial run in his front yard the previous day – Payson, you’re awesome!

Check out our camp…isn’t it great!?

When I unfolded our tarp, we realized that I brought the wrong one for the tent…hmmm probably having holes in your tarp is not the best option for camping!  This was made for one of the games at Jake’s Olympics birthday party last year.  Oops!Much to Jake’s dismay, the little brother’s joined us.  He’s in a state of exploring his independence so helping Drew get his fishing line untangled every five seconds is not his favorite activity!  I personally think these two little guys are awesome, but I guess just not so awesome when your older brother only wants to be with his friends.

Drew & Ethan Boehmer (aka little brothers)

All the boys took a swim over to the beach and we made them wear life jackets.  As it turns out, they could touch the bottom the whole way over there!  They weren’t so happy that they had that unnecessary baggage with them.  Hey guys – it’s a lake and mom’s are just paranoid, sorry! Jamie’s sweet parents brought their boat to the lake and took the boys tubing and hung out with us for dinner.We had tacos and quesadillas on the camp fire and s’mores for dessert.  Yummy!  Jamie really is an expert at this – she’s got this camping thing down!  She has been labeled the ‘girl scout’ of the group and takes her kids camping often.  This is our crew of boys…

It turned out to be a beautiful evening (surprising for Kansas in August).  They got lots of fishing time but only one fish was caught all night!  Most of the hot dog bait went to the bottom of the lake and lots of lines snagged on the rocks.  They didn’t give up though!

Apparently the S’mores and Gatorade got the best of these boys and they ended up doing a fashion show of ‘mankini’s.’  I am so scared what these boys are going to be like in high school and college!  yikes!

Drew caught a frog friend that he REALLY wanted to keep.  Somehow he escaped Drew’s grip which made for a really sad Drew for awhile! About 11:30/12 we retired to our tents and Ethan proceeded to teach Drew how to play some card games…aren’t they cute!?The big boys stayed up til all hours of the night (3am I think) talking and swearing they heard coyotes.  They even got Aidan’s boy scout manual out and pocket knives to protect themselves.  Luckily we all made it out alive without any actual encounters with coyotes or raccoons!

By 5:30 a.m., the wind picked up, tents were blowing sideways, and poor Brooks was sick. So we did a massive camp tear-down in what seemed like 30 seconds.  This crew is good at breaking down a camp!  Although the boys were bummed because they had planned on fishing and having fun together most of the day, we had to settle for donuts on the way home and naps!

To make up for the shortened time together, I decided to do a little shopping trip with my boys at Scheels for some school clothes, a little mini bowling, and lunch out.

It’s definitely taken me a few days to recover from the lack of sleep but I’m still laughing and smiling about our adventure!  Great memories with great friends!