Aaahhhh..it was so good to go have fun!
Kim's awesome boyfriend, Miles, has super cool toys. One of them is a 500 foot long camper. Well, I'm not sure it's 500 feet, but it felt like it. It was great. Too bad I didn't take any panoramic shots of it........
Ah Ha! Tim took pictures of it. So, here you go:
Here's where we slept...it was in the back of the camper in the "garage".
This camper is a "toy hauler", so it has a drop-down door in the back to drive in your 4 wheelers or Harley or whatever. Mile's brought us instead of toys. :) There are 2 drop-down queen size beds back there. And a pull-down screen for when the garage door is down. It was so cool. The first night we slept with the door down, and just a screen between us and all the wild Nebraska animals. The kids enjoyed sleeping-in.
My Grandpa sent his well-traveled, well-used cast iron griddle with us, and it was fun for Tim to make breakfast on it. It was fun for us to EAT the breakfast. There is nothing like pancakes cooked over a campfire.
And, pancakes are always better eaten out-doors.
Breakfast was FUN.
We played dominoes...
Playing dominoes was FUN.
We went boating and tubing...
The kids has a blast driving the boat. I think Samuel had the most fun. He just drove us in circles.
The tubing started out mild...
Tim and Trevor rode, then Samuel, Kim and me. Wild Willie would NOT get on the tube for ANYTHING.
Then, Tim and Miles...
which quickly escalated our experience from "mild" to "wild".
Wild Willie was totally freaked out by this point of the game (he quickly morphed from Wild Willie to Whiny Willie), and we had to take a break. After finding a calm spot on the lake, splashing and having a snack, we were ready to roll again. Miles asked if WW would be willing to try riding on the tube in the calm water. What a good idea. All the boys wanted to go. Tim says that as they were climbing on, WW kept saying things like, "Now REMEMBER, the goal is to go slow. The goal is to not knock us off. Don't forget, go slow. We're trying to keep us ON the tube." I'm sure he sounded just like ME. :)
Miles did a great job at remembering to go slow. The ride was so calm they were able to copy-cat Tim and Miles:
That was fun for them until all 3 got up on the front of the tube, and it pulled a submarine maneuver. Too bad, no picture of that. All the boys went in the water, but no one was hurt, and just as importantly, nobody cried. It did, however, end the tubing experience. :)
Boating and Tubing were FUN.
We went fishing...
To go fishing, we just walked down the hill from our stellar camping spot, and set up by the water.
I love this picture of Kim and William. They were having a sweet little walk down the hill, and just as I took a picture, Kim reached out to put her hand on William's shoulder. Or, pull his ear...I can't tell.
Incidentally, isn't that an awesome tree?
(I have noticed that I say Awesome a lot...And I know that really ONLY God is Awesome, but I think being a child of the 80's, it might be hard to root that word out of my vocabulary. God knows I love him--He is Glorious. And he made some Awesome stuff for me to enjoy. Like this tree...
...but I digress...)
So, here is one little hilarious moment of Tolleson Fishing. William caught this big fish. Here:
The funny thing is, to get that picture, I had to make Trevor get out of the way:
Oh man, that picture makes me laugh. William is so proud of his fish, and Trevor is so...I don't know...engrossed? Tim said that when he was cleaning the fish...(Samuel said, "just cwean it wif the wadow")... Trevor said, "Dad, that fish sure is being patient with you while you are cutting its head off..." (Was that a run-on sentence?) Oh boy...fish cleaning. It's a little traumatic the first time you witness it.
All the boys caught fish, but I wasn't there to get pictures of them all. Here's a sampling:
(Okay, another Awesome thing God made: Blue Gill.
Did you see Avatar? I loved it. It was really blue. And, sure, there was creative stuff on there, but my Jesus is the Author of it all. He made that awesome blue color before they did...)
We had FUN fishing.
We played washers and horseshoes...
I don't think the boys had ever played Horseshoes or washers before. But, they picked it up quick. It was intense.
Samuel was TOTALLY into Washers.
The washers were Totally into Samuel, too. Look up near his hairline:
Trevor and William liked washers, too...
...but they were MORE into Horseshoes.
Miles was in charge of the games...
...and the score-keeper.
We had FUN with washers and horseshoes.
We ate Shmarshmallows...
We had fun with our Sticky Shmarshmallows.
We took a boat ride to do fireworks...
Cool Captains
Beautiful Sister
Cozy Grandma and Grandpa
Awesome sunset...
Fun Fireworks
After we let off the fireworks, we rode around in the dark, on the lake, watching everyone else's fireworks. It was wonderful. And, the dozen-or-so shooting stars I saw were Awesome.
Fireworks were Fun.
And, lastly, we played Tripoley...What camping trip would be complete without it??
Very, very fun trip. Thanks for the fun, Mom and Dad, and Kim and Miles!
