Did you guys know that sometimes I can’t sleep? It’s not every night (anymore), but sometimes my mind gets racing and I just can’t settle down to rest. You won’t find any sleeping pills here, because I don’t feel safe sleeping a chemically induced sleep with kids in the house, so I usually use some conscious relaxation techniques when it happens these days.

What makes this camping related was that I didn’t sleep well this past weekend. The forest is NOT quiet at night. And the sounds are different than I am used to. And also, I was sharing a tent with four other people. It was a large tent, but still. That’s a lot of snuffling and tossing and blanket re-arranging and such. And I still can’t wait to go again. But I want to rest up first, because last night?? I also didn’t sleep, even at home, alone in my room, in the quiet.

After I posted Friday, I went back to Myrtle beach with my folks. I had already been Wednesday to see Deb, which is a pst of it’s own, but will be on my other blog. Maybe. Anyway, we bought a necklace I had etyed on Wednesday, and a pair of shoes (yeah, whatever, hush), AND we scoped out a new yarn store. It’s in NMB, and it’s called Knittiing up a Storm, and it is fantabulous.

On Saturday, I finished my purse, and helped Mama shell peas, and then started a puzzle. We were supposed to camp this weekend, but it was just too hot and also very rainy, so we stayed in the air conditioning and played games and such. Except for the pea thing.

DH says puzzles count as finished objects, since I buy serious puzzles that take some mad skills to assemble. What do you think?

Are ya’ll sick of me talking about backyard camping yet? Oh, well, sorry to hear that, cause, how can I not talk about something so fun?? I’ll try to tone it down until mid-July, when we are doing it again.

You know, part of the reason backyard camping appeals is that we can’t fit all our stuff and all our people in the van. Nonetheless, dh has hinted a few times that he’d like to go to a KOA or something. In order to do that, we’d have to get a second vehicle, and since I really like the concept of indoor toilets, I think he needs to be looking at New RVs. Or used ones, even.

You know what else I found on rvs.com? Links to campgrounds that are way cheaper than KOA. Lots of them. Including horse camps. You know, where you can ride horses. Yeah, for 12-24 bucks a night. I realize the horse riding would be in addition to that, but still. That’s way better than the $80plus quote I got for KOA.

The kids broke out the sidewalk chalk and made a masterpiece on the foundation. Since it’s due to rain, I thought I would go ahead and take and post some pictures.

Here’s what our set up looks like.
Girls in the blue tent, boys in the back room of the other one, parents in the front. We’ve got a couple of guests, even!

Are we gonna have our new tent?
Are you gonna put them both up?
Did you buy the chocolate?
We need more marshmallows!!!!
Can the girls sleep in the old tent and you and Dad sleep in the new one with the boys?
Can I invite abc?
Can xyz come?
Is Dad gonna watch the race outside? Are we putting the tv in the tent?
What are we going to eat?
When will we put up the tent?
We NEED chocolate!

And folks, it’s been like this since Monday. I’m raising badgers here, I tell ya. Badgers!

So, I flipped my calendar over this morning to make a note of something I need to remember, and guess what next weekend is? Yep, Memorial Day Weekend! And do you remember what happens on Memorial Day Weekend? We go backyard camping again! I’ll be spending a little time this coming week making final shopping lists and gathering supplies. We won’t have the financial wherewithall to get all the stuff on our wish list, of course, but we figure to get a couple of new items each month as we camp, and eventually we will have our whole kit. This month we’re getting our new tent (already on layaway) and maybe a dutch oven. The time has really slipped up on me, and I was practically sure we had at least two more weeks. In fact, I reminded dh just this morning that we needed to get the tent out “in a couple of weeks”.

I had hoped to enhance out collection of flashlights and lanterns, too but that may not be possible. Our tent actually has a power port in it (yeah, we really rough it–NOT), so we could even use golights. Those things ought to really light up a tent, don’t you think? We could even use one outside the tent to light up the yard, so we could play longer. Or read, LOL.

Because, have I mentioned that I am finally reading Harry Potter? Yes, I am. And I like it so far. I’ll be through with the first one before we camp, but I might be ready to read the second one by then.

So, DH and Country got home from the race about 1AM Sunday morning. The other children were with my mom. On Sunday morning, the three here with us went to church on the bus, and then it headed to my mom’s to pick up 2 more (I actually thought all of them were going, but that’s another story–she ended up keeping them until after their naps when we decided to do this next crazy thing, and it was a HUGE help.) That left DH and I home alone. A-LONE. Woohoo, was that exciting, but not in the way you think. See, I had packed the tent up still damp, so it had to be set up again. We discussed it for about three minutes, and went to Walmart to pick up a few more camping supplies. Read that air mattress for our old bones, a pump for same, a lantern, another lantern and some food, and when the kids got home we told them we were having a backyard camp out.

We cooked dogs on the grill, while we set up the canopy and the tent. We cooked steak and roasted potatoes for supper. And we made smores. I took some pictures to share with you!

Starting the smores

Country on the tramp

Batman likes marshmallows!

So does Diva.

And, yes, that is a telephone in her ear.

We had so much fun! And it got so stinking cold! We were not prepared very well for that, but we persevered. Brrrrrr! I made a list of stuff we still need/want as the “trip” progressed, and we are planning a couple more backyard adventures to make sure we truly have our act together, and then we’ll be striking out for an actual campground. Our first purchase will be a bigger tent. When the bag says “sleeps 6″, 9 people don’t fit very well! And then probably some sleeping bags.

Dh and I planned our next camp last night for Memorial Day Weekend. He was ready to make reservations at an actual campground, but I’m not ready for that just yet. But really, it’s hard to believe that this time last week, I was sitting here thinking I would hate camping!