Why does life seem to fly by?

When I had a bunch of little ones the days seemed endless, lol. Now they are flying by at lightening speed.
My house if full of kids, and loud and wonderful. We took the kids camping with some of our church family.

Be prepared to be tired, you will get worn out just reading this, lol.

Kaytlin had princess duties all weekend so she couldn't come with us, but she wanted us to leave her a good car, since we were taking hers. (bigger trunk and holds one more person) So we left her our good car and took the beater that the kids and Donnie have been working on for a couple of years now. (I don't think they've ever had it running longer than a couple of weeks)

We haven't camped in years and found out that our camp stove doesn't work as we were packing up the cars. So we were heading to the store to get one on our way to the camp. I was going to meet Donnie there. I got there ahead of him and waited. He didn't show up. Sure enough we got a call. "The muffler fell off the car in the alley." Isn't that a sign to NOT GO?

Donnie tied the muffler up while I bought a grill.

Half way there the lights and electrical things in the car started flickering so Donnie couldn't stop anywhere or the car would die. Fun times. But he made it all the way to the camp site without it dying. Sure enough it wouldn't start again.

We set up in the rain, but it wasn't too bad. Then it stopped and we talked my fake son Brian into trying "Chubby Bunny" with ginormous marshmallows. It was pretty hysterical, lol.

The kids had a good time sitting around the campfire.

I went home the first night to get ready for our house guest from France. I wanted to be able to clean without little kids trashing behind me. Sam ended up coming with me, he didn't much like the whole tent thing.
The next morning I went back and we had fun swimming at the pool and exploring the river and visiting with friends. But I had to leave for the airport in the afternoon to pick up David from France. That went well and we made it back to the camp about 9PM. (David is in the red shirt holding the puppy)

The kids enjoyed playing "Spoons" for awhile and then they went "Snipe hunting."

I wanted to stay at the camp grounds and visit around the campfire, but Sam went spastic and wanted to go home. I didn't want him screaming for hours at 11PM, so I took him home, and Devon and Trinity wanted to go home, too. So I missed out on most of the big campfire. Donnie was on fire fighting duty as they made the fire way too big and way too hot and kept setting fire to the grass around the ring. In fact, the they got it so hot that the ring was glowing and a marshmallow set near it burst into flames!

Then came the next day. I didn't bring the kids back with me, they were worn out, so Devon watched them. Turned out great because we barely had enough room for the rest of us and our stuff in two cars.

We did manage to get everything packed into the two cars and even managed to get Donnie's car started with a jump. But while checking out we couldn't find Brian and during that time the car died. We did finally find Brian in the shower, apparently a 45 minute shower. Not that he didn't need it, but geez! I didn't know where he was!

The car did start again with another jump and we made it quite a ways going 4o mph with the car making funny noises and jerking along. It was actually kind of funny for awhile, even the when the car died just before our church and I pushed him into the parking lot with Kaytlin's car and gave him another jump start.

But then it died again at the end of the block. I had to turn around on the road facing the wrong way to give him another jump. I was pretty annoyed at this point. I had wanted to just run home and get a battery out of a different car, but nooooooooo.

So the kids and I started betting on where the car would break down again. I figured we'd get to the grocery store around the corner and Brian thought they'd make it to McDonald's, which is about a block further. The car died at the stop light between them, lol.

The boys all had to push the car out of the main road so I could give him another jump. But did he have them stop in an out of the way place? Nope. Right in a side road so that I had to turn backwards and block traffic. I was beyond annoyed at this point. It was no longer funny. But Donnie did make it home that time. It was about 6 blocks and he just didn't stop for stop signs.

As I pull in behind him our neighbor/mechanic was talking to Donnie about what could be wrong with it that causes the battery to not charge. (the alternator does work and the battery is good according to the stores) Then I find out that he had offered HIS car to us for the weekend so this wouldn't happen and Donnie turned him down! And on top of that, Kaytlin never touched the car all weekend.

So, it was partly fun, and partly frustrating, but we made it through our camping trip and have a foreign house guest for a month. Plus the stupid but cute puppy. Fun times!

Next up...

Kaytlin's grad party.