Posted by mommyfranklin at May 26th, 2008
On Thursday, Scott and I realized that the next day was our tenth anniversary. We both knew it was coming, but have been so busy that we made no plans to celebrate. Neither one of us are really the type to worry about such things. We threw around some options to celebrate and explored some childcare options, and finally decided to go bowling as a family. We decided this since it would be near impossible to locate a babysitter to come to the house on such short notice and taking the kids to a kids’ night out place would cost in the neighborhood of $40 plus food. So, instead we went to buy a bedspread for our new bed, went out for dinner, and went bowling as a family. Well, I should say that Scott and I bowled. The kids pushed the ball down the alley. We had the gutter guards turned on for them and, for the second game, they rolled their ball down a ramp pointed at the pins. We’re not great bowlers, but we had a really good time. Parent’s night out at church is in a few weeks, so Scott and I will get our date night in then.
For Memorial Day weekend, we went on our first camping trip of the season. Now that the kids are old enough that we don’t have to take a lot of extra things for them, we plan on taking several of these trips. That’s one of the reasons bought our Trailblazer a few months ago. The Montana would not have made it on many of these trips. We had hoped to be able to get a pop-up camper, but that is going to have to wait at least another year. In the meantime, we are set up for tent camping.
Our first camping trip was to Lake Colorado City State Park. We didn’t want to go too far from home in case of inclement weather, but didn’t want to be so close that we wouldn’t feel like we actually went anywhere. Lake Colorado City is just over two hours from here. When we arrived on Saturday afternoon, we found that all the campsites had been reserved so we were smart to have made reservations. We found our spot and got our tent set up about 10 minutes before the rain came. It rained off and on for the rest of the evening, so we spent most of it in the tent. When the rain would stop, we’d get out and move things in from the Trailblazer. During one reprieve, we cooked out hot dogs on our propane stove (campfires weren’t allowed). It was a lot of good time spent as a family.
Saturday morning, we woke up and had eggs, bacon, and Texas toast. We checked out the interpretive trail not far from our campsite. About halfway down the trail, we decided the end would take us too far from our tent so we turned around and made it right back to our tent. Going to the end of the trail would have meant walking back along the road instead of the trail, so we thought this would be better anyway. We’d already drank all the water we brought, so we headed in to town for more ice, water, and some other camping essentials (broom for the tent and a can so Emily wouldn’t have to hike to bathroom in the middle of the night). Then we went swimming in the lake for a few hours before heading back for a sandwich lunch. After we cleaned up the campsite and tent, Scott and the boys went fishing while Emily and I stayed at the tent to read a bit. I had been taking pain medicine for an awful crick in my neck all weekend, so I was ready to relax. After about an hour, Scott came back and asked if we wanted to go home. The ranger had come to the pier to tell them there was a storm coming. We talked about it and decided we’d done everything we had planned to do, so we packed up and came home a day early.
It’s 11:00 on Monday and we’re still in our pajamas. I wonder what we’ll do today?
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This morning was Timothy’s awards ceremony for t-ball. It was scheduled to begin at 9:30. We arrived at the ballpark at 9:00. It was sprinkling. At 9:10, everyone gathered on the covered patio as it rained . We were a little worried we’d be rained out. We’d been rained out of a few practices, but no games. It would be such a shame to be rained out of the awards! 
