The Great Outdoors

Who could ask for a nicer weekend than this past? We really lucked out: blue skies, a cool breeze, and sunshine through shade trees. It was very relaxing--once you come to terms with the fact that boys cannot and will not stay the least bit clean during a camping trip.

Four seconds after Charlie sat down to play with his brothers he dumped the chalk on top of himself. Can you see the chalk smudges on his face?

It's a very laid back environment. I pretty much go in thinking that everything is getting thrown into the washing machine when we get back, so I don't stress too much about how the boys roll around in the dirt.

See how dirty Benny is? Quite literally, he was Pigpen from Peanuts. When he walked he had a cloud of dust trailing him. This was in part due to the fact that when playing baseball 17 out of the 24 hours of the day he is the catcher and dives to make sure he catches the ball. And see his feet? This kid likes to put his own shoes on, and his way of doing it always means they're on the wrong feet.

Versailles has a great swimming pool and last summer both Ben and Lou went down the slide. This year neither of them wanted to. OK, they had to warm up to the idea. Uncle John took Charlie down (he screamed the whole time) and I took Ben down. For others who want to do this, if you don't have super strong arms you have put them between your legs going down because when you get to the bottom it's extremely difficult to lift the kid off your lap and also stand up. The water was only 2 1/2 feet deep at the bottom and I managed to lose my footing and my grip and both Ben and I went under. Needless to say, he decided that I wasn't his slide partner any more.

Uncle John, Benny, and Grandpa

Eventually, Louie decided he'd go down with Daddy. Not thrilled the first time, but he did it. Then, at the persistence of Uncle Johnny he went down with him over and over and over again until finally Uncle John needed a timeout.

Daddy and Louie at the top of the slide.

You can't go wrong with riding bikes, sleeping in a tent, and s'mores at the campground. Lucky for us, we get to go again this coming Friday--same place, different group. The only thing that we're hoping will be different is a sleepier Charlie. Little guy woke up the campground both nights. Maybe a few more times down the slide will wear him out.