"The Big Camp-Out!"

The end of September we went camping with 4 of the funniest families. My friend Mary quoted it as "the big campout" and it was. We headed out Thursday afternoon, and arrived at Brazos Bend National Park in a downpour. Lucky one of the families had a super new gigantic trailer, we all ate dinner and waited out the rain. We finally set up our tent by headlamp light at around 11. Some families had bailed and slept at home, which luckily was only 45 minutes away. After a night battling raccoons trying to get in our cooler, and tent, we set up all the comforts of home we could cram in 2 cars. Another family set up the hammock and we needed a parent manning it the entire time, and lots of "okay your time is up, get out and let the next kid swing in it."





We headed out to the lake for a bike ride and stopped at the nature center first, to see all the stuffed animals and pet some baby alligators.

DO NOT BE ALARMED, NOT A REAL RACCOON!!

Of course I didn't get my big butt on a bike, I only rode to the bathroom and back, so Billy took Lynlee and Regan around and they said they saw about 12 alligators, later on the night it seemed the number grew every time they talked about it so your guess is as good as mine. He only took a picture of this one!

The kids had a great time and we had great weather!! Texas is still dealing with this awful drought so we couldn't have any fires, which was a big bummer. We had to be creative at night, the campsites had power and water, so we strung up a bunch of Christmas lights, and about a million glowsticks. All the kids loved it, when I was putting the girls to bed, Regan asked me if Santa Claus was coming.:)

All the kids climbing this enormous oak tree, I love Texas trees!! We had a blast, I did here talk one night about a campout in November, just not sure these pregnancy hips can handle sleeping on an air mattress again, but we'll see. Thanks Glauser's, Long's and Archibald's for the fun!