Halloween Camping Trip....and the Friday night from H E Double Hockey-Sticks =)

A couple of weekends before Halloween (yes, I'm super behind but slowly going to catch up!  HA!) we had a CAMPING WEEKEND!  Yes...we CAMPED!  I remember camping in a tent as a kid, and even during youth group trips, and I have always enjoyed it.  Ryan loves being outside, and Brynn was so excited about our camping trip!

Let me back up...my sister in law Sarah's parents and extended family do this camping weekend every year at the Old Greenville Campgrounds (it's about 45 minutes past Marble Hill, which is where Ryan grew up).  It's this huge Halloween weekend, and everyone brings their campers and decorates them for Halloween and on Saturday night all the kids trick or treat.  I cannot even explain this...there were a billion and five RV's and tons of Halloween decorations, etc.  It was crazy and the kids had a blast!

HOWEVER...let me tell you about the night before (Friday night).  Holy cow...not a fun night!  HA!  Sarah's parents have a super nice RV and when they asked if we wanted to go, we were like "we don't mind camping in a tent...this will be fun!"  (They offered to let me and the girls sleep in the RV, but there were already like 10 people sleeping in there and we thought it would be fun to "rough it.") Big mistake.  So on Friday night we were all loaded up and drove out to the campgrounds (insert super motion sickness on the drive...gag me!)  We set up our tent and it was SUPER COLD.  I'm thinking "this could be interesting".  We put our pack n' play in the tent and bundled Emory up like crazy.  She went to sleep great in the tent and we kept an eye on her and hung out around the camp fire for awhile.  Then everyone headed to bed.  Well...we have a 4 person tent, so after you put a pack n play in there, there isn't much room left.  We brought a full size (or maybe twin?  It certainly felt like a twin) blow up mattress to sleep on, and me, Ryan, and Brynn all bundled up and went to sleep.  Reminder...it was COLD.  About midnight I hear this whining crying noise.  It was Emory.  She is normally the best sleeper ever...that kid just doesn't get up at night.  She goes down around 8 or 8:30 and I don't hear her until close to 9 am.  But of course the night that we are outside and everyone in the campground can hear her, she wakes up SCREAMING.   And I mean screaming (I think my arm pits are starting to sweat just reliving it).  HA!  It was like 12:30 in the morning and she was WAILING.  I guess because she was cold?  I could NOT get her to calm down.  I think she woke the entire campground up she was SO LOUD.  It was terrible.  I finally took her to my car to try to be more quiet and to try to calm her down.  I was also thinking "maybe I should just drive us home...except we are out in the middle of nowhere!  HA!)  Anyway - she FINALLY calmed down but there was no way I wanted to relive that so I got her back asleep and got back in the tent and just tried to hold her for the next 6 hours, praying she would not wake anyone else up.  (Picture now four of us on the twin sized blow up mattress).  (And being awake ALL night I also had a lot of time to contemplate what life would have been like if we lived with the Indians and slept in tee-pees and we had a newborn who woke everyone up at night.  I think I would have been called in to the chief for disturbing the peace...I kid you not...that's where my mind was going at 4 am).  Both our girls were up at like 6:15, it was cold, smoky, etc.  MISERABLE.  I guess I'm just not a camper...or maybe just not a camper with a cold 13 month old.  I told Ryan at 6:15 AM there was no way I was sleeping in that tent again on Saturday night, and that we should stay and let the girls play all day and trick or treat on Saturday night, but at bedtime we were driving HOME.  He agreed! 

Thankfully, as terrible as Friday night was, Saturday was awesome.  The kids loved playing outside at the campgrounds, riding their bikes, watching a movie and taking a nap in the RV, eating around the campfire.  We had so much fun, and the trick or treating was great!    

So...IF we are invited next year (and judging by our loudness Friday night, that is pretty doubtful) we will ONLY go if Pam and Rick invite us to sleep in their RV!  HA!  (Oh yeah...Pam and Rick went too, and slept in a tent, and came back and bought an RV the next weekend if that says anything!  HA!)

Here is the weekend in pictures...they are all out of order...but after reliving that crazy night I just don't have the strength to put them in order.  HA!  I think the first group of pictures are from my phone...

 Now the pictures from our big camera...Friday night...setting up.

SO glad we were able to take our girls to do the trick or treating part...AND glad that we drove home for the next night!  HA!

SEMO Homecoming Weekend

On October 9 SEMO had it's annual Homecoming festivities.   We got up early Saturday morning and headed to watch the parade.  It was SO cold for early October!

Family, friends, and lots of college students!

The girls loved watching the parade (and collecting candy...and let's be honest, Emory probably had 2 suckers!)  Then we walked up near the stadium to watch "Redhawks Walk."

After lunch we headed to the football game.  We got to see Grandpa down on the field before the game.

Brynn was INTO it!  She was jumping around cheering and dancing...too funny!

Getting to see Grandpa at half-time!

Ryan took the girls home to nap, and my sister and I (guess I don't have a picture of us!!) stayed at the game and got to hang out together.  Then that night we headed to my parents house for a fun bonfire with our family and some of the college students (now alumni) that were really close to my parents when they worked in the college ministry at church.

We had the BEST time!  We grilled hot-dogs and had s'mores and then played Catch Phrase outside by the fire...it was AWESOME!  (Emory ate cheetos in a baby walker while we played...hilarious!  And Brynn helped "play" the game and give clues and guess the words!)

My sister stayed the night with us, and  Brynn "tucked" Lindsey in her bed...HA!

HAPPY HOMECOMING!

Cody's Ice Cream Party

Back in early October we went to a birthday party for Brynn's little friend Cody.  His aunt owns a local ice cream place so the kids got to go there and play a few little games and get special ice cream treats.  Since it was near Halloween, the kids dressed up.  (I don't think we had Brynn's Halloween costume yet, so she wore her favorite princess outfit...yes, it's a little short!  HA!)

Love these sweet friends!

Happy Birthday Cody!

First Post From the New House!!

WE ARE MOVED IN!  We moved in two weeks ago and are getting all settled in.  We finally got internet hooked up yesterday so hopefully I can catch back up on blogging.  

The move went pretty well.  A bunch of Ryan's buddies helped move all of our stuff over and our families were awesome help all week.  We have most everything put away, and that feels SO good.  We don't have much up on the walls, but I know that will come.

The first couple of nights felt SO WEIRD...as excited as I was about moving, those first couple of nights I just wanted to go back to our old house and curl up on the little couch.  (It probably didn't help that Ryan and I didn't have curtains or blinds those first couple of nights...WEIRD! HA!)  I felt like I was in a hotel or something.  But then later that first week I was making cookies for my cousin's baby shower and something about baking the cookies just made things click and I had this "moment" where I felt like "I'm in MY house."  It was a really good feeling, and there's been no looking back.  We've settled into our little routines here and it is awesome to BE HOME.  

I can honestly say that our house turned out even better than I hoped for.  I look around and I really love it!  Right now there are still a few things that have to be done...our shower door has to be put on (it's still not in yet), my dad is working on putting in our mudroom cubbies, and some built-in cabinets for our great room should be installed pretty soon.  So there's still a lot of work to do, but we are getting there!