fiberous camping

Well, we survived our family camping trip to the dunes. The boys had a blast and enjoyed all that nature had to offer. They really enjoyed playing in the sand at the beach and jumping in the waves of the lake. While Drake was riding the waves Grady was jumping head first into them. I tried showing him how to body surf but he wanted nothing to do with it. He wanted to crash, head first, into the oncoming waves. Sigh.... do I really expect anything less? John and Drake tried to build a magnificent sand castle, Drake's words not mine, but that was quickly met with cries of fury and sadness as "the crasher" joined the scene. The crasher, aka Grady, was very happy to catapult himself forward and land belly first on anything that looked like a sand castle. This had to be strictly monitored, as there were many others on the beach trying to build sand castles. He got the smile and then went running. Luckily the sand slowed him down a bit and I could catch him before he got to anyone else’s sand formations!

We also got to experience "Grady the tree eater". This is not to be confused with a tree lover or the infamous tree hugger. No, Grady was definitely a tree eater. As we were trying to prepare dinner on Saturday evening Drake came running to inform us of the situation at hand. "Mom!!! Grady is eating the trees!" "He's what?" "He is eating the trees!" As I left to follow, sure enough, there was Grady taking a bite out of a tree. Obviously I have to get this boy more fiber!! When I told him "no" he quickly ran to the next tree and inflicted his vicious bite upon its definitely unclean bark. (as a side note, I was really struggling with what he was actually eating and tried not to freak out while camping with others in nature) I am still not sure what prompted this vampire like attack on the trees. He definitely did not see any of us doing it. The things that pop into this boy’s head... some days it really frightens me. What will pop in there next?!? We were rained out and headed home a bit early. I say rained out but what I really mean is that from Saturday night at 10pm till, well all morning Sunday, we experienced torrential rain and lightening. Not a calming feeling in a tent, with metal, under trees, and seeing lightening flying left and right. Due to the "negative" attitude of a certain adult who had to pack up the car during the previously mentioned down pour, I have no pictures of this event. I tried but the death glare sent the camera quickly back into it's case. Bummer.....