Homeschooling Friends Camp Out

Friday night was our big camp out. Ryan and Melissa came over and stayed with Adelia, and Aaron and the boys and I headed up to Whiting's Campground in Mapleton. It's only about 20 minutes from our house, but it's a nice campground, with lots of trees.

A lot of other families from our homeschool group were already there. People came and introduced themselves and talked to us while we put up our tent. The boys went to play in the sand box (aka sand volleyball court) with a lot of other kids.

We had a dutch oven dinner, which was amazing. While eating Lincoln fell backwards off of the picnic bench and smacked his head on the concrete. Once he started crying he kept telling us he was tired and wanted to go to sleep. We were a little worried that he might have a concussion, so we watched him really carefully. But his eyes seemed fine, he never got dizzy and he didn't throw up, and after awhile he stopped complaining about it, so that was a relief. He had a nice goose egg on his head and a pretty good scrape on his elbow, though.

We roasted S'mores and talked to everyone until it got dark. Then the campfire program started, which was my favorite part of the whole trip. Whenever you read books that are set back before modern conveniences, it often tells about the characters sitting around the camp fire or the fireplace and playing music, or telling stories or poems, and I've always thought that sounded like the perfect way to spend an evening. And that's exactly what happened in out camp fire program. We had a family who recited poems that they'd written. They were cute and clever. And there was another family who played their violins for us. Awesome fiddle music that we all got to clap our hands along with. I loved it. Then we watched a slide show of last year's Homeschool Friends pictures. We are too new to the group to be in the slide show, but seeing the different fun things they did made me really glad we're in the group now.  

I think I mentioned that this was the first camping trip the boys have ever been on. I was a little nervous about how they would sleep, (especially since the group right next to us was blasting their stereo all night long, and when they finally turned their stereo off, someone got out a guitar to play and everyone in that group started singing along) but they boys went right to bed, and slept straight until morning. Aaron and I were up most of the night, but the boys slept, so I consider that a success.  

The next morning we had a great breakfast before we packed up and headed out. We wanted to get out pretty early so we could come home and save Ryan and Melissa. When we did get home, they said she was really good, and that they didn't have to get up with her in the middle of the night. So the camp out was a win all around.

Even though we are pretty new to our homeschooling group, I already love it. I love the things I see the other ladies doing with their kids. I love the Mom's Nights Out and the things that we learn there. I love that everyone has made us feel so welcome, and been so encouraging and helpful. I love that when we are all together we have conversations that feel intelligent and meaningful. And more that anything else, I feel like it's the right place for us to be.