Father Daughter Campu Out

I want this blog to be more of a journal and not a photo album so I try not to over do it with the pictures. Today I'm going to make an exception. I tried to narrow the number of pictures down to just two or three and I couldn't even come close so I'm going to post twelve pictures. That is how much fun today has been. Last night and today was father-daughter camp out and as always, we had a blast. Sarah was born in August and her first father-daughter camp out was the following June and I took her when she was just ten months old. We haven't missed one since then except for the occasional time when we were out of town as a family or otherwise committed. As an example, I think we missed it the year Kira got married. I decided that if I could take Sarah when she was a baby then why couldn't I take Sydney, after all she is already nine months old and I don't think I've forgotten how to change a diaper. Some of the guys at the camp out thought I was nuts but we had a blast. She was a perfect little angel. I also took Alex's girlfriend camping with us as well. She's never been camping before and I thought that was quite a shame. We tried to keep Sydney up as long as possible in the vain hope that she would sleep a little later this morning but alas, it wasn't to be. Serene gave us a bottle of broccoli and carrots that we were supposed to feed her for dinner but she wouldn't have anything to do with them. Lisa asked me to buy a box of baby cereal on the way out so I had a box of "multi-grain" cereal with us, thank goodness. I didn't really believe the girls when they said that Sydney would not eat the veggies so when we got to the campground I tried to feed them to her and she wouldn't touch them. I then pulled out the cereal. You should have seen her snarf that stuff down. She polished off the bit we made and started screaming for more. We made three bowls of the stuff before she would slow down. We finally settled in the tent and watched a movie on my laptop. I've now seen "27 dresses". It was OK for a chick flick. Sydney was in her crib watching it with us but I don't think she made it past the opening previews. She was out. One of my favorite parts of camping is laying in bed in the morning watching the sun shine into the tent and listening to the birds singing. I guess you could say this was almost one of those experiences, except the birds singing were crows. Around six in the morning the four of us were sound asleep and all of the sudden, about four feet from our tent a dumb crow let out a very loud squawk. It woke all of us with a start and then Sydney started crying. It scared all of us. I suppose she may have gone back to sleep if we'd tried but Sarah decided to get her up and I figured that they normally start making breakfast early at these things anyway. I do know that they make breakfast long before anyone in our family is awake. I got dressed and took Sydney for a walk around the campground. Nobody was up when I started but after I finished my first loop people we getting started on the pancakes. We ate breakfast and then went exploring. William Heise park is far enough out of town that it is in the true wilderness. I love to explore when I am in the wilderness. We headed out into the bush for about a mile (no trail) and made a loop and came back to the campground. It was still early in the morning but there was only one other family left when we got back. I really don't know what the rush is but we decided to break camp as well. The best part is, I still haven't changed a diaper. There were plenty of little "mothers" at that camp out. When the kids have a sport they always have a year end party, usually a banquet where they acknowledge the kids accomplishments etc. It is extremely boring but pretty cool for the kids. For Volleyball they have a barbecue at a park and they setup volleyball nets and have a fun time. Well this year for some reason they decided to have a two on two tournament. Either I've always managed to avoid this other years or this is the first year they've done this but Alex signed us up. I was scared to death. When I hit a volleyball it is anyones guess where the ball is going to go but Alex was a great sport and reminded me that we were just doing it for fun. To make matters worse, our first game was against a friend of our family's and the dad is a real sports fiend. One of those guys who always goes and plays basketball at the church. You know the type. Well guess what, we beat them. I have no idea how but we did. Not only that, Alex and I made it to the the semi finals. What it really came down to was the father who messed up the least was the team that won. The kids obviously are all good.