Camping in the Rain 2012

The Norris Family is not necessarily a die hard camping family, but we do have fun when we make it out. We pretty much go once a year and have a great time doing it. We go with my sisters and their families over Labor Day weekend. Dan sometimes (especially the last couple of years) has messed up this "tradition" because of an Alaskan fishing trip that ends up being on the same weekend. This year I told him we were going with or without him. We ended up spending Friday on our own and he came up half way through Saturday. To keep a long story short, after a rainy night on Friday, we packed up and spent the night at Dan's mom's house on Saturday (much to the dismay of a few of us). We went back up on Sunday and set our camp up again (don't ask). After that it was beautiful and the rest of the trip was really enjoyable. 

 We were so happy that Kamie came and spent the first day and a half with us. Too bad that was the part with the most rain! I'm thinking she should have come up for the second half of the camp out instead!

Kamie and Kyle

Sadie, Kallie and Ellie braving the rain!

Andrea and Lacey, it must have been dry right at this moment because Lacey's hair looks pretty dry and curly.

Some of us spent our fair share of time sitting in cars drinking hot cocoa and trying to stay warm.

We did break out the camping bingo for a game or two.

We found Syd's name carved into a tree right in our camp site.  (I promise she didn't carve this...but maybe I should print and frame a copy for her room)

I had been planning for quite some time to tell the kids about baby Norris #4 on this camping trip.  I planned a treasure hunt and each clue led to a treasure that had a candy bar, a picture and a questionnaire that I had called each cousin about previously.  The first stop was James (the oldest), then Caden (the next) and on down the line.  Mysteriously there was an extra "treasure" at the end and James read the "clue" that Kallie, Syd and Avery were going to be big sisters to a baby brother!!

My girls had NO CLUE!  We got it all on video and it is pretty hilarious.  Syd kept saying, "You're pregnant?  Seriously??"  It worked out just how I had planned! Amazing!

The whole gang with the pictures that were hidden at each of their spots.  For the baby's candy we gave everyone a ring pop so they could pretend they were binkies.

Look at that sun shining...finally!!  Avery enjoying some pickles and cheetos.

Kyle and Avery hung out in the porta-crib a bit.  They both had fun just being outside.

We took several walks down to the lake.  It is a very beautiful spot and hopefully we'll make it back there again soon.

Coombs girls in all our camping glory :) I love my sisters a lot and we had a great time being together!

Cute Magen...love this picture.

Payson Lakes is having a swimmer's itch problem right now, so we chose not to let the kids in the water at all.  They didn't really seem to mind and had great fun throwing millions of rocks in instead.  I'm just glad they didn't hit any innocent canoe riders as they floated by.

Avery fell asleep on our walk to the lake (thank goodness).  She doesn't understand why she can't get straight in and swim away :) It was much more relaxing for me to have her enjoy the lake this way.  I love that she only has one sock on, it is just a symbol of her busy little independent personality right now.

Avery loves her sisters so much.  She prefers them to me most of the time.

Love my girls!!

Kallie playing with Avery.  I love Avery's strong grip on Kallie's ear :)

Thank goodness we managed to squeeze in the required hot dog and marshmallow roast.  That's a must for every camping trip isn't it?!

This picture makes me laugh.  Kyle loved his first taste of roasted marshmallows!  No big surprise really.

The sign of a successful camping trip is a baby who is sound asleep before we even made it down the mountain.  Maybe it's because she has 14 extra layers on!  We had such a great time (despite the take camp down and put it back up part).  I'm not sure what will happen next year with 2 babies and a husband fishing in Alaska.  I guess we'll find out?!