A Camp-tastic Weekend!

This weekend, Cort’s mom and Ray took all of the Sluiter siblings camping and canoeing up at Vic’s Canoes at Salmon Run Campground in Grant. What an adventure! Now, Cortney and I will NEVER claim to be campers by trade–in fact, I will actually admit that in the week leading up to this trip, I started to moan and groan about having to sleep in a tent, battle mosquitos, and have sand on everything. Anyone who knows me knows that my idea of camping involves…well…I just don’t camp. But this weekend, we packed up the truck to overflowing (which proves that we are not minimalists) for two nights of camp-a-rama!

We were greeted at the campground around 6:30 Friday night by Kim and Ray and Kenzie and Dave. Liz and Cody arrived shortly after we did. We had some snacks and conversation that night around the fire, and then called it a night. I may have mentioned that I am not a camper. This became painfully obvious the first night. Camping in a tent involves being close to nature. Nature is a beautiful thing, don’t get me wrong, but I like to see it from the comfort of an air-conditioned building or behind a protective structure in a zoo. Having only a thin layer of nylon between me and nature is not my idea of a fun night. All night long I heard animals fighting each other and racoons trying to find camper food. All I could think about was how Chris told me about how racoons broke into his friend’s car once on a camping trip, and I SWEAR those racoons were trying to bust into our truck. And because I didn’t sleep much, neither did Cortney. The funny thing about an air mattress is that if one person shifts, you shift. So every time I sat up to look at the dumb nature acting up, Cortney woke up and told me to go to sleep.

Finally, around 6:00 in the morning, it started to thunderstorm and I fell asleep. We were worried that the rain would cancel our canoe trip scheduled for 11:00 am, but it cleared up and we were on our way. I have pictures of that trip…oh the fun…but I took those with a water proof camera and they need to be developed before I can post them up here. I can hardly remember what we did before digital cameras!

Anyway, after the canoe trip we were all sunburned, bruised, and tired…AND hungry! We cleaned up and started a fire. Actually, because of the rain, it took us over and hour to figure out how to get the fire started with damp wood and no kindling, but with some charcoal briskets and lighter fluid, we made it work. As soon as that fire was burning, EVERYONE threw their hobo pies on the fire! And Kenzie made us beans! Mmmm! Looks delicious! Our canoe trip was supposed to be a 3-hour tour…we turned it into a 6 1/2-hour tour–this made us HUNGRY!
Cortney started the fire–and kept it going–with our little air pump for our air mattress.

Dave and MacKenzie rest by the fire.

That night I slept MUCH better–probably due to my sunburn and exhaustion! This morning we woke up to the sun shining brightly and the humidity being GONE! I celebrated by brushing my teeth by the truck.
Everyone seemed rested from the day before. Liz, however, had some “war wounds” from the canoe trip. You’ll see when I get those pics back, but she felt the need to jump from the canoe and take a swim. Apparently she got a few HUGE bruises in the process. Below she and Cody examine them before breakfast and assess the damage. While we got the fire started, people started preparing to pack up. There’s Kenzie in her tent packing up!
Mom washes up our dishes from the night before in her tent.
Ah, the fire was ready. Kenz and Liz wasted no time preparing their breakfast hobo pies: egg, ham, and cheese between the break slices.

All hobo pie makers are back in the fire for the morning meal! Me, Liz, mother, Kenz, and Dave wait for breakfast below.
Check out our boo-boo’s! Liz got hers canoeing–mine is less spectacular. I burned my chin on hot melted cheese from my pizza hobo pie the night before. Ouch!
Check out my breakfast! Looks good!
Liz’s is so tasty she doesn’t even notice Cortney and the camera!
Kenzie’s is G-O-N-E before we can get a shot of it!

Hey…do you want a bite? It’s really good!
Once breakfast was done, it was time to pack up our adventure. Everyone started cleaning up their site and packing things away. Dave started with their tubs and coolers.
me, Liz, and Kenz posed for a quick “sister” picture!
Ohhh! A flat tent is the international sign for the camping is over! As much as I was dreading all the “roughing it,” we both had a super fun time! We brought home sunburns, bruises, bug bites, cheese burns, and TONS of fun memories!