The Ballard Bunch

Well, we made it. Barely. :) Camping was fun for all, but I for one, am VERY glad to be home and cleaned up!

We were able to leave at around 5pm on Friday. Beau was only working a 1/2 day, but given circumstances out of his control, wasn't able to come home until almost 3:30. Tatum and I picked him up (he had to drop off a dump truck down town) and we all came home to finish packing. After stopping at Shanna's to borrow her tent (thank you so much!!), we were off. The drive went well, although I was having a rough day pregnancy-wise and felt pretty sick most of the day. Traffic wasn't horrible, but we took the back way just to be sure. I'm not sure how much time it saved us, but it wasn't bad at all. We ended up at camp around 8:30 that night and set up our gear.

Tatum had a blast running around, staring at the campfire (with several warnings from a terrified mom to stay far enough away from it) and playing with the other two kids her age. The nights were less fun (at least for mom and dad). She didn't sleep well camping - which I should have expected, after all who really does? She was up very early in the morning on Saturday and after the rest of the camp woke up, too, Beau took her out to make breakfast and let me sleep for awhile more. It was nice to get an extra half hour or so and even nicer to wake up to french toast and bacon! Tatum had a blast playing in the back of dad's truck while he cooked and when I woke up she'd already eaten a good portion of the french toast. After that we cleaned up and most of the campers went out on 4-wheel rides. Beau stayed behind with the girls and the kids (his knee still won't allow all the activity). He can probably tell you more about women, pregnancy and motherhood after that morning than at any other time in his life - haha!

Later that afternoon the four moms and their kids (Tatum, Jadi - 21 months, Justin - 14 months, and Kayden - 8 months) went down the mountain to the local indoor pool in Gunnison. We picked up lunch on the way, ate at the park, played awhile and then swam the kids into nap time. For good measure, we picked up a milkshake for Beau who stayed behind to tend to camp. I felt awful leaving him, but I think he got a good nap in and was able to really set up our gear the way he wanted. He's funny about stuff like that - perfectly happy sitting around camp puttering around - it's his element I think! It was a nice afternoon out for the kids and we all got sort-of showers in the pool locker room after our swim.

That evening, the boys wanted to drive up to a lake spot to check out some fishing so we all got in our cars/trucks and headed up for a drive. About half-way up the mountain, Beau's truck started acting up and wouldn't go up the hill any more. Luckily, we had a truck of friends behind us so they were able to stop and help us assess the situation. I guess it was a fuel filter or something like that (I have no idea, really), but we were able to get the truck back down to camp for the night. We decided to let it rest for the evening and figure something out on the way out of town on Sunday morning.

Saturday night was the worst - it was SOOOOOOOO cold (I think the temperature dropped 20 degrees from the night before). Tatum slept with us in our big sleeping bag and did really well until she woke up screaming at about 2am. She was so upset that she cried pretty loudly for about 10 minutes before falling asleep with me. It sounded like she was sick or hurt or something, but who knows. I can't wait until she can talk to tell me these things! After a night of sleep she woke up happy as ever, so I guess it wasn't much more than bad dreams and cold nights. After breakfast, we all started packing up camp. After the unusually cold night, everyone decided to leave on Sunday instead of Monday as was planned for most of the campers besides us. As we packed, the wierdest weather flew in and we found ourselves packing in both sunlight and decent temperatures alongside snow and hail.

But, despite our bad luck with weather that morning, Beau's truck worked the whole way home! I was so glad we didn't have to fix the truck on the road - that always tends to be more of a hassle and a lot more expensive than taking care of it at home. After we arrived at home and unpacked the truck, Beau went to AutoZone and bought everything he'll need to fix it tomorrow afternoon. Too bad he'll have to spend his day off fixing the truck, but I'm just glad he knows how to do those things in the first place - it saves us a lot of heartache with the cars. I'll be busy tomorrow anyways, washing the campfire out of all of our clothes and deep cleaning the house. There's something about camping that makes everything feel a mess - even a house you haven't slept in for two nights!

I'm sure I'll have more to update tomorrow, but that's it for now. We hope you all had a great weekend and enjoyed time with your friends and family. Even with our crazy adventure, we had a great time and were glad to have spent time with friends for the weekend. Beau's friends all have nice wives so it makes outings like this more fun for me - no sitting around trying to make conversation with people you don't know and aren't fun to be around. It was just the opposite - we all had a great time! Now, here's to hoping for a long, comfy night in my own bed!!!!