home chez tent

i have more pics to post but frankly the internet here has been temperamental and it took eons to upload this here beaut.  in the spirit of said frankness, i have to tell you that my eyes are not that blue.  i ENHANCED the blues in this pic.

i'm currently snuggled up on my camp cot in my tent.  it's windy outside and i'm feeling drowsy.  we just got back from a trip to town where i picked up some trail mix.  i have a huge bag of said mix because i let natalie pull the lever and the trail mix came a tumblin' down.  i added a few extra items as well.  you could say i ENHANCED the trail mix.  i aint no yuppy.  i believe in additions.

after we got back, michealah and i continued our previously interrupted match of skip bo and i beat her, not with a rod but with my mad skip bo playing skillz. then we played again and i beat her again--this time with my fists.  (not true)  every day michealah and i have a match of the skip bo.  the first couple of times she beat me. she preened as the queen of the skip bo.  however i have staged a coup d'etat and have now beaten her at her own game, as they say, three times.  read 'em and weep kid. the trick is to win as much as possible.

something brent said: first of all it's hard and second if all it's difficult.

i got here last saturday at 4:30 pm after missing a ferry and then missing my exit.  then my bank card wouldn't work at the office.  then i had trouble opening the new security gate with my card.  then i drove up and met sarah and kyle who were happy to see me.  i said "is this it??  it's so cramped.  there's no room!"  but really i was just giving outlet to my grumpaloos.  sarah and kyle helped me find a spot and helped me set up my new tent the eureka pinery 400 thank you very much.  adriel and sloan helped.  then we set up my new camp cot which took all of kyle's muscles.  "you won't be able to set that up by yourself." warned sarah.  but i think i can.  and if you think you can then you can.  'sides i'm strong too you know.

sometimes a large and buzzing dragon fly gets caught between my fly and my tent.  it's gross but i managed to get it out without it touching me.  sarah killed the one that was stuck in hers. as  a punishment she received the curse of the slugs.  slugs were often to be found in or under her vestuble.  one time she stepped on a slug under the vestuble mat and one time she stepped on some slug slime in her sock.

skip bo is the official sponser game of this camp.  one time i tried to play chinese checkers (ha ben!) with natalie and adriel and became very irritated.  one time when i barked out orders once again for natalie or adriel to keep their hands off the board when it was not their turn, sarah who was playing skip bo with kyle and michealah looked over and commented "you guys are having a fun time."  she didn't mean it.  she meant the opposite.

on monday we all drove up to courteny to go tubing down the river.  it was super fun.  fun for me that is.  sloan, adriel and elizabeth were miserable most of the time.  it was pretty hilarious.  i was on the tube with a huge bubble which made it impossible for me to paddle.  (laura stuck her fingernail in to paddle, brent was wont to say) and i was tied the blow up raft that held katie, natalie and elizabeth.  michealah's tube was tied to it as well.  brent was a free agent at first.  and we all panicked because we couldn't steer the boat away from the wrong side of the river and elizabeth began to wail as soon as some water got in the boat.  and then katie nabbed on to brent and he used his super long arms to steer us wherever we needed to go as katie held on to his feet.  we called them his man paddles.  anyways adriel had cut his toe and he was scared silly and crying the whole time on top of sarah and sloan was with kyle and crying too.  eventually we got sarah into our group as well.

brent was trying to calm the kids down at one time and he said "say hi to the birds" and we all dutifully droned |"hi birds" and had a good laugh about it.  i took the opportunity to use my new underwater digital and clicked some pics.  sarah had a loose cheek and i fixed it for her.  then i took an underwater pic of her bum just because i could.  kyle wanted nothing to do with our group.  he and brent kept competing.  when we got to the end, i jumped off and swam in the river for a while and took some clickers. a man was watching me so i splashed him in the face.  not really.  he asked politely if the pics were turning out and i said "yes....well most of them."

brent and kyle went again and we lay in the sun on the grass.  brent discovered why i could only paddle with a fingernail and let some air out of my tube.  michealah and i played skip bo and katie and sarah were gone most of the time buying us cheese sticks and grapes.  i let the children play in the road willy nilly.

the stussis have a waterslide now.  it's an almost daily activity at camp.  brent and kyle tried to out do each other with their big splashes as they came down.  they also tried to angle their splashes to hit the worker in the corner.  it's all in the twist of your bum as you come down.  i got people to do videos of themselves as they came down. yesterday michealah and natalie did like 16 videos.

we played frisbee golf.

we had campfires.  we sang many a version of quarter master's store, fish n chips n vinegar, and the deacon went down.  we ate many a good food.  we played girls against boys beach volleyball in the which was all about 'the ready stance'.  we got ice cream cones.  sarah braided our hair.  katie and i read our respective books.  we talked.  we did the dishes and went on walks.  we electrocuted many wasps.  today's my last day.