Outdoor Ed: It's Baaaaack!

Ah, just when you thought it was safe to check back at the Monkey Blog (safe from hearing Julie whine about Outdoor Ed, a project that she plans and executes HERSELF) here is another installment of "Stuff we did outdoors". And buckle up, kids, this one is the granddaddy of them all:

The Konchars go camping for no reason whatsoever

Well, to be fair to us Konchars--not for no reason. There is a very compelling reason, an undeniable, forceful, complainy reason, and her name is Josie. If you remember back to the month of May when Pie and the boys went off to Father and Sons campout, you must recall that Josie was forced to stay home with me and Tommy and eat out and go get ice cream and watch a movie and make bead necklaces. Not letting her camp left her so emotionally wounded we knew that if we were ever going to go a full week in the coming year without tears for her "lost" campout, we would have to go camping as a family to make up for that injurious treatment. So what I mean by we went camping for no reason is that nobody planned an event that we were expected to attend. We came up with this little idea all on our own. And somehow that makes it worse.

Wearing our best camping clothes and this 'do rag, we set off for Deckers, about an hour away. The campground write-up I read on line gave a very favorable, if unintentionally diverting description of the camp location. Of particular note: The reviewer insisted that if we camped at Deckers we would run into many people from the Sedalia area. Sedalia is just your average rural town on the way to Deckers. I think we were all disheartened to realize at the end of our camping trip that we had in fact, met no one from the Sedalia area. In fact, we met no one from anywhere. At least 10 campsites, plus the bathroom--all to ourselves!

We picked up a bucket of chicken on our way out of town so it was nice and room temperature by the time we got to the site, unloaded the car and set up the tent. Here are the boys looking for people to greet from Sedalia.

Unloading the car.

Our little slice of camp heaven, once we got the tent up.

After dinner, Tommy lashing himself to the tent.

Truly the stinkiest, smokiest campfire in memory.

Even though it isn't really obvious in this picture, the children are all incredibly dirty at this point. I like to think that the fried chicken dinner really gave us a head start on acquiring a decent layer of greasy camp filth.

We roasted marshmallows, of course, and made s'mores. We had Family Night around the campfire and afterwards Jon gave us another edifying lecture in his ongoing series, this one entitled "The Native Americans Rubbed Two Sticks Together to Make Fire to Roast Their Marshmallows and Hot Dogs." Then it was off to the tent to step on all the pillows and sleeping bags and then our new family tradition: Facilitating Hurt Feelings and General Loss of Composure Through the Playing of Old Maid, Crazy 8's, War and Go Fish as a Family. By 10:30 we put out the lights and ignored the children, our little camping recipe for encouraging sleep. Oh, we got them to sleep easy enough, but keeping them asleep proved to be the trick. Because it got DANG COLD in our tent and the kids pretty much froze. By 4:30 I finally put two kids in each sleeping bag, Tommy into my own and everybody settled down. But make no mistake--I did not actually sleep at all last night. Cold, hard, loud, needing to pee. I don't know why I don't camp more often. About this picture of the Platte River that wound it's way past our campsite: That is steam coming up off the water. As I mentioned, Dang Cold.

Another stinky campfire, but well appreciated by all. Everything was nicely covered in frost when we woke up.

Sometimes Tommy misplaced his own pockets, so he would help himself to the pockets of others.

Jon, making up more stuff regarding the Native Americans.

Tommy, and this hot guy I like. (Although he was quite cold at the time. Shorts.)

More river.

Scrambling over rocky precipices. The closest we got to a hike.

Sid barefoot. I washed my hands of his feet. Hope he likes pneumonia.

Collecting important soil samples.

Sewing a crop of plastic spoons.

Look! There is Sid. He hates being mentioned on this blog. I cannot blame him, so I am forced to put up all these pictures of him without his permission.

Question: Is this what you would give your seven year old who asked you to use your pocket knife to whittle him a "sharp stick"? And would you repeatedly and futilely insist, in your pathetic defense, "The stick really isn't that sharp, Julie"?

8:00 am and the child is spent. Must have been tired from all that shivering.

Ah, the reason we are all here. Oddly enough, I don't think Josie enjoyed camping all that much. I'm guessing we won't be hearing about her desire to camp again any time soon. So for that reason alone, my exhausting and filth-producing plan for our final Outdoor Ed experience really paid off. For some reason this picture reminds me of Strawberry Shortcake.

Note: This activity was supposed to be the crowning event of last week's Outdoor Ed. But due to Pie being unable to make it work with his schedule last week, we moved it to the beginning of this week. Art School, I haven't forgotten you!