Ok now summer can be done.

We went CAMPING and it was MARVELOUS. The weather forecast for the week was all like GONNA BE A BUNCHA RAIN, and then the forecast for next week, when Eleanor is in school and Joel is back to work and we have plans, was all like GONNA BE SUNNY ALWAYS YOU'RE GONNA NEED SHORTS. But! Because we expected rain for all four days, every second that it wasn't raining, we were like, This is lovely.

Also, I'm always kind of worried about what we will DO camping? I mean, if it's cold and you can't swim, what do you even. But I forget that my kids are both avid colorers

and nerds

and they spent an unexpected amount of time drawing in the ground with enormous sticks that we found on our hike

and also we went on a hike!

And grandma and grandpa came to visit one evening!

Also, there was a playground!

And then this weird stump behind our tent that Eleanor referred to as The Mouse Kingdom, so obviously I put some little critters on it.

That was a huge hit, actually.

Lotta mileage out of that stump.

And. AND! It got warm enough to go dabble our feet in the lake and make sandcastles and things

and we even brought a little picnic down there. Geneva, you are terrible at hummus.

Geneva just wanted to crouch on the end of the dock and look for fishies, so I taught her how to lay down and greatly lower the possibility of plunging headfirst in after them.

Also, she thinks that fish eat rocks and I'm not gonna disabuse her of that because LOOK AT HER SHE THINKS SHE'S FEEDING THEM.

Speaking of feeding. We ate hobo packets!

And chili dogs!

Or just dogs, whatever. Eat a dang carb, Geneva.

We taught the girls about dipping their potatoes and sausage into 'the egg sauce.'

We had a stash of apples from Grandma's tree.

And we ate so many s'mores.

Everyone slept so well except me because *I* got sick, but better me than them because I'd rather lie awake thinking my thoughts than sit awake trying to comfort a sick kid.

I had super low expectations for this trip because the weather was supposed to be so lousy, because Geneva got sick right beforehand, because we were going for three nights rather than our usual two. But it was SUPER GREAT and now we are filthy and Eleanor has been wearing the same braids for four days and I'm gonna go have the best shower of my life. A+ end of summer.