We are back from the last camping trip of the season. No doubt about why, after the weekend we had. Not that it was bad, just that it was cold. I'm glad we got the camper heater working this spring because it was doing double duty with the ceramic heaters. It was the 3rd annual Marve's Birthday Wiessner/Pinkster/Knight Campout...add in Beavers this year as well...which is usually everyone's last time for the year. This time, however, we went to Camp Michawana instead of Yankee Springs. We took the kids out of school a bit early on Friday so we could get the camper set up before it was pitch black. It was pretty cool, and very windy, when we got there, but the campground was nearly empty. Ryan also was not there this time, as he doesn't want to hang around with the little kids all weekend any more. The kids played, and everyone else huddled by the fire most of the evening. Saturday was the camp's big end of season celebration; they had a 1-mile and 5k fun runs (all of the kids did the mile run, even Missy...but she went with Aunt Judy who was pushing Collin's wheelchair so they got to take a shortcut). I did my first ever 5k...more or less on a whim. I've run a few times this month on Wednesday nights, so I was in the mood to see what I could do. I almost won it. Not many were running it but still. My time was 27:38, just a bit over the time of the kid who won it. I started sprinting near the end, but not near enough, and ran out of gas with about 20 feet to go and was passed just before the line. Still, it was my first 5k, and I did run the whole thing except a short uphill section, and did better than I thought I would. Heh, I didn't have any proper running attire so I wore sleep pants and a sweatshirt for the race. There were some workmen clearing some trees and brush by the trail we ran, one of them was shouting encouragement to the runners going by. For me, he yelled, "Go...guy in pajamas!" In addition, the zipline and climbing wall were open all afternoon. I don't think I was supposed to, but I snuck my video camera while going down the zipline and shot a pretty cool video for YouTube. For some reason though, both of our kids were too scared to do it. Why Alex was scared was perplexing, since he did it 3 times last summer. Lauren was too scared as well. Alex did make it up about halfway on the rock wall. Missy got about a foot up before she was too scared to go any further. Later on there was cake and ice cream (and ribbons for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places in the races) from the camp, and the extended family had a big bingo party where the prizes were junk that Judy wanted to get rid of. The kids had a great time picking out prizes; they loved it. More huddling by the fire in the evening. Sunday we all made tie-dye t-shirts with the kids and packed up. So ends summer.