We are back from a Memorial Day weekend camping trip. The weekend was overall very enjoyable, and a big hit. Alex's class had their medieval feast to mark the end of their medieval unit on Friday, and I left work early to go to that (Alex was a knight, a crusader, and St. George) and spent the rest of the afternoon getting the camper all packed up, so by the time Beth and the kids got home, all that was left to do was gather the toiletries and head out. We got to Potato Creek and were set up by around 7 and spent the rest of Friday visiting the camping friends around the campfire. The weather was nice in general, if just a bit chilly, really just light jacket weather. However it did get plenty cold overnight, and the heater in the camper still does not work right (won't light). The space heaters sufficed as long as I was bundled up tight. Saturday, Virgil and Steven and I took the kids fishing, and both kids caught their first fish (and released). Alex caught a crappie that must have been around 8-10 inches, and Missy caught a 6-inch bluegill. Virgil caught a teensy bluegill, Steven caught nothing, I wasn't fishing (no license). The rest of the day was just play/relax. Sunday, I went for a trail run in the morning, and after lunch the Purvises came up to visit and were at the campsite most of the day afterwards. We seemed to remind them that they love camping. We rented rowboats for the afternoon, and for some reason nobody thought to bring sunscreen or hats, so Beth and I got burned pretty well, but the kids were fine. We also saw an osprey get a fish...it happened right near us out on the lake, and we could see the fish wiggling as the bird flew off with it. Later, we made some of the most awesome tinfoil dinners. I think charcoal is the key...they came out so much better than ones we've ever cooked in the campfire. Even though it had been clear and sunny and not too hot all weekend, after dinner, it started clouding up and got that 'gonna rain' feeling, so we decided since we were leaving after breakfast tomorrow anyway, we shouldn't roll the dice, and we packed up and left by about 10pm. It started raining while we were rolling out, and it rained all night. So leaving...good call. The kids seemed to have a pretty good time camping overall. There were a couple of other kids to play with, and we let them have some more freedom than years past, as far as going to the playground by themselves and whatnot. The walkie-talkies help with that. Also, we are seriously interested in upgrading our camper to one that has both working furnace and A/C...like the Bell's camper, which they happen to be selling at the moment. So, we may be buying a new camper very soon.

Alex and I are back from a Webelos campout. One of the boy scout troops in Columbia City hosts the campout annually for area Webelos. We and three other boys/dads from 3767 went to it. Alex, however, didn't really want to go and didn't really try to disguise that fact. Anyway, in his defense they were pretty light on activities for us to be there the whole day. We arrived in the morning and set up, and I guess we were early enough that there wasn't anything to do until lunchtime. People kept arriving for long after we were set up. And the bugs were bad, and they always attack Alex. But we had lunch and they started with activities to earn the Readyman badge, which means first aid and safety. We all made tinfoil dinners (which came out perfectly, and I noted exactly how to do it) and afterwards they had a flag retirement ceremony, then a bonfire (including burning a hollow log with TROOP 83 carved into it) at which they made kettle corn, which was yummy. The kids all ran around with flashlights for a while after that until bedtime, then in the morning we packed up and headed home. This was also the weekend for Help a Neighbor Day at church, and we were for the most part working on cleanup/stump removal/pergola installation at Miller's. Why does Miller's need free labor on landscaping, I don't know. Why we weren't helping the elderly members with their home upkeep, I don't know. But that's where we were. Alex and I met up with everyone else there after the campout, but we didn't stay long because we weren't needed. There were dozens of people there and work for few of them, so a lot were just standing around, and the chiefs were too busy being Indians to be chiefs so most people, self included, didn't know what to do. There was no direction. So, after a while we just left.

Medieval Times today! Alex's class (3rd & 4th grade Zillionaires) has been doing a unit on European medieval history and the teacher organized a trip to the Medieval Times in Schaumberg. What a fun time! Perhaps not as historically accurate as possible, but still fun. I was one of several parents to make the trip, which was by school bus. They do the whole bit there with the king and queen, jousting tournament, horseback riding, falconry, and "dragon leg" for the entree. Tasted like chicken. And of course the evil knight who wants the princess and fights the king's champion. We were in the cheering section for the black & white knight but the red & yellow knight won the day. We also learned that there are spots in the front rows where you can't hear the dialogue of what's going on for anything, but if you move back a few rows it's fine. Good to know for next time.

Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you. Today was the Color Run 5k in Winona Lake. The kids and I got white t-shirts on and did the run (mostly walk) through the Winona Lake trails while poeple at a few stations along the way threw handfuls of colored powder at everyone. It didn't really work the way it was supposed to. There's supposed to be clouds of paint flying all about while you run through them, and you wind up with color splatters all over you, but it didn't quite happen that way.We had fun though.
This week we also finally got new carpet in the living room! It took 3 days to get a 1-day job done but it is now done. Beth and I moved everything in the living room into the dining room or downstairs, and we had a carpet place come rip out all the old gross blue-gray 25-year old carpet and replace it with new. Most of the new carpet went in Wednesday, but they left the stairs bare, with all the tack strips exposed. I assumed they would be back the next day to finish (and was assured on the phone they would be) but nobody ever came back, and they denied the phone conversation had happened. I did raise enough of a fuss to get someone back on Friday to finish the job. But I guess it was still a 1-day job since they only worked 30 minutes on day 3 and zero minutes on day 3. But, now it is done. Beth picked it out. I like it but I'm afraid it will get matty after it's walked on for a while. She says it won't. We'll see.