Camping Out on Memorial Day

We just got home from our Memorial Day campout with our small group (& the Smith family and a few other friends). The girls had a wonderful time and they loved camping. Mark enjoyed getting to fish for a couple of days before the campout so we would have a mess of fish to fry up. He caught two good size bass and three very large crappie. Ruthy & Moriah each caught a few sun perch. The guys from the small group set up several bank lines with about 20 hooks on each. Over the three days of fishing, they got about 24 lbs of catfish (they caught a 30 lbs blue cat, but tossed him back in the pond), and about 20 large crappie and a few bass. They fileted them into 2-3" pieces and battered them with flour and corn meal then fried them up at the campsite. Some thin sliced potatoes were tossed in the oil after the fish and made some awesome chips. Hotdogs, brats, and burgers were also grilled up.

There were about 20 kids out there. They brought in a couple loads of sand and made a "beach" area near one of the ponds. All of the kids enjoyed it except Ruthy...she thought it was too messy. So she hung out on the grass and enjoyed watching everyone. With all the kids, things could have been chaotic, but the kids did great. It was a wonderful afternoon & evening without any battery operated toys.

It was rather warm (93 with a warm, southern breeze), but it cooled down to about 74 for sleeping). Everyone turned in around 11:15 PM and the started getting up around 8 AM. We started tearing down camp with the morning temperature and headed for home around 10:30. We got home and unloaded and dressed the girls in their swimsuits to go clean off in the pool, but some thunderstorms rolled in so that put a damper on those plans. The rest of the afternoon will consist of some books to read and a long nap this afternoon.