Camping.

So, remember our yard? And remember the sad dealio with our pictures? And remember Ellie getting pneumonia?

What could all of those things possibly have to do with each other?

One hint: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Yep. Moo-lah. Money. Change. Cash. LOTS of it.

And what could this possibly have to do with my title up there? Well, this is where I lament for just a brief second about our savings being depleted a little more than we were expecting when this spring and summer started. We’re certainly fine, financial-wise. I’m not saying we’re broke. It’s just that any type of exciting summer vacation is out. the. window. Poof. Not gonna happen. We’re most likely not even going to Yellowstone unless our savings magically blooms before fall. So we’re consoling ourselves.

By camping.

I know, it’s not exactly a cruise to the Bahamas (not that we would have been cruising anyways…but that’s beside the point). However, since it’s super cheap and there are dozens of choices just minutes away from our front door, it’s going to have to do.

We went last week for the first time. Our yard is finally to a point where we don’t have to spend every spare minute toiling away at it (we have grass growing, people—GRASS!!!) and we were feeling in desperate need of a short break from every day life, so away we went. We froze our rear-ends off, but still had a great time. And the kids slept like logs despite the near-freezing nighttime temps, which makes the whole entire thing worth it, in my book!

(Also, to add to my steadily growing laundry list of things breaking or going wrong…my camera lens seems to have broken. Just stopped working. Looks like the gears are shot. Apparently you CAN use those things too much? So the following pics are all iPod pics, because we happened to have that at the campground as well. I cringe to post this many poor-quality iPod pics on here, but you know what they say about desperate times…)

No camping trip would be complete without s’mores. Mmm…sticky goodness!

We went on a few walks. (And Ellie discovered her pockets. And proceeded to casually saunter around with her hands stuffed into those fabulous pockets the rest of the trip.)