A day camping with friends.

Yesterday all the kids had off school so I took Hunter and his friends Judd, Wesley, Matthew and Tanner to spend the day at Brazos Bend State Park. We rented a camp site for the day and roasted hot dogs and smores. The boys ran around the woods and spent time on the playground. After one of their wild adventures in the woods, they boys came out thinking they were all tough having "ruffed it" in the wilderness. One of them said, "We are men now!" Very cute.

Hunter fell into a HUGE puddle while playing tag with the boys. Thankfully I brought an extra pair of clothes for him. All the boys went home covered in mud as it had rained for two days.

After letting our campfire go out, we went to the Nature Center in the park and looked at the snakes and alligators. The boys were able to pet a baby alligator.

 After the Nature Center, we did a hike around to the back side of Elm Lake. We were able to see a 13 foot alligator on the shore. It was really a big deal because we learned the alligators are not really active right now.

We went back to camp and played some more and packed up the car. We took our final hike around 40 Acre Lake. There we saw one more alligator in the water. 

My fire - a labor of love.

 On our way home we stopped at Chik-Fil-A for dinner. The boys were all exhausted - but they had a great time. They could have stayed for days.

Just a note on my fire. I underestimated the amount of newspaper I would need to actually start the fire - remember it had been raining for two days. In an act of desperation, I had to burn our five paper plates to help stoke the fire so it wouldn't burn out- the kids had to eat off napkins. You have to be able to make sacrifices to survive. In the end, I created a roaring fire which I sat by for a couple hours and enjoyed!!!