101 degrees? Seriously?

Our Bible Fellowship class had planned a group camping trip for this past weekend months ago. And now that we have Camilla, we feel like we should take advantage of all camping opportunities. Even though it was so hot this weekend my eyebrows fried off my face. Which, yes, I know we have air conditioning inside Camilla, but we don't live in there. And oh land, it was hot. We camped at Dan Nicholas park again. Which, if you remember, we camped there in March. And it was cold (upper 40s) and rainy. This was like living in opposite world. Which is not to say that we didn't have a good time. Just that it was hot. As in 101 degrees hot. And did I mention it was hot? Interestingly enough, only one other person (and her kids) from our class camped with us. Maybe because it was hot.

Even though it was so hot (did I mention that yet?), we did spend tons of time at the park. They have a petting zoo with the typical small barnyard animals. Which were all either lying around panting or sleeping. But you know, still cute and all. They were maybe just hot.
When we went in March, all the park attractions were closed (due to rain, I guess), so we didn't get to do any of this then. This year, they have a new (covered) little train to ride. The boys loved that. There are the fakiest looking woodland creatures planted around the train tracks, and the boys loved "spotting" them. Half of those critters - only the real deal - probably live in our backyard and were at that moment trying to invade our home. Perhaps because it was so hot.
The boys also took a spin on this wonderful carousel. Man, that thing just flies around! I used to really love merry-go-rounds (and do you know the difference between a merry-go-round and a carousel? Oh, the controversy in the answer...I'll leave that up to your investigation), but now they just make me sick. As do all spinning rides like the ones they have at the fair. Roller coasters I am generally OK on (although a trip to Carowinds last fall suggested otherwise...), but spinning rides are bad. How old am I getting?
And the Gem Mine. We do this every time, and it's still a wonder (and a racket!). Matthew just loves it and is so proud of what he finds. Which included fool's gold, quartz, tiger's eye, picture rock, etc. It is fun and involved water which was great since it was so hot. Really hot. Did you know it was hot this weekend? They also have a "shooting water" area in the middle of the park attractions to help cool off the kiddies. Kiddies big and small. Thank goodness, because it really did make our adventures there more bearable to be soaking wet.

Right behind our campsite was the lake. Which was so, so fun for the boys. We saw a long black snake the first morning on its way toward the lake. The boys also saw about a million tiny frogs about the size of my pinky fingernail. Really little. Which did not bode well for the ones that Michael picked up. I'm afraid a couple of the frogs met an untimely end in his chubby little hands. We brought home some tadpoles to raise, so we'll see how that goes. My sister (hi Karen!) gave Matthew a frog habitat for his birthday, so now we have eight little 'poles doing their thing in that. Michael was also very intrigued with the lilipads which were all over the place.
There were so many just slap yourself in the head moments this weekend. Like realizing we left the camper keys at home when we got to the campsite Friday night (hence, can't pop it up...Alan searched the campground for another camper like ours...found one and stole their crank so we could pop-up the camper...returned it later that night). Or when the power went off Saturday afternoon at the campground and it was 101 degrees outside (and you know, hot). Or when I went to put my head down on my pillow Friday night to find it covered in bugs because the camper door had been left open. But no matter what, we always really do have a good time camping. And I have two boys who are napping their hearts out upstairs to prove it.