Camp Howe

Friday night was our big backyard camping adventure...with an outdoor movie. I guess this might be considered "glamping"? At any rate, I only obliged because I had the option of going inside to the bathroom. The girls could hardly stand the wait for the evening to begin. They were quite "helpful" to Matt as he tried to select just the right spot for the screen and tent.

After we ate dinner (grilled out on the deck), they started a fire near the "cornfield". Thanks to my dad supplying us with some Iowa sweet corn seed we have a little mini field of corn that the deer are doing their best to demolish.

Our luxury accommodations for the night--why, yes, there are air mattresses under those sleeping bags...and it wasn't even my idea!

Soon it was time to relax in our new comfy lawn chairs and sip a cold one while we waited for the sun to go down far enough to allow a good view of the movie.

It's really hard to be patient...

Finally, it was time....but as you can see, Jillian knew this was NOT the right movie. We were set up to watch "How To Train Your Dragon" (by Dreamworks), and this shot of Cinderella's castle gave away the Disney movie he accidentally started.

Early in the movie, relaxing at "camp". I'm so glad we kept that old dining table of ours (the first furniture purchase we ever made together. For $150. Chairs included. At K-Mart. In 2001. Times have changed...)

Jillian declared when it was time for intermission, which was really code for "S'mores time". We tried out this contraption I bought last year and never used...worked pretty great.

The movie didn't end until 11 p.m. (not winning parents of the year over here), and then it was time to "snuggle in for the night". As you can see by this picture, the kids were pretty keyed up.

There was a loud, cat-fight scuffle between our offspring about 11:30 relating to wiggling on the mattress that almost ended the whole experience, but we recovered and everyone slept well until about 5:30 (except for me--I walked to the house at about 2:30 to use the facilities, and paused outside to marvel at the stars and all gobs of lightning bugs that were still out putting on a show). At 5:30 I heard thunder, so I checked the radar on my phone and saw we were in a big thunderstorm warning with "cloud to ground lightning" and "30 mph winds". I did not think it was wise to stay outdoors, so I woke everyone and shuffled them into the house and into their beds. As is often the case here in MN, the storm action ended up being unimpressive to us Missourians. Matt, J, and I slept until about 8 and then at 10 a.m. I went upstairs to see if Adrienne was still breathing. Camping is hard work!