There is a Christian summer camp near our home that is busy all summer. During the rest of the year you can rent out a home or lodge. For Fall Break we rented a Lodge building and we ended up being the only people there having all the amenities to ourselves!
We even had ALL the lizards to ourselves! #shoulderpets
The lizards MAY have been the twins' favorite part. (Iley with her poor eczema arms)
Wynn was SO excited to show me her lizard
You can't see it, but the lizard is in her hand as Iley gives it a "BIG hug and snuggle". I doubt there are any lizards more loved.
Of course there were also a few ponds to do some fishing on. Brooks was pretty proud of himself catching these right after we got there.
Brooks started a fishing competition. He told the kids whoever could catch the most would win the Sonic giftcard. No one knew how much $ was on the gift card, but maybe the mystery added to the fun. (Spoiler: there was $20)
I've said this before and I will say it again....the WORST part of having fisherman is they actually bring the fish BY me and sometimes in my sink. Technically this wasn't MY sink but the smell still is nasty. However the babies thought having dead fish to play with was almost as good as live lizards!
And even when I walked out the front door, I would get the smell. #lovely
But there was a gift card to win and they took it seriously.
The Lodge was very summer-camp-ish. There was a common room and two rooms off of them that looked like this with 12 beds in each room. We sure know how to pick the luxury accomodations!!! 😂
The common room was just big enough for all our Blokus matches. (I won the family bracket). But I couldn't help but think how nice it was to be in a place with no electronics, reception and just sitting around the living room playing games at night.
To add on that, Brooks covers all the cooking when we camp because everyone wants dutch oven and that's "his thing". This was a brownie dessert for one of the nights.
There is a large playground at Camp Caudle that the kids loved.
Even the big boys loved playing there, especially if it involves pushing Royce into outer space on the tire swing.
And de-pantsing each other. For some reason when the victim can't let go in order to stop themselves from being pantsed, it was more funny to the boys.
Swinging with my dirty-faced Wynn
There was a canoe pond that proved fun to play on. Of course we Smiths had to take it to another level and make a competition out of it. Last canoe standing with dry people in it, wins. Emerson and Royce were the first ones down, followed by Brooks and myself. I still can't understand how, but Bronson and Camden BARELY came out as champions. The water was a little chilly.
But DEFINITELY not as chilly as the river. Camden, Royce and I walked down to test out the temperature of the water and I felt like my finger was going to shatter into ice pieces.
How cute is this little brother smiling up at his big brother. 😍
Because I married a crazy man that can convince anyone to do anything, we all ended up in our swimsuits walking down to the river.
(twins were napping). The only smart one in this picture was Everly who never got in the water. Obviously this picture was taken BEFORE we jumped in.
I'm not sure how Bronson was selected to go first (probably a dare by Dad) but he jumped off the cliff in the bayou and immediately came up with a shocked look on his face that was priceless.
Bronson must've masked how cold it truly was. I mean we knew it was cold but HOW cold is the question when your whole body is submerged.
Emerson went next down the zipline.
The problem with the zipline is you end up REALLY far from the banks of the river. Emerson was dying. Well he LITERALLY thought he was dying. We took a video and in it he comes up and says, "I can't breathe!" Which got us (especially Bronson who KNEW) laughing. Then he kept saying, "I------really------can't-----breathe!"
There was a moment when Brooks thought he would actually have to jump in to get him, but Emerson did make it to the bank.
The rest of us decided that the zipline wasn't the way to go.
Even after seeing the reaction of Emerson and Bronson, I went next. And the peer pressure continued as Kellyn jumped off.
Then Iris and Royce..... (I made them wear a floatie......when I jumped off, I almost felt like my body froze up under water so I wanted to make sure they came back up. haha)
Aleeya
We have like some warped sense of entertainment because we would just laugh at each person's first reaction after they came out of the water.
Camden (the sensible one) was a harder one to pressure into jumping off.
He's no dumb cookie.
BUT Brooks convinced him that if he jumped off the cliff, Brooks would actually ride the zipline and drop off. Camden decided to jump then.
I can honestly say I have NEVER seen my husband swim faster than he did from the middle of the river to the banks that day.😂
There were smaller run-offs of ponds that had easy little fish to catch. Kellyn and Everly loved "catching fish" like the older kids. However we didn't count them towards the Sonic gift card competition. haha
After the trip we asked the kids what their favorite parts of the trip was and many said playing Gaga ball. It really is SO fun. It's an octagon shape fenced it, with a dodge ball twist and no teams. It's hard to explain but our family is a HUGE fan.
Brooks ended up winning over and over again. And he wasn't quiet about it either.
The older six kids, Brooks and I played a round of frisbee golf. There was a pretty long course there and it was nice playing it while the babies slept and Kellyn and Everly played at the park.
I honestly can't remember WHICH team won the frisbee golf competition but I DO remember the cotton-mouth snake that someone's frisbee got REALLY close to and Brooks caught with a stick. And allowed Emerson to pose with it. Nothing like finding a poisonous snake and annoying the heck out of it like Brooks did.
We packed up and headed home after our 4-day stay there. Unfortunately for me, the fish caught came home as well and needed to be washed off in my REAL sink. Again, more entertainment for the kids. Why playing with gutted or cut fish is appealing to play with is beyond me.
The Sonic gift card competition was a tie. Or "undecided". Problem is Bronson caught one and it came on land, then it made it's way back into the pond so the jury was out whether it "counted" or not. We decided to just break it into two $10 giftcards even though we aren't "it's a tie" type people. haha
I will say though, being out in nature makes my family the happiest. Less fighting, more laughing and more fun. Sleeping on a mattress makes me happy. I think we all won here.
