Have you ever heard of forest tent caterpillars??? They are quite fascinating.?? They develop into moths, not butterflies (to my utter dismay – I really wanted to imagine they would get beautiful).?? I had to do a little research on them because I came in close contact with about 10,000 🙂 while we were camping (last Thurs through Monday).?? At first we noticed these really strange “webs” in the oak trees.?? I was totally grossed out and freaked out because they were so huge and cocoonish that I couldn’t imagine what spiders must reside in there.?? And they were EVERYWHERE.?? So totally creepy.?? Curiousity got the best of me though and I wanted a closer look.?? It appeared they were full of the caterpillars that were also EVERYWHERE (much to the great pleasure of my boys and the fishermen).?? Jim was the first to suggest that possibly the caterpillars were spinning the “webs” and not spiders.?? If spiders, why would all the caterpillars in the web still be alive??? Good point.

So Dusty got one out of the tree and opened it up.?? Sure enough – all caterpillars.?? I stupidly didn’t get a picture of the webs so I will copy one that I found from the internet when I finally found what they are.?? Is this really cool or really gross??? Can’t make up my??mind.?? Apparently, this tent caterpillar explosion only happens every decade or so though – not an annual event.??

Above picture was taken off an AZ website.

Dusty and Tanner were collecting them for bait.

Yes that is a mound of caterpillars that Dusty removed from a tent.?? ICK!!!!!!!?? Everytime I saw Ty with a caterpillar I just kept thinking about “Of Mice and Men”…it was soooo not good.?? I’ll leave it at that.

Ty was being a regular comedian on this trip.?? He can truly be hilarious sometimes.?? I was making the kids sleep with beanies to keep their ears warm because we were in a tent (a REAL tent – not to be confused with the caterpillar tents looming directly overhead our tent LOL).?? When I put Ty to bed with that beanie on the first night, he immediately….wait….I can’t finish this sentence without some background here.

Okay so I have mentioned before that Ty’s favorite show is the Upside Down Show.?? This will only be funny to you if you have ever seen it.?? I’ll discuss that a tad more in my next post but suffice to say for now, the show pretends to have remote controls and they “click” everything.

As soon as I put the beanie on Ty he pulls the whole thing down over his face and say’s “WHOA!?? Somebody clicked the dark button!”?? It was so funny!?? He said it just like a regular stand up comedian.??

I of course made him recreate the moment the next morning so that I could “capture” it.

Because he realized he was getting a lot of laughs out of that…the next morning when he woke up, he stands up with his hat purposefully cockeyed and say’s “I am a fancy man”.?? LOL.?? Where did he even get that word?

Such a character.

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I also wanted to write our music selection down:).?? Jim and I both have the belief that making specific music collections for every trip is smart because we then always associate certain songs or artists to special times.?? On our honeymoon, we listed to Yanni Live at the Acropolis and everytime I hear Yanni I think of my honeymoon.?? Good memories 😉 .?? When we go to the beach we often listen to Michael Buble and Jack Johnson.?? Usually camping trips are filled with various country hits but this year the mix was predominately our Christian favorites.?? Tree63, Mercy Me, Big Daddy Weave, Selah, Audio Adrenaline with a little Chris Daughtery, Gwen Stafani and Maroon 5 mixed in:).?? I had to listen to Audo Adrenaline’s “Big House” about a zillion times.?? We ended up listening to a song than playing Big House, listening to another song, then playing Big House.?? Over and over this went.?? My boys sing that song all the time and never tire of it.?? I really need to play the entire Underdog album for them.?? That whole album is filled to the brim with good stuff.?? I love it!?? While camping Ty also kept making a special request for a song that he wanted me to sing to him.?? I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about and he kept saying “AT CHURCH”.?? Finally Tanner explained.?? Ty wanted us to sing “Blessed Be”.?? :)?? “Blessed be your name, in the land that is plentiful, where the seeds of abundance grow…blessed be your name”.????Mighty good song choice I thought.?? Definitely a favorite of mommy’s too.??

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Dusty and girlfriend Michelle checking out the caterpillars.

The no teeth smile.

Dusty acquiesing to Michelle’s desire for a teeth smile.?? Well…he at least made an attempt.

Tanner’s idea of relaxin’.

Ty’s idea of relaxin’ 🙂

Ty in “time out”. He looks thoroughly chagrined doesnt he? 😉

Even his eyelashes are full of dirt.

Ty and Tanner both got to fish on this trip.?? It was a very first for Ty but he wasn’t super impressed.?? He really liked camping but he couldn’t stop thinking about missing “The Incredibles” and the XBox, and the lap top….

Tanner on the other was strikingly SIX. In years past, he has played played played.?? All he wanted to do this year was catch insects, mountain golf with Dad, go “Sploring” (exploring) or most importantly….FISHING.?? He caught the fishing bug BAD!?? I thought I’d never hear the end of it when I took him swimming when he wanted to be fishing with Uncle Dusty.?? (That was at Blue Ridge Resevoir near Happy Jack if anyone is interested).

One day we traveled to Potato Lake (which would have been more appropriately named Potato Pond) and to Knoll Lake also.?? Knoll Lake is a man made trout lake just for fishermen.?? The guys caught a total of 14 trout in 2.5 hours and Tanner reeled in about 10 of them.?? Talk about a GOOD day fishing!?? He never wanted to leave.?? It takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to get to Knoll lake from the?? highway though because you have to travel dirt service roads all along the rim.?? Such a beautiful drive though and well worth it.

Potato Lake

Just like a boy.?? All sticks inspected for their resemblence to a fire arm.?? Ty actually told me this was a “sniper rifle” to be exact.?? Again…how did he know that word??? I’ll blame that on Daddy.

Tanner has not yet outgrown his pout.?? He couldn’t skip rocks like daddy thus this agonizing pose.?? What a sad state of affairs….to be six and STILL not be able to skip rocks ;)….too funny.

Turns out Ty couldn’t throw “skippy” rocks (as he coined them) either.?? He didn’t care.?? He just chose the next nearest object that looked interesting.?? Never mind that is was a COWPIE!?? So disgusting.?? I took the picture after I had given up trying to tell him to leave the cowpies alone.?? Apparently the temptation was just too tough to resist.?? What is worse??? Man handling caterpillars at their utter demise or using cowpies as “skippy” rocks?

Knoll Lake

We had a great time camping and we weren’t ready to leave Monday.?? Four days of camping is never long enough for us.?? Post the trip, Tanner has wanted to wear his camoflauge outfit everyday.?? It’s his “huntin” outfit and he is eager for Daddy to start teaching him to hunt.?? Our rule in this house is you kill it you eat it.?? Tanner better like the taste of game because Jim and I don’t.?? Coming from a family of hunters I have tried many varieties (Dove, Quail, Duck, Chucker, Rabbit, Frog, Snake, Bear, Javelina, Buffalo, Elk, Deer…just to name some off the top of my head).?? It has to be covered in sauce for me to tolerate ANY of it (except BBQ snake and possibly frog – the meat is pretty white).?? Rabbit and duck though are BEYOND disgusting.?? Jim only hunts when he knows my family will eat his meat (which they do).?? Thankfully Tanner does love fish so that leaves fishing open at least.?? We’ll see what he thinks of the rest….?? Yesterday when we were discussing the purpose of camo I explained that it should be worn while hunting because it works like a disguise so the animals have a hard time seeing you sneak up on them.?? Tanner say’s (and I found this rather insightful for a red head especially)…”I would also have to lean my head on a tree”.?? Quite true Tanner.?? Quite true.?? LOL.