WAY back in September, we went on our annual church camping trip. ??We look forward to this time every year. ??Instead of tent camping, we opted to stay in a lodge nearby this year. ??I love to tent camp but if I am going to do it, I need to be staying about 4 days to make it worth all the hassle. ??When I am only going up for a weekend, it’s just too much work with 4 kids. ??The lodge worked out quite nicely. ??We had breakfast in the lodge one morning and the chorizo and eggs were so good! ??Jim and I want to go back there just for breakfast. ??Here are some shots from that trip.

The top shot is of Tori and her friend Beth. ??The boys caught a snake and I was very surprised that the girls were all too eager to be carrying it around. ??Not this girl! ??I didn’t want it anywhere near me. ??Tori and I do have our differences. ??I’ll leave the interactions with reptiles to her. ??We got quite a bit of rain on our trip but it didn’t really slow anyone down.

Troy is covering his face in the above shots because he has still not gotten over his fear of animals. ??It’s ridiculous. ??I probably wrote about this before but when Troy was under two, we were at a friends house and the puppy was let out of it’s cage. ??The puppy was a bigger dog and jumped all over Troy and he was super terrified. ??I wish I could go back and change his first animal experience because I never expected to have to live with the consequences as long as we have. ??The ONLY way we can get him to touch an animal is if we coax and coax and we hide the animals head from him. ??If he is petting the back of an animal and can’t see the animal’s face, he may be willing. ??Otherwise, he SCREAMS when he sees an animal approaching him. ??Not sure how we are going to get the little guy passed this (short of buying a dog which I really don’t want to do). ??Hey Jodi! I think we need to babysit Missy next time you are out of town! ??(Though, Troy may give Missy PTSD with all his screaming.)

As you can see above, Troy was not afraid of a caged animal. ??He was stealing the snake in the cage off the table. ??And Cooper above was being a little gentlemen and trying to keep the rain off Papa and Sweetie’s car.

In case you can’t tell, Troy’s gun is a toy. ??The red cap on the end gives that away. ??He likes pretending to target shoot with Daddy.

I think these pictures tell the story pretty well – can’t wait for 2014 trip.