BCRC Friends' 3rd Annual Camping Trip (The 1st Annual Decamplon)

This past weekend we went camping with our church friends group.  This is the third year the group has gone, but only our second.  They purposely scheduled the trip last year when we would be in Peru so they could take over our good tent spot (just kidding).  It's great to get together for a whole weekend and relax, catch up, and have fun.  It's especially nice now because our friends Ben and Leah moved a bit further away and we don't see them much anymore.

This year we camped at Devil's Lake State Park.  It was really fun.  I was hesitant about the weekend because not only did the forecast show the temperatures as being in the upper 90's, but it was also supposed to rain most of the weekend.

And it did rain.  And it was hot.  Just not the whole weekend.

When we got there on Friday around 3, it was pouring.  Our poor friends Laurel & Alec and Preston & Jennifer had gotten there just in time to start setting up their tents when the rain started.  When we got there Laurel and Jennifer were in the car and Alec and Preston were soaked.  Brad and I decided it would be a great idea to wait in the car until the rain passed before we started on our tent.  We had to wait for about 30 minutes but then we got it up without any more rain.  Brad and I can't decide if putting up a tent together or playing Super Mario Wii is a better challenge for our marriage.  :)

Jennifer and Preston had to dry their tent out after the rain stopped.

Our tent!!!

By 5 or 6pm everyone had arrived and gotten their tents up, and then we had dinner.  Right around the second burger everyone realized that Chad and Karaline hadn't put up a tent.  We thought maybe they just needed some help because they're not big campers.  Well......come to find out, they forgot the tent!  We got it all worked out though - Karaline, Jody, and Leah ended up sharing the Dooyema tent, and Chad, Shane, and Ben shared the Buteyn tent.  I think Jody and Karaline had to share a pillow because Jody forgot hers but thankfully Karaline remembered that one!

The rest of the weekend was spent in what was termed The Decamplon (like the decathlon but for camping).  Every single thing we did was turned into an event in the decamplon: walking on our hike became a speed walking contest, swimming became a handstand contest, eating breakfast became a throw-a-grape-across-the-fire-and-into-your-wife's-mouth contest....you name it.

Speed walking competition

How many 20-Somethings does it take to deflate an air mattress?

We had a really fun time at the beach on Saturday.  The girls tied all of their floaties together while Chad, Shane, and Ben fashioned an anchor with a large rock and a rope.  Then Saturday night we had the best dinner ever - Pudgie pies (or tonkas or smoochies or whatever else - depending who you talked to).  We made pizza pudgie pies and eclaire tort pudgie pies....yum!  Ham pudgie pies didn't work out so well since Shane someone spilled the whole two pound bag of ham earlier in the day.  We also really loved our campsite (I'm not going to tell you which site until AFTER we book it just in case you try to take our weekend!) - it was private and wooded and plenty big enough to fit all six  five of our tents.

It was a great weekend and we're already planning for next year!