Hashtag Contented.

What I am about to say will shock you.

CAMPING IS FUN.

I KNOW.

I can't believe it either.  We had a great time cooking meat on the fire and fishing and lazing around.  The kids are not what you might call hikers, but that's OK.  It was cold at night and gorgeous in the morning and just FUN.  I want to do it again.  In a tent, even.

I KNOW. Totally unexpected but a lovely surprise.  Like aNew Year's Eve babysitter with her own car but more realistic.

We came into town from the fourth of July on Tuesday and left just a couple of days later, so I ordered groceries for delivery and did a TERRIBLE job.  Don't grocery shop while doing fifty other things.  You'll get orange juice with extra pulp and no coffee.  I was out of all of our usual stuff, so I had to improvise for breakfast, and the kids LOVED toad in a hole and next time I will up my game and make cute shapes.

 I did such a bad job grocery shopping that I even got the mustard to ketchup ratio wrong:

 I didn't now he was wearing this mask until I caught sight of him at a traffic light.  CREEP CITY.

 As you can tell from the hair shot above, summer means, I relax to the point of abandoning my beauty and grooming standards.  SO DREAMY.  This shit is bleach stained, and I wore it with black running shorts.  All day.  IN PUBLIC.

 I just realized my high school reunion is in 6 weeks and I am 8 pounds above my very fattest weight.  SO.  I am back on the horse not lying to My Fitness Pal and not really eating anything but lean protein and lots of veggies and wine.  So of course, I had one more glorious nacho binge on diet eve.

 This is the doll Dorothy brought camping. She is suddenly really into her American Girls, and I could not be happier.

 Car packed to go camping!  Cooper was crying because he didn't like sitting all alone in the way back.  We had so much stuff that we had to fold down a back seat and put Harry in the jump seat in the middle row.

 Harry and Jack were excited!  Dorothy didn't care and fell asleep right after we pulled out of the driveway.

 As soon as we got to our site, the kids had some muffins and colored some pictures while Ben and I made camp.

 We had the foresight to bring along a small play tent for the kids so they could keep dirt and bugs out of the tents we would actually be sleeping in.  Dorothy set up a dolly picnic right away.

 We took a little break after getting everything set up and I moved on to my second cocktail (camping secret:  always be pretty drunk).

 Jack made me a love note for the text I thought I would be sharing with Ben.

 Harry whittled a shank.

 Ben cooked bacon-wrapped scallops, fat steaks, and corn for dinner, and we had a champagne toast to camping.

 Then we just kind of hung around until it got dark.  The kids walked to the camp store to buy junk.  We made a few trips to the disgusting bathrooms.  We just sort of explored the woods.  The kids discovered a cute little path right next to our site and played some game about being tour guides for a couple of hours.  I read a book.  It was so relaxing.

 After s'mores (make them with Reese's PB cups-- life-changer), it got really dark and we all went to bed.  Dorothy would not settle in the kid tent, so I brought her with me, but that didn't work, so finally Ben slept with the kids and Harry came in my tent.

 We read for awhile

 And woke up to a beautiful, chilly morning.

 Even Dorothy was a happy camper.

 We spent the day fishing, walking around, eating, and lazing again.

 Eventually when we were sure of the kids' marshmallow roasting skillz, we gave them unfettered access to the s'mores stuff, and they ate themselves silly.

 Dorothy added a hat to make fishing even cuter.

Breaking camp was tedious and the kids were all jerkfaces, but it was lovely to think about going home and sleeping in a BED and taking a BATH.

 Then we went straight to the pool to wash off all the no-shower-fire-smelling-bug-spray of camping.

 And now we're back to a quiet week.  Dorothy seriously loves her dollies and took one to the movies yesterday (Secret Life of Pets-- cute) and even packed a sweater in case Isabelle got cold.

 She also helped me make waffles.

 And took some friends to the pool.