Finding Our Limit: Camping and Geology

We found our limit. We packed too much into a weekend and now more than half of us are sick. I know it isn't because of the weekend, but I definitely feel like we need a break from our busy-ness. We did have a lot of fun over the last few days, but I'm not sure, yet, if it was worth the weariness.

First off, we packed up the van with lots of gear and headed off to Cooper Lake State Park for a family camp out with Will's Cub Scout den. There were about six families there while we were there, but some others showed up after we left (and we left a day early.) Friday, we got to the campsite just after sunset. It was a challenge to set up the tent in the dark, but it was harder to keep up with the four kids while we were doing that. After we set up, we all went to bed -- yes, early. Saturday, we got up at dawn, had breakfast with the others, cleaned up the dishes, and headed to a river that was mostly dry from the drought. One of the other boys' dad is a geologist and he and his coworker introduced the boys (and siblings) to different types of rocks and fossils. After the short lesson, we all descended a steep cliff. We had been worried about getting all the little kids down, but it went quite smoothly since we let them sit and slide down on their bottoms. It was steep enough that they slid quickly, but not so steep that they didn't have control over their speeds. Once we were in the "river" we all started searching for different fossils, including shark teeth, shells, and vertebrae from a particular dinosaur (that I can't remember the name of, but that was the reason the geologists chose this spot.) I finally relaxed a bit and let the kids wander as long as I could see them. Maddie found a lot of fossils, but they were of the big, heavy type, so I took a picture instead of hauling them back up the cliff. Ben and Allen found some shark teeth. Jon, Maddie, and I preferred to find the pretty and smoothed river glass. After all the second-grade boys got tired of hunting for fossils, they had a blast climbing the cliffs and sliding down what they called "avalanches." Thankfully, he didn't wear the seat out of his pants, but I'm not sure how he didn't wear through them. Ben eventually got bored with looking at rocks and just kept asking me, "Mama, please walk with me and lets find an adventure." Jon continued to crack me up as he had been trying all morning to get the attention of five-year old, Sadie. At breakfast, he insisted on sitting where he could see her. After a potty break, he demanded we walk faster so he "could spend more time with Sadie." At one point, while we were at the river, he ran to me to giddily explain, "Sadie smiled at me!" We all found pretty stones, a few shells and fossils, petrified wood, and quartzite. For the most part, we only brought back what would fit in our pockets, though. After we wore the kids out, we headed back to camp to pack up, eat lunch, and head for our next adventure.