Yesterday just came and went so quickly. We were all still low on sleep. Ella took a late nap after we dropped Accalia off at gymnastics, but it apparently wasn't long enough and didn't do a thing to help her mood. It also kept her awake until 12:30 a.m., which was not so great for me. All the kids are still sleeping, though, at 9:15 a.m., so maybe they can start out the day with less of a sleep deficit.

Accalia is extremely excited about going to the library this afternoon for her second Buggin' Around program. They're going to be using digital cameras today, and they asked that children bring their own if possible since the library doesn't have enough for each child. We were able to get our old digital camera working with a new battery, so Accalia should be set. Accalia also has swimming lessons tonight, which is equally exciting for her. Cory has an appointment at that time, so Cole, Ella and I will take her. That usually works out fine. We'll just sit at one of the poolside tables, and Cole and I will play with his Pokemon cards. Ella's content as long as she has a snack from the vending machines.

Back to our weekend...

On Friday, everyone made it out to the campground by mid afternoon. My mom and sisters-in-law were going together to have Friday's supper, so everyone gathered around for that. It was really nice to have one meal taken care of by somebody else. Cory went with his dad to a town about 35 miles from Yankton to pick up our nephew Chandler (11) so he could camp with us for the weekend. They were gone until later in the evening because Chandler was participating in a fishing contest.

Our loop was fairly close to the campground's amphitheater, and both Friday and Saturday were family movies (30 minute long movies about animals) along with free popcorn and freezer pops for the kids. Almost all of us went to both nights of that, and all three of my kids loved it. I think a big part of it for my kids was just being able to sit with their cousins and friends and watch a movie together, something they really don't get a chance to do.

Saturday started off early because it just happened to be the Young Flyers program out at the Yankton airport where local pilots volunteer to give children ages 8-17 free airplane rides. Accalia did this last year, too. Accalia, Chandler, cousin Elijah and friend Chloe were the only kids within that age range, and they all wanted to do. When I was signing Accalia up, though, I overheard one of the workers tell another parent that a younger child could go up if it was okay with the pilot, so I signed Cole up, too. Cole always talks about how he flew in a plane when he was in utero during our trip to Disney World, but this was his first airplane ride that he remembers. Someone had to fly up with him since he was younger, so Cory's dad offered to do that. He said Cole held his hand and was very quiet for most of the ride, but by the time they came back, Cole couldn't stop talking about how much fun that was.

In the afternoon, almost everyone went swimming at the lake even though the water was still rather cold. Then Accalia opened gifts, and all of the kids took turns trying to break open the pinata. Accalia had wanted pizza for her birthday supper, so Cory, Myron and I went back into town to pick up pizza and the birthday cake. It seems as if the meal was a success. There was more swimming and some fishing after supper, but I stuck back at the campground with a few others during that time. By Sunday, I was really feeling all of the activity over the weekend and knew I just need to sit down and put up my feet for a while.

On Sunday, Myron made french toast for everyone, and my brother Jeremy contributed eggs. It was an early morning for everyone, and you could definitely tell that energy levels were low. Everyone left by late morning, although I talked with my parents about how we (them and us) should try to stick around and have lunch together next year depending on how exhausted the kids are. Ours were definitely ready to collapse by that time and were getting a bit weepy about the campout being over.

So there's another campout in the books. We've been doing this since 1999 when Accalia was just weeks old. We did miss a couple years in there, but now it seems to be a well established routine.

I should probably get ready for the day. I have a feeling the neighbor girls will be ringing the doorbell before long.