The boats turned out to be a hit once again. The little inflatable row boat seemed to steal the stage. I suspect that a large part of the appeal was that the kids could go into the lake unsupervised (at least directly) and could row under their own power. It took a few tries but the kids really began to get around the lake in this little boat. We only had to tow kids back to shore on a few occasions.
Jared managed the "save of the day" when he plucked Aaron from the lake's grasp. I didn't see what happened except Jared was grabbing Aaron by the ankle and pulling him out of the lake. Apparently Jared's "snatch" occurred just as Aaron slipped and fell into the lake and Jared caught the ankle before it slipped into the water. As a result, Aaron had one dry shoe but everything else was wet.
By this day the kids were having a great time playing together. You would see three or four kids running around playing a game here or there. It was so much fun to see them getting along so well.
With the arrival of Jared at camp, the chain saws were unleashed and several dead trees were relieved of the stress of standing tall in the forest. As a result we had a massive wood pile. With so much wood everyone seemed excited to take a turn trying to split the logs. Some managed impressive, single swing explosions while others needs a couple of extra swings to split the logs into burnable size pieces.
Chris Kim
(Cynthia Boel & Chris Kim)
(Janeil Kim)
(Cynthia Boel)
(Kaylynn Meyers)
(Random cute picture of Troy Kim and Milly Petersen)
When we finally were aroused from slumber we discovered that the camp had been deserted! Finally a lone cousin wandered through camp and after careful interrogation we discovered that everyone had gone rappelling off a nearby cliff. David was off like a shot! Aleky and I finally caught up only to discover David hanging on to the side of a cliff (Michelle and the other boys took longer to wake up).
Okay, I'll admit it...I was very proud of David for going over the cliff on his own rope! Of course I was also happy to note that Aunt Tosha was there to talk him down the cliff and make sure he didn't fall.
David made 3 different rappels gaining confidence each time he went down the cliff. He was one excited boy!
Meanwhile, the other boys woke up from their naps and they joined us at the cliff. Donovan decided that he wanted to go down the cliff too.
Donovan and I went up the cliff to get into the rappelling gear. We decided to let Donovan try going down the cliff on his own rope. Well, let's just say he wasn't quite ready for that experience just yet. He was close enough to the top that Grandpa Petersen just hoisted him back to the top. Having already started down the cliff I quickly descended and ran back up to the top to try again. This time we decided to try a tandem (on the same rope) decent. Donovan felt much better about that idea.
While I am excited that my boys were helping at the bottom of the cliff I think I would have been a little more confident with a little more experience (and weight) and the end of the ropes. But everything went just fine so there's really nothing to worry about.
Once we reached the bottom I had an excited boy on my rope. Donovan was thrilled to have gone down the cliff. I think he would have liked to have gone again but it was time to put the gear away and get ready for dinner.
Devin wins the award for the most descents. He had to have had at least 6 descents while we were there and I have no idea how many additional descents he had before we arrived. He was having a blast going down the cliff face.
Since my boys were the last ones down the cliff I helped pack up the rappelling gear. When I finally made it back to camp I was in for a little surprise! My boys were swimming in the lake...in just their underwear! Michelle was quick to point out that the instigator of this experience was Uncle Jared. In the end, I think this ended up being one of the boys favorite memories.
Janeil was able to get all three of her children to help prepare dinner. Tosha was left all alone while her three boys went swimming in the lake. In the end, the dinner turned out amazing! Great food is pretty much expected at any Petersen camp out.
I think everyone enjoyed the food. Although, some of the kids found it difficult to eat everything on their plates.
Aleky discovered that he was partial to the rolls and honey butter and he downed 2 of them but didn't make much progress on the rest of his food.
David and Michael also struggled through dinner but Donovan actually did a fantastic job clearing his plate. 
After dinner was another round of s'mores. Even though the kids didn't eat all of the dinner we let them have treats. After all, we're camping!
After putting the kids to bed the adults congregated around the fire. The discussion seemed to revolve around politics and vehicles (and the politics of vehicle manufactures). It was probably as good as the conversation from the previous night which was on kids and pregnancies. It was an enjoyable evening in the outdoors, at least until it started to rain. That broke up the campfire talk and everyone immediately headed for their tents and for bed.
I enjoyed listening to the rain on the tent roof. There was enough rain to give the relaxing background noise but not too much rain to get everything extremely wet. The ambiance was soothing as I drifted off to sleep.
