Happiest Of June Everybody!!

Hooray! I don’t know about you, but I am feeling like we are all turning a corner. Places are starting to open back up again, and people are venturing out of their homes. The sun is shining down on all of us and smiling her sweet smile filled with warmth and exciting promises of summer. I want to go on a picnic, fly a kite, ride a bike or have a barbecue. What do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green? Let us know and we will share your joyful, relaxing or adventurous activities right here in next month’s newsletter.

GM Rules Board

Every Camp Boring is scheduled to the minute. Sadly, our schedule was rained on the first night. In past years. I have scheduled each day with the different activities. But this year inspiration struck, and I had one schedule for every day. Then we just filled in the times that weren’t specific by picking an activity from the Not Bored Board. (Get It?) It was much smoother and we were actually able to do most of the activities this way.

Bag Of Holding

We had to substitute 3 cars instead of a bag of holding to get all our camping gear up the canyon. Of course, tents and sleeping bags are the most basic supplies. But we like to camp in style. So, in goes the three burner cook stove, the canopy, 8 chairs (four of them are lounge chairs) air mattresses, pillows and blankets, tablecloths, utensils, three ice chests and on and on. Spencer asked if I think we overpacked. Absolutely!

Do you have profession cooking?

We failed this roll spectacularly the very first night when we forgot to pack the hamburger patties for dinner. Luckily for us, a grocery store is just a quick trip down the hill. Once the proper ingredients were acquired the “Boy Scout” dinners were a delicious hit! Our favorite dinner is always the “Texas Steak” sandwich. So bad and yet soooooo good. You just can’t go wrong with round steak and onions fried in bacon grease and placed between two sides of a soft roll. One piece of bacon covers the whole sandwich.

Philip and Emily were definitely the best campfire chefs. Placing the chocolate loaded graham crackers on the fire ring to melt while marshmallows were roasting, was an inspired thought! Oooey, gooey goodness! Emily came up with a Birthday Cake Oreo version that made my tongue do a happy dance!

Ken is our Chef Extraordinaire! He cooks the best breakfasts of bacon, eggs and hash browns. The dehydrated hash browns were a new discovery for us and we all voted that they are the best way to complete our mountain breakfasts.

Roll For Inititave, or, Get Ready For Combat!

The competition can get mighty heated when our campers are pitted against each other in games of wit or strategy. Tyler and Spencer made the trickiest mazes with Legos, but Tyler had the most wins getting his marble through all six mazes. We played “Trial By Trolley”, a new game from Spencer. This game is not for shrinking violets. It basically became a shouting match and underhanded tactics controversy. “Relative Insanity” was another new game for the family. This is a game created by Jeff Foxworthy, but it resembles Cards Against Humanity an awful lot. It is more family friendly than the latter, however. I won’t say it’s G rated but it fit the parents comfort zone nicely.
 
A family favorite is the giant Candy Ball Unwrap. For years I have wrapped the candy in packing tape. That can get very tough when it’s your turn to unwrap the ball. Heat has melted the tape in the past causing frustration and tears. (Just kidding) Plastic cling wrap helped speed this game right up. And no, Ken didn’t cheat. The rules never said he couldn’t just let the ball roll and pull the cling wrap to get the candy out faster! 

Another annual must do, is the Duct Tape Bracelet Contest. The duct tape is wrapped around everyone’s wrist and you use anything from the ground on our little hike to create a wondrous item. Ken, the judge, chose Emily as our first-place winner and Philip as our second place winner. Thus, beating out Spencer’s winning streak of three years in a row.

Leveling Up

The highlight of Camp Boring is the Family Talent Shows. Normally we have a lip-sync night and a talent night. Due to the not having as much notice as normal, we decided to let Philip have a whole night to himself and do a stand-up routine. He’s got some great material!

Ken did his annual retelling of a joke that has been in the family for YEARS! Somehow it seems to grow every year. Zach gave Ken a taste of his own medicine and told us all Dad Jokes. His fuzzy moustache was just the right touch. Philip sang a lovely ballad entitled “Changeling Child” by Heather Dale. It was beautiful and added a certain level of authenticity to the talent part of the show. 

Emily and Tyler sang “Have You Ever Put Butter on a Pop Tart” from Family Guy. Talk about an earwig! We were all singing it afterwards. We couldn’t stop! Ken and I sang an original song to the tune of “You are My Sunshine”. We have included the verses here for you. Most of it is relatable. But just to clarify, the last verse concerns Tyler planting flowers in a specific shape on Spencer’s island that he named Mediocre. And Philip and Spencer concluded the evening by coming up with their own verses for a Hoe Down! The likes of which have been seen on Who's Line is it Anyway?