Finally, our camping trip

We still have the two kittens and mommy hanging in there. They are still in a very serious and 'iffy' state. They will be seeing Dr. Nelson tomorrow morning, so we can head into the weekend with a good assessment and any additional equipment/supplies/information we may need. I'm hoping for the best, but we are still a LONG way from having them stabilized.

Oliver also seems to still be urinating and unobstructed. I know this, because I have to follow him around to verify AT LEAST once a day that he is urinating okay. I won't explain how I verify, with four other cats in the house sharing litterboxes, if he did indeed pee when he went into the box. It's not pretty.

So, now, I can talk about last weekend's camping trip. Between phone calls about the cats, we did have fun. We went to Starved Rock state park in central IL. It was, I think, the first camping trip that we did not get lots of rain, and it was one of the only ones where we didn't have to pack up the tent in the rain--that is so not fun. Somehow we've had bad luck in this area. The temp was well into the 90's, as it was here, so it was quite hot and uncomfortable during the daytime. Fortunately, most of our daytime hikes were through canyons and woods, so it was pretty shady, which helps a lot. Our campsite was nice and roomy, and the park was much quieter than the parks in WI that we have camped at. The whole campsite, as well as every place we hiked, was chock full of poison ivy. It will be a miracle if none of us ends up with it. Mark was very diligent about watching for it and warning us, but it was HUGE and it was everywhere. Our campsite was full of cicadas, and the ground had tons of exit holes from them. L. was digging around in what we thought was an exit hole, but she got a surprise when she found a mommy cicada laying eggs underground. They were super loud during the days but quiet at night. We had this great tree on our site that had all these little nooks and crannies in it. L. loved playing with that tree. She had brought all her little lion figurines and created quite impressive cat habitats in the tree. She's rarely bored, and she's never bored when she's outside. I love that about her.

We hiked to some beautiful waterfalls, which are Luciana and my favorite. I could sit by a waterfall all day every day. It is so beautiful and relaxing, and I love the sound. Luciana brought her bug net, which she used to catch bugs, butterflies (although I don't think she succeeded in catching any), and fish. Of course she immediately released the little critters after looking at them. She really wanted to wade out into the deeper water to catch some blue gills with it, but they were too big and too fast for her little net. She also was hoping to catch a frog, but while we saw quite a few, none were easily accessible to us. She used her net to save quite a few cicadas, who had fallen into the water and were struggling. They don't seem to be the smartest little creatures. The last day of our camping, we went on a hike, and she was not being the best listener. She ended up going into an area that we told her not to go into, and it was this marshy muck. She stepped in and sank up to nearly her knees in mud and had a very difficult time getting out. She was pretty mud covered after that. We washed her up in the lake, until we got to the van where we had some baby wipes.

I love nightime when we camp! We sat out by our campfires and read our special camping ghost story book, which L. loves. It's quiet, private, the fire is pretty, and I always look forward to seeing which critters will come visit us. That's always the high point of my camping trips--the critter encounters. We heard a lot of interesting sounds in the woods, but we only saw raccoons. I feed them, so they generally come right up to us--they're not afraid of much. We had a single raccoon--smallish, so probably a 'teen', and a mommy with her two babies. Those babies provided no end of entertainment, as you can hear them from a mile away coming through the woods. Just like human children, and kittens, siblings love to pick, fight, wrestle, and I could hear them rolling through the leaves and chasing one another. I miss my babies so much when I camp, that I become desperate for a furry critter fix. Feeding and interacting with them both nights definitely helps. I'm telling you, if I could get the little guys to climb into my lap and snuggle, I would be one happy camper (ha ha ha). Our campfire time definitely makes me happy.