Family Room Campout

For Mark's birthday this past weekend, we wanted to give him a day of what he enjoys most. Well...when your birthday is in January and it is 20 degrees it is a bit tricky to spend the day in the Great Outdoors. So the girls and I came up with a plan to bring the outdoors to him. We put together a regular camp out in the family room. We ended up making a last minute trip to Billings that morning because Mark wanted to get some trim for the basement rooms. It was a fun day, but it also gave us less time to get everything set up for dinner that night. We had to lock him away while we got everything ready...but I think it was worth it:)

We made foil dinners in the fire (oven) and they tasted pretty darn good...just like camping!!

We ate dinner under the stars that the girls had made...each one had a special message they had written for Mark.


Bailee read us a Yellowstone ghost story

We roasted marshmallows over the fire (space heater)...yeah this didn't really work, but the "heat" had the girls convinced that it was in fact making them toasty brown:) It did make the marshmallows nice and warm.

And after eating Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies, which Mark requested instead of cake, we watched the Great Outdoors in the tent (I thought it would okay for the girls to see because it was PG, but it was clear this was before PG 13 came about...I had totally forgotten about the "bad words" that were so freely thrown about...good job Mom!!) The girls thought it was funny, but not quite as hysterical as Mark!! We all enjoyed a good laugh and when it got late and little girls were starting to ZONK, had a little sleep over in the tent.


We hope Mark had a memorable birthday filled with smiles. We love you Marko!!