My brother Brandon, his wife Ayrial, and their two little girls Amora and Aleksia came to visit us last weekend. They also brought my youngest sister Genelle along. We had planned for months on going camping. We knew all the kids would love it! It was a lot of fun (and a lot of work!). Some of our favorite parts were:
- hiking back and forth to the stinky potty with at least 100 kids (okay, so there were only 9)
- having a comfy sleep because of our air mattress
- Tanner sniffing around our tents in the morning (trying to scare us)
- the beautiful view when we got to the top of the mountain
- Amora sitting down in the middle of our hike saying she couldn't go any further
- Cooking breakfast over the open fire - took forever but it was tasty!
- Tons of caterpillars everywhere - Mariah named her two "pets" Steve and Bill!
- Sneaking up on the big girls in their tent to get some classic wake up pictures (& lots of screams!)
- Amora & Mariah fighting over a stick (there weren't any more to be found since we were surrounded by trees)
- Tanner building the morning fire by himself
- All the kids in their matching tie dye shirts
- 2 babies playing in the dirt
- Trying to keep 2 babies away from the fire
- dutch oven bbq chicken, cowboy potatoes, rolls and peach cobbler with runny ice cream - YUM!
- Getting lost for 2 hours -- short version of the story: I had to go back home after setting up camp (pick kids up from school, piano lessons, PTO fundraiser I couldn't miss since I'm the treasurer). Luckily I finally got a signal on the cell phone and Dave met me to bring me back (I put 100 miles on our suburban - OUCH!)
- Singing camp songs around the fire in the morning
- Trying to get pictures of Genelle with nappy camping hair!
- Mariah following Brandon around the whole time (puppy love!)
- Smore's for lunch
- Getting back home and cleaning up
- Playing settlers & In a Pickle
- Talking and laughing
- Craigo's all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta, salad & breadsticks -- a perfect end to a fun weekend!
It was great having them here, but NEXT TIME I VOTE FOR A HOTEL WITH A POOL!!!
Good things:
My little bro and his great family (and of course my little sister!)
Our first cousins (on my side of the family)
Planning for the next get-together
8 comments:
Yeah, it really WAS fun! But I agree- definitely a hotel next time. I think there were some great moments, there.
I hope we can camp like this again some time... without the camping part of course.
Looks like you had a lot of fun!! Family camp outs are the best!
That looked like you guys had so much fun! That is great. I keep reading about people going camping and it makes me want to go camping. I'm in AZ though and would die of the heat. Oh well! Glad that it looks like you guys had so much fun! Brandons kids are getting big. The second one I just learned he had and the older one is getting so old. Which makes yours getting so old as well. Oy! All these kids growing up! It's crazy! :)
That looks like so much fun. I need to have you convince James to have us do something like that. I love all the fun pictures of the kids just having fun. Your kids are all so stinkin' cute. It looks like Brandon and Aryials girls had fun too. Family time....nothing better!
The part I like best is the dirty hands & faces. Back handed compliment to both moms, your kids are always clean & cute. Camping doesn't allow for that. Also who has s'mores for lunch? Camply allows families to break rules while they bond. Thanks for sharing.
That was such a fun trip! I'm glad we finally did it after such a long time trying to plan for it. I think all the kids will have good memories of the camping trip. I know our family had a lot of fun and many good memories!
How fun! But I totally agree. If it is at all possible, just day camp it, and stay in a hotel! I know, it's the chicken way, but dang I like showers, toilets that flush, and of course, a bed! I'm a weenie!
I think every kid needs to have fun camping memories! It seems like we went camping tons when I was young. Then we sold our tent-trailer - no more camping. I'm glad Genelle got to experience a fun family camping trip.
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