We made our way toward our campout in the middle of the night, coming straight from a busy day of rafting. Besides Max being exhausted and me almost hitting a deer, we made it safely around 1:30 am and my cousin in law stayed up for us and opened the gate and even helped us set up our tent, thanks Todd! We tried to blow up the beds quietly and moved our sleepy children into them. Luckily they all slept in. The next morning I got up with Miles, (Edwin was still with his cousins at this point and they hadn't arrived at this campout yet) Miles and I ate breakfast then woke up the other sleepyheads so they could get breakfast. In no time at all, the boys were off riding bikes, climbing at the park, and digging in the sand. Max and I kind of enjoyed that we didn't have a two year old to follow around so we got to play some games with our cousins. In the afternoon, we got on our bikes and rode to the water hole connected to the campground. I also love that my boys are proficient on bikes now too, it makes these kinds of rides so much fun. And we still didn't have edwin (whom we have a bike trailer for) so the ride was just the 4 of us. We met up with our cousins and second cousins at the river. (The third river we played in that week)
Charlie found someone to give him a net.
More Miles photos...
Charlie worked hard hauling logs to make a raft.
It was quite serene
His beard is multicolored with splotches of red and light brown.
Once we got back, max told them to roll in the sand as much as they wanted because he was soon going to take them to shower and then they couldn't go in the sand anymore...they took full advantage of that. I had to document their filthiness before they took a shower but I don't feel like these pictures do it justice.
Timmy photo bombing...and Charlie licking his filthy brother?!?
Red Grandma, begging me not to take her picture. But I like her, so I took her photo anyway.
Aaron had broken his arm on this camping trip, by falling off the playground.
Just as it was getting dark and we were starting to get the kids settled down, my brother's family arrived with my baby boy! We could tell he certainly loved having some cousin time and celebrating auntie Elizabeth's birthday, he wouldn't stop talking about her cake!
We were happy to have him back with us and grateful for the time Elizabeth had kept him. The boys were excited too, and it took a while for them to all settle down. I left the tent and played some card games with my cousins while max tried to help them settle down. Good man. When we were done with our game I sat by the fire with Max until the flames and embers were gone. Then we went to bed.
With the arrival of my brother's family, there were more cousins to play with in the morning. So the boys played in the sand for hours!
Edwin was excited that I had packed him his own bag of toys and started carrying it around with him and unlike my other children, he remembers what toys were in there and where he leaves them.
Max tried to give grandpa Don a lesson on face timing. We have yet to see if he actually learned how to do it.
And Edwin was excited to have some bike riding time too!
Gwenevere sneaking up on me..
After a fun morning in the sand, we made our way to the lake. We brought all our floats and our cousins brought kayaks and rafts and we just had a wonderful time. This lake was a lot warmer than the rivers we had been playing in so that was exciting. I think we need to get this kid a kayak soon so he can have more practice before rowing his own raft down the river, through the rapids.
Edwin liked floating with me and I liked that he wanted to spend time with me, and sit somewhat still. Once in awhile, he would shake the float and ask "Do you like that?"
Photos by Max...
Eventually Edwin was ready to get out, so I fed him while Max rowed around with the big boys.
There are a lot of boy cousins, these are only a couple of them.
Here's Murphy the dog. Named after my grandma's maiden name.
And oh my goodness, my little nephew Edgar would light up every time, he saw me or my camera. So I couldn't stop taking pictures of him...
We enjoyed some cobbler then more riding around in the sunset.
Grace and Everett brought Roller blades and Charlie was so excited to try them out. We has really shaky at first but has been practicing a lot since being home and he's really starting to get it.
On the last day, we planned on not staying too late since Max had to work the next day and we needed time to unpack and clean up after back-to-back family reunions. But we were in charge of breakfast so we made three mountain man dutch ovens, with eggs, hash browns, sausage, ham, and cheese. Pretty simple and delicious. After we ate, we chatted with my cousin that was getting married a month later (and has since been married, I'm just really behind on the blog.) We gave them all our best marriage advice, because apparently 10 years makes us experts, ha!
Anyway, we packed our car up then decided to play a couple more games. And Edwin just really wanted to play Battleship. haha
That is quite the full, epic trip! I especially love those candid river photos at the beginning. Nice layers. ;)
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