Family Camping Trip, 2015

Because of Dad's illness, our annual camping trip was put off for a couple weeks.  We usually go the week after Labor Day, but that didn't work out this year. Instead, we went the last couple days of September and the first couple days of October. :) This year's trip wasn't quite as much fun as the previous years have been. I think that it's mostly because everyone has jobs, which means that the boys aren't there for long, then we had to go home morning and evening to milk. But it was still fun! :)

We arrived at Cold Springs in Sunday afternoon to get the campsite set up. Mom, Abi, and I set up our big 10 person tent all by ourselves. I'm sure if someone had been watching, they would probably have died from laughing. I must say, it was pretty hilarious. :) The boys brought the camper over after we had gotten the tent set up.

We usually rent the pavilion too. I'm carrying our big tote of table clothes, blankets, pots, etc over, with Grace as my shadow.

Leveling the camper is quite the task!

All of 6 people worked on putting Mom's tent up. :)

We bug bombed the girls' tent to kill any creepy crawlies that might have taken up residence.

Air mattresses are a must when tent camping!

When Gram got there, she wanted her little scooter driven over to the pavilion to charge. Brie and Sam drove it over.

This picnic table bench had some serious issues! No matter how much you weighed, it still boughed way down in the middle when you sat on it. We figured that the 3 of us altogether weigh somewhere around 332#! :)

Blowing air mattresses up.

We all walked over to the edge of the park to watch the lunar eclipse.

:)

High jinks occur when cousins get together. :)

Our pictures didn't turn out very well, mostly due to the fact that I forgot to bring our tripod.

Some of the younger ones hadn't ever seen an eclipse before, so they were pretty excited! I tried to show Hope what it was, but she just couldn't see the shadow over the moon. Even when it was mostly covered, she kept saying she couldn't see it. :) I told that she could see the shadow, she just didn't know it.

Mom and Aunt Carol didn't stay Sunday night, so all of us girls slept yourselves outside. The boys stayed in the pavilion while Gram was in the camper. I was feeling pretty nervous with the responsibility of all these girls on my hands and no moms close by to protect us. I didn't sleep well at all as I was so worried that the man in the camper across the way was going to come over, or something would happen. Unbeknownst to me, Josh and KK slept outside beside our tent to watch over us. :) I had told them they didn't need to, but I guess they decided they should! I could've had a peaceful night's sleep if I'd only known! :)

Early predawn fires feel heavenly after a cold, damp sleep.

And fire roasted toaster strudels are the best!

Gram was all excited to take as many rides as she could on her borrowed scooter, so we took quite a few walks with her, which probably did us good with all the unhealthy things we eat when we go camping! :)

Riding bike was a favorite pastime.

Yes, we still have T.J.'s "Adam's leaf." ;)

Abi and Grace gathered a bunch of nuts and cracked them all.

Ah... Coffee... The elixir of life...

There were small hornets all over this year! Last year, we had mosquitoes awfully bad, but we had hardly any this year.

The first afternoon there, Hope tipped over on her bike right into a puddle. After getting all wet, we just made her wear her muck boots the rest of the time. :)

KK discovered a new earring design. :)

Memories...

Everyone loves a good game of Yahtzee! Hope got really good at it, even winning once or twice!

Everyone was all tuckered out...

Hope loved taking care of Joseph!

This was the mild part of the annual nut war. Now, the term "nut" could refer to the people involved, or to the nuts being thrown. I will leave that for you to decide... I never enjoy nut wars, 'cause they hurt! Especially when those pesky little things bounce off the top of your head or you get hit, in my case, in the flubby back part of my arm. :)

Ry and Kels stayed for our last two nights there.

Sweet Der!

Katelyn loved riding around with Gram!

Our little village. :)

Lynna didn't eat all of her wrap. Her little bites were so cute!

I asked Katelyn to sing a song, so she sweetly sang "Jesus loves me," while in the background all of my goofy cousins are singing "All God's Creatures got a Place in the Choir." :)

Gram bought a bellows off of Amazon. It sure came in handy!

She loved sitting on the scooter, talking and singing to herself.

Gram bought a bunch of cookies, most of which disappeared by the second day. :)

Cutie!

Mom and the littles invented a little game of their own to pass the time.

Hope took Doughy on a walk. :)

Let the fun begin! The boys are here!

On our last night, we had a fun family night planned. Some of our activities will just have to stay at Cold Springs and in our memories, never to be shared... :) But others, like our rubber band war, are there for the sharing! :)

I was holding a sleeping Lynna, so I was snapping pictures and taking videos.

Action shot of KK :)

Ben shot KK in the eye, so everybody thought they should gang up on Ben. Eventually, Kelsey shot Ben right in the eye! :) Sweet justice. 

Poor T.J. has "Tease Me" written all over him.

Cute Brie

The dust in the pavilion would really rile my allergies up. I kept loosing my voice from the all dust whenever we'd do anything wild in there. Or, maybe it was from the yelling and laughing we did...

The next morning, our last, Aunt Carol made her famous pancakes. Abi and I had to milk, so we missed out on a good portion of the pancake prep work. We did get pancakes though! Boy, were they ever yummy!

The camera lens fogged up... Katelyn was so cute with her hood up and her pony tails sticking out. :)

:)

Pot Belly Doughy

He absolutely adores coffee!

Playing "peek-a-boo."

I, unfortunately, didn't get any pictures of our campsite take down. I actually didn't take nearly as many pictures as I have in previous years, mostly due to the fact that I was too lazy. :)

This camping trip was a welcome relief from the rat race called "Life"!