First of all, the details of our trip. Hubby was not able to go with us, so I took the kids, drove 520 miles and we stayed in my parents' neighbor's camping trailer. With no bathroom/water, but with air conditioning. Praise the Lord for air conditioning! We only made 2 middle of the night treks across the street to use the bathroom. Not too bad. It definitely could have been worse. The first night of the middle of the night run, I was laying in bed with three children, praying that the four year old DID NOT throw up all over all of us! She didn't, and two children actually slept through the entire incident. If you follow the math, that meant that me, plus four kids were up in the night. It wasn't our finest night. But it could have been worse!
I wouldn't exactly call our trip a vacation. It was a mission. We went to see and visit with as many of our friends as possible. I had this idea that if we could go for two weeks, we could pretend like we still lived there! The camper made that not a reality! But, we did visit with our closest friends, my family, and and many of our other friends.
We planned our trip to take advantage of our good friends Father and Son Camp Out for their church. These dear friends have 5 boys of their own. The dad took his four oldest boys and my three oldest boys and took them all camping. I told him he was the bravest man I know! They had a blast. Fishing, camping, hanging out with their friends, losing shoes, blister covered feet, filthy, smelly boys. Too much boy fun. My friend and I and our girls and babies went up the second night for dinner with them. Here are a few pictures of the fun.
Leia fishing. She just loves to fish!
Here she is with two of the camo clad boys' help.
Padme roasting her marshmallow for S'mores.
Here is Obi with Yoda and our friend's baby. The kids are sure that these babies will grow up to be best buds, just like the rest of the family.
And this is what two teenage brothers do with their baby brothers. Chicken fight with the babies! 
Another fun day was fishing with my parents. When I was a kid growing up, we spent many days up in the hills fishing. My dad was always the one to catch at least one fish. Well, times have changed, and only my mom and Leia caught fish this time. We had a nice day, and hopefully created good memories for everyone.
Here is part of the group fishing.
Here is Obi taking the hook out of Leia's fish. You can see that she is very interested in what is going on. 
Here is Han with one of the snakes he caught. He likes hunting for critters better than fishing.
Here is my dad, the great fisherman!
And a view of part of the lake where we went. It is very green and beautiful there. So refreshing from the brown where we live!
Amy,
ReplyDeleteSo glad you are back. Hope your trip was as much fun as it looks! I could do without the snakes but fishing...I love fishing. I can so relate to those nights with everyone up and all of us crowded in one bed. My dh travels a lot. He used to do trips across the country and be gone for days or even weeks. The kids would always sleep with me. That wasn't so bad when we just had 1 or 2 but got a bit ridiculous by the time 5 and 6 came along! Now they take turns on the floor and in the bed. I never did get much sleep then...people tossing and turning. And if I did sleep then I woke with a good stiff neck. Actually, that kind of ties in with what I wanted to tell you. My girlfriend, who said about never getting a king sized bed, I told her that we wanted to get one because all the kids come to cuddle and there isn't enough room for all of us anymore, and she said that was their reasoning, too (they have 6) but now that the kids are older and grown and 4 are married, the bed is so big and they never sleep next to each other now.
Every time we are all crowded in the bed and someone says that we need a bigger bed, my husband said no way...if sweet A. says not to, then we are taking her advice! And he doesn't often make such a bold statement about anything...
Welcome home!