My parents have said they'd like to have an official reunion every other year, and the years in between will be a camping trip for anyone who wants to come. This was an in between year and so my brother, Justin, put on Slack the week he was available for camping and no one wanted to miss out (we all have a bit of a F.O.M.O. problem - Fear Of Missing Out) everyone decided to come! I referred to it often as my family's reunion but My dad overheard once and clarified that this wasn't a reunion, its just a camping trip. I asked him what the difference was and he said a reunion would have more formal activities like taking pictures, maybe t-shirts and an activity packet!
We all chose different spots this year to camp on to get a feel of the Ridge better. Chris and I were up on the top of the Ridge. We didn't see a whole lot of wildlife until the last day but we did catch a glimpse of a moose! It got pretty cold at night and Max woke up a lot. The second day we got out a space heater and slept much better. Charlie and Alec had their own tent or slept in cousin tents and Gwen sometimes slept with some girl cousins so we had quite a bit of extra space in our big tent. It was nice.
The cousins were all great to play with Max and watch him, especially Mia.
Our one 'planned' activity was a night walk organized by Grandpa. He had this short devotional about following and being 'lights' for others as we set good examples of living like Christ. Alec had helped him set out a bunch of solar powered lights around the property and we walked from light to light and eventually ended back up at the firepit with the big fire going. Grandpa led a short discussion by asking grandkids questions about how that experience related to the gospel and our lives. It was short, sweet but deep and meaningful.
We also had one day we went to Jordanelle Resevoir. It was pretty hot but we set up a few pavilions to get some good shade. The water levels were SUPER high so there wasn't too much 'beach' to play on and the spit of land with a sidewalk that curves out into the lake for a bit was completely underwater by a foot or so. The cousins liked to walk along the sidewalk still to the very end (it got waist deep on an adult at one point) and back again. They called that the Jeffery Challenge. A lot of the adults tried it too and it was a fun thing. I didn't finish it myself, the water was TOO cold and I didn't want to freeze my little baby inside. :)
Heres a good picture of Gwen kayaking over the sidewalk.
Tiffany - being so close to her due date - didn't sleep every night up at the Ridge just incase she went into labor at night, she didn't want to be driving down the bumpy and windy mountainous road. I took this last picture of the toilet/shower area because I think my dad is a genius. Its quite wonderful for an outdoor shower and port-a-potty. Its almost luxurious with the cedar wood smell, not-cheap shampoo/conditioner, hot water, sanitizer wipes, moisturizing sanitizer, extra toilet paper rolls, and a foaming soap to spray on toilet paper to get the effect of a wet wipe.
No comments:
Post a Comment