Memorial Weekend Camping

We spent Memorial Weekend camping at Patoka Lake with the Lewis family, the Gettlefinger's, and 3 of the 4 McAfee's.  It was a hot weekend, but we had a ton of fun.  

Friday night Grace hammed it up with Mazden and Janelle.

These two girls are a hoot together.

The girls were blowing bubbles while the boys played catch.

Jackson and Gabriel played catch.  They were getting some good throws in . . . not so much, on the catches.

Of course, before bed we enjoyed a little campfire.

Saturday morning Grace sat with Mazzi and played.  Grace loves babies.

It got hot pretty quickly, so Grace and Darbi changed into their bathing suits.

Fast forward to Saturday evening . . . Dan sat with sweet little Maz.

The kids were SO excited to roast some marshmallows and make s'mores.

Sunday morning the kids ate cereal for breakfast.  I heard there were also kiddos eating donuts, sweet rolls, Poptarts.  Geez, who would bring that kind of stuff for the kids' breakfast??? 

Grace was quick to put on her bathing suit Sunday morning too.  I have to agree with her --- it was a scorcher.

Damon played some whiffle ball with the kids.  Gabriel loves playing baseball, and I regret that we missed sign-ups this year.

Grace copped a squat directly in front of the Lewis' fan.  Ha!  We wouldn't want our little diva to get too hot!

Grace took my camera for a while.  She took this pic of Daddy and Pap.  I think I have a future blogger on my hands.

She also took this pic of Jake.  I love hanging out with this kiddo!

Before dinner Sunday, we headed to the lake to swim.  It was Grace's first time at a beach.  Do you know how this chic loves to dig??  Well, the beach is heavenly to her.  She spent most of her time there collecting mussel shells, which are currently residing on our kitchen counter.  Here is story about my stellar parenting . . . Grace had this collection of shells started, and Janelle was holding them.  The shells were overflowing Janelle's hands, and we were commenting how handy it would be to have one of those sand buckets for the girls to put their shells in.  The thought crossed my mind that surely kids lose their sand toys at the beach all.the.time., so surely there must  be an unclaimed bucket around.  As I scanned the beach, I saw something bright green that wasn't really "near" anyone's stuff.  I sent Grace to go fetch the green object.  She yells to me, "Mom, it's a toy."  To which I reply, "Okay, bring it here."  She was obedient, but confused.  When she got to me with the green sand toy, she said, "Mom, this doesn't belong to us."  My reply was "We're just going to borrow it, Babe."  Yes, I set a very poor example for my dear daughter.

The kids had a ball splashing around in the water.

We even bought Gabe a new life vest just for this trip.

On the way back from the lake, I bought the kids popsicles.

When it got dark Dan showed us constellations with his iPad.

Monday morning we were all quick to pack up and hit the road.  Poor Darbi P. had an ear infection and was feeling pretty miserable.  We wanted to get home and get ready for our last Tuesday of the school year.

It was just a coincidence, but Darbi and Grace were dressed alike. 

We already looking forward to our next camping trip.  Camping is so fun, especially when we have fun friends to camp with!