Finale of our Camping Adventure

I know I have been doing a lot of catching up from our camping trip, but I personally don't want to forget. Now that my husband has been turning my blog into hardbound books I want to be sure to capture big memories.

Having my husband's Aunt and Uncle over just before leaving and teaching their great-niece and nephew the fine art of the Telephone Game proved to be a good thing. My kids were anxious to play the game while camping by the campfire. Although, the logistics of getting up from the camp chair to maneuver around the fire pit, that was basically ground level, in order to whisper in an ear did not seem so safe. Therefore, we opted for a sitting game by the fire and it went like this.

One person would start a story and say as many sentences as they liked before passing the story to the person sitting to their right. Then it was this next person's turn to continue the story until it was circled around the fire many, many times. Our story started off really well, and then the middle part just got a little silly and didn't make too much sense, and then we brought it all back around for the finale.

The fun part was hearing my dad and my husband chime in on their turns and making great "play on words" and other interesting funnies. They were quick too, which made it all the more fun. For example, the story started with cute little mice among buttons and spools of thread. They were on a quest to find a certain button. Five people later and it was my dad's turn to which he chose that the certain button would actually be Sir Tun Button; an English Mouse. The story grew from there with every turn of my dad and husband's being a play on words or a twist of vocab that actually made sense.

The next morning the kids were still wanting to play the telephone game.  So we did it after breakfast around the picnic table. Carrying on the tradition of our Aunt and Uncle the last person to receive the message had to announce the message to the group with as much drama as possible. It was fun.

Another highlight is singing campfire songs. This started when my daughter was little. She quickly fell in love with the campfire because my dad would play his guitar and sing in the dark of night with the quiet echoes of other campers in the distance enjoying their fires. Then she received a guitar for her birthday one year and she has been bringing hers with his ever since. While she does not know how to play the guitar, my dad takes time to tune hers so that she can randomly strum notes to the beat. It is really sweet.

Of course there are random pictures taken on hikes, around the camp, and truly miscellaneous times where there is no real story to tell but you know it is great because you were surrounded in God's beauty with family. It doesn't really matter what we were doing, it always felt fresh, new, and relaxing. There is something great about the limited responsibility in the beauty of nature. It is so free. Truly family time at its best.

Siblings taking pictures of siblings.

Wrestling with Dad and chilling out by the lake mid-hike.

Daytime campfire fun; aka - my son playing with fire. He found the mini marshmallows in the trail mix my mom had made were still yummy-good cooked over the open fire. This occupied him all.the.time.when.hanging.at.camp!

Our raft ready to hit the water.

Gold tokens = hot-long-my favorite part of waking up-shower!

Family Hike in a gorgeous forest by the water.

Family Fishing our last night.