Camping weekend

Wow.

What a great weekend we had. We got off to a rocky start, of course, because I'm always so stressed and therefore bitchy right before a big trip.

I had my lists. I ALWAYS have to have my lists.

I had a set time I wanted to leave by. And of course, I didn't make it.

I should know by now not to have set times. Set times make me have anxiety attacks and stress unnecessarily. My motto should be "we'll get there when we get there" but I'm still learning that.

But once we got the trailer set up, and the kids were playing with their cousins, things were good. It's so awesome to see Zachary and Lucas playing with their cousins, the 6 of them get along amazingly well..most of the time. But what can you realistically expect out of 6 kids between the ages of 2 and 7?

Friday night, after the kids went to bed, and the old fogies went to bed, my brothers, my hubby and I stayed up until 1:30 am chatting at the campfire. Remembering old times, planning new ones, discussing life's philosophies. It was a lot of fun. It's funny how much I have in common with my brothers and how different I am at the same time. It's also wonderful to sit back and enjoy their company because that didn't always happen when we were younger. I guess age and having kids does that to people.

Saturday, we awoke bright and early at 7 am. Of course, Dad, Uncle Bob, and Aunt Kay were already up drinking their coffee. It's nice to be able to chat with them uninterrupted sometimes. Later on in that day we had a old fashioned family reunion picnic. It was so much fun! Danny did an awesome job planning it and scheduling the games and what not. I'm not sure that the older generation that doesn't have younger kids anymore or younger grandkids yet enjoyed it as much but it was great to have somebody take the kids into consideration for once!! We then all went back and put the boys down for naps. While they were napping, Chuck and I played Rummy. He taught me how to play and we had a great time...I enjoy my husband's company. Sometimes I forget that since we don't get to spend a lot of time together. We then went to the beach and had dinner and crashed out early.

Zachary did A LOT of bike riding this weekend as did Lucas! He's big enough to ride his Radio Flyer trycycle now that he got for his birthday and he looks mighty darn cute if I do say so myself! Zachary did wonderful with his boundaries this weekend...which is a huge step in the right direction for him. It's always been so hard with him because you just look away for 2 seconds and he'd be gone....but not this weekend. He actually asked before leaving the campsites, asked permission to do things and therefore we expanded his boundaries for bike riding to 2 campsites in either direction....and he stuck to it and had a grand time! We still had some issues with him and personal space and he got in trouble a couple of times because of that but overall I think the boys did a remarkable job. It puts my mind at a little bit more ease of doing our week camp trip to Iowa.