Thursday morning at the campground.

The Prince Rd. kiddos were busy breaking up the ice for the sodas that would be shared during class break.  Ordinarily we have snacks and sodas (pop for some) during the Sharing Night intermission.  But since Sharing Night was canceled, we needed to get rid of all the extra snacks and sodas before going home. 

I finally remembered to take pictures of the Pre-K class.

Target shoppers!

It was Bill and Aileen Fleener's 60th anniversary on Thursday.

I was just waiting for them to wear matching t-shirts!

Blake spent a whole lot of time by the Ford-Bratcher fire.

Pool time.

On the way to church at the Summersville Community Building that evening, the sky was awesome.

My camera didn't capture it completely, but I gave it a shot anyway.

We were there plenty early to set up, so the kids got to spend some quality time on the playground.

And I requested a mini photo shoot on the tree chair.

With a bit of photoshopping these could be FRAMERS!

I was on one end, and Blake and Lana were on the other end.  We had a lot of fun here.

Blogging on to Wednesday...

Wednesday morning classes were on the normal schedule (as opposed to a rain schedule).

Bob gave the morning devotional, while Isaac repeated Bob's list of possible characteristics of a spouse.

After lunch we scooped the loop a bit and heard that the Hermons had checked with Al's weather radar and were given the ALL CLEAR, so we planned a trip to Rocky Falls. 

Matt's not a big fan of getting his picture taken.

We'd been at Rocky Falls for about 30 minutes, when the thunder and lightning started.  And that's when things got really crazy.  We loaded up all of our stuff and ran to the car, with a crying Blake lagging behind whining about how he didn't even get to play.  We were throwing things in our car like crazy when Ginger ran over and told us not to leave yet, as they were locked out of their car and Ryan's truck keys were also locked in their car.  Shea and Gabby got in our car while Marc and Ginger were figuring out what to do.  Just as Gabby turned around Blake said, "What is going on with Gabby's diaper?"  Ginger had forgotten to put a swimming diaper on Gabby before coming to Rocky Falls, so his regular diaper was at an explosion point.  Fortunately, I had an emergency pull-up from two years ago in my car console, so Gabby got a fresh diaper and we loaded up our car with four Hermons, while the rest of their group found other rides back to camp.  Even though it seemed like something of a disaster at the time, I'm sure we'll all look back on the day and laugh.  Actually, Blake and Alexandria have already done that several times.  One of the most frequently spoken phrases between the two of them since then has been, "Hey, remember when Gabby's diaper exploded?"  And that's followed by uproarious laughter.  Good times.

Back at camp after the rain storm...evening services were postponed until Thursday night due to the rain.  Once it stopped raining we got to spend a lot of time socializing.

 

Maybe Austen Twaddell's tent?  It got a laugh from me, for sure.

Emily and Meaghan even provided some spa services.

Tuesday was probably the most  unusual of the camp days, as it poured on Monday night/Tuesday night, and many tents were flooded.  In the interest of tenters and others needing to clean up rain-related messes, the elders decided to move the morning classes to the evening and cancel the weiner roast for the week.  That left most of Tuesday morning free, although I think tons of people were heading to the laundromat (glad we got ours taken care of on Monday). 

We enjoyed some cabin visitors.

I think Matt carried Shea to our cabin, and then when we left we discovered he was shoeless.  No worries, we fixed him up with the best girl flip flops we had to offer.

These sweet cousins spent lots of quality time together at the campout.

June (the dog) showed us her frisbee fetching skills.

They thought it was awesome.

This one is probably my favorite campout picture!

Since the weiner roast was canceled, Blake got his weiner roasting fix at the Ford-Bratcher fire. 

We did have some perfect canoe trip weather on Tuesday afternoon.  Since this was Blake's first time canoeing, I decided to join him and Matt, while Dad and Mom watched Alexandria.  I gave Mom the ever important task of taking pictures of the canoers, and she did a pretty good job with the big camera!

 

For our Tuesday night class, we took a little field trip, so I had the kids scout it out with me first.

Rick was our Tuesday teacher.

That had to be disappointing to bite into that plastic.

Later that night at The Dairy Shack...

Match your spouse night.

We awoke to a rainy morning on Monday, so the meeting time was moved back an hour, to 9:45, in hopes that the rain would subside by then.  It did, and we moved on with our regular class schedule.

I didn't remember the adult umbrellas, but I DID bring the kids' umbrellas.  They're much cuter than ours anyway.

Dad sporting the latest in rain gear, the rain bib. 

Hopefully Isaiah's next campout experience will be less rainy.

Unofficial elder meeting at the Cooper camp.

Nate lead songs once we got started.

Plenty of folks in attendance on Monday morning.

Tom gave the morning devotional.

Bill making some announcements before class.

Kinzie had a loose tooth that she was working on.

Wade had the adult class on Monday.

Peeking into the kiddie corral that LuAnn so generously shares with a huge portion of the camp kids.

Rick had a very moving invitation that detailed a story involving Clint and Duane that had most of us in tears, I'm sure.  My favorite line was, "If ever two guys loved the campout, it was Duane and Clint."  It is a comfort that both of these men, who have left this earthly life in the past year, have gone onto their eternal reward.

I had some laundry to do on Monday afternoon, so I dropped off Matt and the kids at the river and headed into town for some laundry time.  I snapped a few river pictures first though.

Movie night at the cabin with Shea!  The cousins LOVED spending time together this week, and it was sooo sweet to see them playing together. 

Matt testing out his flashlight app.

I got shot down from taking campfire pictures after several were blinded from this one.

Sunday morning started off in the cabin, polishing off the rest of the homemade cinnamon rolls Mom sent with the boys.

And then we headed to the Summersville community center for morning services, a basket dinner, and evening services.  On the way to morning services we saw a car wreck and I'm sure every single adult in our car had the same sinking feeling in their stomachs as we saw it from a distance, knowing that we would probably know the people involved in the accident.  The Russells truck was hit by another truck.  By the grace of God, everyone was fine, but it certainly reminded us all of how quickly things can change in this life.

Mr. Gabriel is such a great poser!  He cheesed for me all week long.

It was that hot, for sure.

Filed this picture under Things We Didn't See at the Campout 20 years ago.

A couple of videos from Friday first...

Saturday morning at camp started off with a trip to see Avaryn in her camper.

After quite a bit of wandering around and "scooping the loop" we found our way back to the cabin where Drew and Dace were doing a little prep work on our dinner.

Drew went all out on our Saturday evening dinner.  Working on the stuff jalapenos.

Hermon camp set-up.

I didn't take these last two pictures...looks like some shenanigans at the cabin with the boys.

While Matt helped the Hermons set up camp, we went down to the river.

Blake really wanted to show Drew and Dace Alley Spring and Mill since he'd been so impressed with it the day before, so he played tour guide.

Shortly after we got to the river, we saw a storm coming, so we got out of the water for an hour or so.  Blake was NOT happy about that.

Drew pretended to get stuck under the log, and Blake "saved" him.

Drew cooking up our dinner--stuffed mushrooms, stuffed jalapenos, and bacon wrapped deer loin.  It was quite a feast!

On the way to the Summersville fireworks.

Let the campout blogging begin!  One of my favorite things about coming home from Eminence is checking out everyone else's pictures and seeing other campout perspectives.  Here's a look at our early camping days, for starters.

THURSDAY

We got a later start than we'd anticipated on Thursday, June 30, around 3 in the afternoon.

The Yukon was at full capacity, but the kids didn't seem to mind a bit.  When Alexandria climbed into her car seat she said, "Oh, this is gonna be soooo cozy."

We stopped in Salem at Pizza Hut for supper.

Hillbilly style traveling.

We're here!

Dawn Dowdy came down to visit us, and quickly ended up at the Harvey salon, getting her hair styled.

And she even got a pedicure.

Bedtime stories in the bunk beds.

FRIDAY

Almost immediately after waking up on Friday morning, Alexandria spied Avaryn from our cabin window. 

Sweet little friends.

Calvin found Blake shortly after that.

After all these years, the swings are still a pretty hot spot for the kiddos.

CJ and Justin were showing off their bike tricks.

Someone (maybe Samantha) had some water balloons to play with.  That kept them busy for quite awhile.

Cute sisters.

Samantha came to Matt's rescue with a haircut since he didn't have time on Thursday before we left.

On Friday afternoon we took the kids to Alley Spring and Mill for the first time.  They really loved it.

This is probably going to become a big canvas in my house somewhere.  What a peaceful picture.

Really love this one too!

That's a whole lotta water.

And then we headed to the river was some relaxation!

Some members of the Cooper-Owens clan joined us after a bit.

Bill told Blake that he needed to cool off, so Blake was allowed to dump several buckets full of water on Bill's head, a definite high point for Blake that day.

This picture of Eric makes me laugh every time.

The Woodys and Ranges also showed up for some river fun.

Sweet little Phoebe in her strawberry swimwear.

Jason trying to find Calvin's runaway sandal.

Can't remember why Isaac was sad...it's not often that you see this little man with anything but a smile.

Shoe success!

Bringing the river to her comfort zone.

Throwing rocks at rocks on the log was a popular river activity. 

Quinn and Blake both caught a fish in Calvin's net.

Back at camp that evening...

The Fords and Bratchers, who don't slack off a bit with camp cooking.

Phoebe enjoying some time in her Tot Spot, a real piece of genius for camping with infants.

Tom offered to photograph the photographer.  Alexandria was pretty busy eating her cheese balls that the Woodys generously shared with her.

The Fords and Bratchers fed a lot of people during the last week or so!

Drew and Dace rolled in on Friday night just in time for a Dairy Shack run.

Following their meal plan for the night, the Tutterows were having their supper there.

Gotta give a shout out for the vanilla shakes at DS--so good!

Checking the pager. 

Last Saturday we had a very full day.  B had a tee ball game at 9, that was followed up by a trip to St. Louis.  Under the Arch they were having Marine Week, and they had tons of military aircraft, vehicles, and weapons for the public to see.  When we were done there, we headed home for a quick lunch and then went to my cousin Christopher's wedding.  In between the wedding and the reception, the kids napped while we visited with Uncle Nathan, Aunt Vicki and Adam and Kayla (next on the family wedding docket in September) at our house.  Poor Alexandria was completely worn out from the day, even though she managed a big nap in the afternoon. 

My little poser wanted to have her picture taken all over the place.

The boys had no interest in stopping for pictures.

She thought she needed to touch the Arch.

We got to go inside this helicopter.

Losing steam.

On Thursday the river water had been up on this street.

WEDDING

We had a good view of Gma Foiles and Chris and Valerie (parents of the groom) during the wedding.

RECEPTION

And finally, we capped the night off with a thunderstorm and some really great lightning.

Last week Blake played tee ball games on Friday night and Saturday morning, and for the first time ever in his young tee ball career, Blake paid attention to the game and fielded a few balls.  There was still plenty of filling his glove with dirt too though.

Still not great at playing catch.

Rally cap.

Supportive sister who is bored to tears during these games.

Pretty sure that's a giant dirt clod in his hand.

These bashes happen from time to time when we break out the bounce house and most of the kids on the cul-de-sac collide in our backyard.  Good times.