Life as a Yowler

The last several years, we have gone camping over Labor Day weekend with the majority of our church family. It’s one of my favorite weekends of the year. I love the close community we are apart of. I always come away from the weekend feeling connected and thankful for the people we live life with. It takes a village to raise kids, and I’m so thankful for ours. I’m thankful for our kids’ friends. It’s fun seeing them interact with their friends. Brielle, especially, is our little social butterfly. She, along with all the other kids, had a great weekend.

We worked hard on school all week. My dad made us this game a couple years ago. It’s perfect for teaching math. There’s a lot of adding involved, but it’s also a lot of fun. I try to let Joah do a balance of workbooks, but also some fun stuff. It helps keep his attention and break up our day. We worked ahead because of a special surprise. The kids didn’t know but their aunt Bethany joined us Saturday night at the campground with plans to take the oldest kids back home to Ohio with her for a couple days. They were sure surprised and excited when they woke up Sunday morning and found aunt Bethany in the RV.

When we arrived at the campground, the kids wasted no time doing what they do best…..playing hard and getting dirty. They sure aren’t afraid of getting dirty. I’m thankful for our outdoor shower under the RV.

The kids had lots of tea parties together. They would use real water from the hose to fill the cups and teapots. It was all fun and games until Brielle sprayed down another child and drenched him with the hose. I had to cut her off from her real water privledges.

Carlene set up some really fun crafts for the kids. They had so much fun.

There is a pancake breakfast at the campground every year that we go to.

Isla got her first taste of pancake.

We got to go on a horse ride.

The boys wanted to scrunch together on the ride.

I got the kids all dressed up for the church service at the campground. Since so many of our church members camp, we have a service right there for everyone. There were even a couple extra families that joined us for the service when they heard the music.  My dad preached the message Sunday morning. I was really impressed by our church family. There were several people who gave up their chairs and stood the whole service, to make sure the guests had a seat.

Here is my dad bringing his message. He has spoken the last several years during the camp church service.

After the church service we headed to the potluck. I will tell a quick potluck story since Brandon already blew my cover to our entire campfire last night. I brought meatballs to the potluck. As I was getting them ready, I was tuning out. I forgot to read. I dumped an entire bottle of spicy habanero sauce on them. Brandon walked in right after I dumped, and pointed out the error of my ways. I totally thought it was regular bbq sauce. I was like “there’s no way I can serve these now.” We thought about every option…I didn’t have any other food I could contribute. I hated to miss. We came to the agreement that Brandon was going to sneak them in and label them as spicy meatballs. He failed to do either thing. Then he announced it to our entire campfire that night that it was me. Thanks Brandon. We got about 50/50 response. Half of the people loved them. Half of the people needed some extra water. I’m very sorry to the wimpy half(including myself) who was shocked and expected a normal meatball.

After the potluck we headed to the lake.

The girls dug a big hole then climbed in.

Joah wanted to hang with the big boys. He loves uncle Grant and his friends.

I made the decision to look into getting some hammocks. These things are way too fun….plus anything that keeps my kids contained is my best friend.

I love this boy!

We had a couple little parties in the RV. Several people wanted a tour and the kids wanted to hang and watch a movie. I love that the older kids love the younger ones and are so sweet to them.

The RV doesn’t provide the toughest of camping experiences. There isn’t too much roughing it. Here the guys are watching the game outside. The group grew very quickly. Everyone put their kids to bed. The husbands hung out outside watching the game. The wives hung out inside snuggling and relying on blankets to keep us alive. Those that know Brandon know he keeps the RV the temperature of the North Pole. I have adapted, but the other woman started to slowly turn blew and shake. Rachel even entertained us with her face turning the lights on and off for about 30 minutes. That’s another story. Long story short the lights were flickering on and off. I blamed Caed. He very genuinely denied it. We then thought it was the campground losing power, but it mysteriously kept coming back. We then blamed Brandon, but he figured out quickly it was Rachel leaning her face against the touch panel light switch.

It was a great weekend. I’m so thankful for the memories. We are very blessed!