Into the Woods

I need to catch up on a few things, and it's probably going to be in reverse order. So you get to hear about our excursion to Pine Lake first! (Aren't you lucky?)

My side of the family is big enough that we now have annual organized reunions. This year it was Mike & Diane's turn to plan, and they found a nice camping place here in the southern part of the state. Most everyone got there on Wednesday the 8th, but we came on the 9th because of work, cherries, and Terral's birthday . The second we drove up the kids were competing for our attention. It was kinda fun. : ) Some of the older kids told us about there presentation they were planning and asked us if we wanted tickets (admission for kids was free--but so were our tickets). Some of the younger kids greeted us with dirty faces and promptly began using me as an extreme back-country road.

We had so much fun with everyone! We played horse shoes,

Miriam, Alyssa, Braelyn, and Bryant treated us to a wildlife presentation,

and we went on an awesome nature scavenger hunt that Diane organized. Terral and I had Braelyn, Allysa, and Mimi in our group.

Later we went on a little adventure with some of the kids. Our goal was to catch some frogs, but since they were too fast for us, mostly we ended up just playing in the water by the lake.

The fearless explorers!

Fun at the Lake

Mom and dad were able to relax. We had a nice big area for family gatherings where there was plenty of shade.

Our last day the boys and girls took separate four-wheeler trips to Powell Point. It was quite the adventure! There is a significant elevation change from camp to the trail head, and it got quite chilly. A storm came in and we got rained on! None of us had a jacket, but luckily I had brought a blanket for mom to sit on. Diane, Lynae, Rachel, and I ran part of the trail in an attempt to get warm and see some more views. We had a funny mix-up while running. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that part of our excursion.

Okay, we're almost done. Here are a few more pictures, just because I like them and I want to share. Doesn't Kayley have such cute big blue eyes?

And I will end with two clips of Henry and Ryan. Henry was having fun playing with the other kids and showing us all how big he is now. And I just had to record Ryan's favorite thing to say. (Diane said they watched Robin Hood on the way to camp.)