Beverly Hillbillies come to town

Emily has been working so hard and has been so disciplined at saving her money so that she can move out into an apartment this fall. It's happening. She and 2 other girls will be sharing an apartment and all of the joys that go along with that. Emily has done fairly well at scraping together free furniture but a co-worker of Robin's was selling a couple of items and for a good price and so Emily did spend some of her hard earned cash on a couch and chair. However, we had no other way to get it to our house except on top of the car.

We're just missing Granny and the rocking chair.

FAmily Camp 2011 - Day 3

We had the chance to go swimming on Sunday and the kids loved the water trampoline and slide. So much fun.



Whee....



It was also our family's turn to go on the horses.



Emily and Gaëlle shared a horse.



Kaylin took pictures which I still need to get from her camera.



I'm missing from the family photo because I was at the kitchen making pies. One of the silly but totally fun parts of family camp is the pie auction. Each family gets money based on their standings in the family games. On Sunday there was an Amazing Race challenge (Kaylin has photos) and we were teamed up with another family to complete all of the challenges. Our team won! But not because of our family. We blew the competition away in archery thanks to the dad on the other team (hunts with a bow and arrow) and Gable (Yeah, I was pretty good in archery in school).

At the end of camp, we all get together and bid on pies that have been made by anybody who wants to. Several of the kids joined in the fun this year making pies. The competition there is fierce and quite fun. The men in our family certainly added to the show.

We also had the campfire songs on Sunday night. It was supposed to be Saturday night but it was too wet. This is something my young kids certainly look forward to. Silly camp songs.

Family Camp 2011 - Day 2

The family games are always so much fun. The first one was a scavenger hunt. Unfortunately our older kids hadn't arrived yet and so we managed to do well thanks to a lenient judge. We dumped out our bag of goodies and one of our wiley creatures escaped but an honest bystander confirmed that he had seen it. So we were able to find almost everything on our list.

Right after the scavenger hunt our entire family was finally together. Then the rain started. But no problem. Emily braved the slip and slide with Peter and Gaëlle. I didn't take pictures of that and I haven't gotten the ones from Kaylin yet, but rest assured, a good time was had by all.



After the rain stopped they started running other activities and all the kids tried the rock wall.





Peter and Gaëlle both did great but only Peter was able to make it all the way to the top. Gaëlle went about 1/3 of the way up and then she was finished.





Next up was a friendly competition between Emily and Gable. Emily started strong but if the truth is told, probably Gable made it to the top first.



6 out of 8 of us.



Peter and Gaëlle also tried their hand at archery. Good times.

We ended the day with chapel and a movie but I didn't get any pictures of that. Gaëlle didn't make it to the end so we 2 girls went to bed early. Which really wasn't early, it was more like 10 PM.

Family Camp 2011 - Day 1

We went on our 2nd annual trip to Caton's Island Family Camp on the beautiful St. John River in New Brunswick. OUr entire family went. All 7 of us. And this year we had a boyfriend along, so there were 8 of us in a cabin. It was truly a blast. Something for all of us to the oldest to the youngest. Every year there are grandparenents who come with their adult children and grandchildren. There are single moms with their children. It's an eclectic group and it's just fun.

The weekend starts with a bonfire which the kids just love.



We have the obligatory spider dogs.



Gaëlle easily demolishes the huge hotdog.



And of course, a bonfire wouldn't be complete without roasted marshmallows. YUM!

You'll notice the lack of grown children in my photos. The 4 older kids weren't able to come until Saturday morning. Something about a pesky job.