{Memorial Day Camping Trip}

 Our Memorial Day weekend was full of laughter, fun time together, and lots and lots of rain. A group of our friends met in Shelbyville, Illinois for a family camping trip. Even though the weather did NOT cooperate, we made the best of the situation and somehow still had a pretty good time.  We were SO thankful to Paul for lending us his camper for the weekend; the trip would have been ruined for us if we had been in a tent.

This kid LOVED camping. He would have stayed for days longer if he could have. 

laughing and cuddling in the camper to hide from the rain

picture by Luke

Addi and Gracie sharing cousin time in the camper

love this shot.

Thank goodness for video games to help fill hours sitting inside a small camper!

Smores- Drew's most favorite part of the weekend
(I cringe looking at how dirty Luke looks! We'll just pretend germs don't exist on camping trips.)

Gracie loved to help prepare the meals. 

Drew and Isaac pretending to swing from jungle vines. 

happy camper.

board games to pass the time while it rained

some of the adults of the group, minus Scott and Meggie who were unintentionally cut out of the picture and Erin and Bryan, who left on Sunday afternoon

friendship.

We put Glow Sticks on the kids each night to help us keep track of everyone- a brilliant idea by one of my friends. 

Love these girls. 

fun at the playground area during one break from the rain

my best friend's oldest

I love this kid's smile. 

Drew learning the fun of War. 

Almost as if we were being rewarded for sticking it out, the weather on the last evening was perfect!
We sat around this beautiful fire and talked and laughed for hours after the kids were asleep.

 And, just because it makes me laugh, I'll share this video I shot during some pretty heavy rain on Saturday when some of us had gathered in one of the campers to hang out. It was a little chaotic with so many people in such a little space, but we still had a good time.

Despite moments of being cold and wet, moments of disappointment with the weather, and moments of being pretty ready to call it quits, I look back on this weekend with gratitude.  It was really lovely to get to spend the weekend with friends we've had forever and to get to know their kids even better. As my friend Kim just put it, " I feel all warm and fuzzy after looking at these pictures. We are pretty lucky to have one another." I couldn't agree more.