(contd.)
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| Everyone rose relatively early today, considering folks had retired sooner than expected the night before. This morning's breakfast fell to the Houghs and Johnsons, and we had planned on pancakes and sausages. |
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| Erik was excited to bust out his Blackstone griddle in order to get the job done. Way more surface area. |
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| Kris, having fun. |
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| I very quickly took over. Grilling is man work. |
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| Feeding the masses. |
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| Erik and Morgan, enjoying some post-breakfast coffee. |
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| Wives, clucking. |
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| Shortly after breakfast, some of the wives invited Kris to go for a morning stroll with them around the campground. This was all previously-planned, of course - myself, Danielle, and Courtney had been planning a surprise birthday party for Kris for a couple months. After Kris had left, some of the remaining adults (and kids) helped me set up some birthday decorations. Kelli even drove up for the occasion from Midland, bringing a cake and a cheesecake along with her. |
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| Erik works on some black balloons. |
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| BP and his Truffle Shuffle shirt. |
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| Alivia, helping with some streamers. |
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| These kids, not helping out at all. |
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| Stefanie assembled the props for the photo op. Kris is a huge fan of these, and we decided she'd appreciate a 40-themed one. |
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| Ryan helped me test out my camera settings (like I said before, he's a wedding photographer, so he definitely comes in handy.) |
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| Ryan, Kelli, and Matt. |
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| Bloody Mary time with Erik and Omkar. |
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| All set and ready to roll. |
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| No idea why Kelli looks so pissed here. |
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| Jackson, showing off some 'ink' from the arcade. |
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| Some Gray Island kids are in there somewhere. |
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| Abby and some stuffed animal she won at the arcade. |
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| Wagon-ridin' |
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| Selfie with Yogi. |
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| BP, Lonnie and Erik |
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| Kris and wives returned from their walkabout after an hour or so, and the wives gave Kris her presents (they're in the habit of throwing in on one another's birthdays. . . something we dads definitely don't do.) |
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| Aside from the coffee mug, they bought her a session at Studio 154 (I think that's what it's called) so she could paint a set of cornhole boards. We've been wanting a set for awhile, so we were both pretty pumped about this. |
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| . . . and a blue wig. Samson had chewed up Kris' old one that she had since our college days, and I guess they all had some inside joke about it or something. |
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| Truth. |
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| The kids were a big fan of the photo op as well. Clearly. |
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| Yes, we're those parents. |
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| Honestly, I was surprised to see these two outside of their tent. |
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| The Birthday Girl, about to blow our her candles. |
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| Healthy lunch for the kids. |
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| Mees and Morgan |
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| Some afternoon cornhole among the dads. |
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| Chow time. |
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| Group pic of moms. |
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| Omkar and BP |
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| In the early afternoon, quite suddenly, a massive thunderstorm broke out. Not a lot of lightning, but a monsoon of rain - like, by far the biggest rain we'd seen all summer. Came down in buckets. |
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| People scrambled for the shelter of the canopies, while others hid in the safety of their tents, and more in the arcade/gift shop (where they had been when it broke out.) You definitely didn't want to be caught outside in the thick of it. |
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| About twenty minutes into the deluge. |
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| Remembering our Silverlake disaster from a few years ago, we routinely ran through the downpour to check on our tents and make sure they weren't flooding. Fortunately, the Hough tents held strong. |
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| Sam, clearly givin' someone the business. |
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| A lake grew at our feet in minutes. Ridiculous amount of water. |
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| A soggy gypsy village. |
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| Still raining. . . |
Someone in a neighboring RV was blaring this song once the rain lifted, about an hour or so after it began.
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| The sun back out, assessing damages. |
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| There was standing water everywhere. |
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| Looks like I'm gonna have to hose off our cooler before we take it home. . . |
Biking through water.
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| The only casualty was the tent of Erik's that Abby, Ella, and Sophie were staying in. Their sleeping bags were fortunately still dry, but the mats underneath - and the blankets - were all soaked. After removing all of the bedding, we were able to drain the tent and towel the bottom off. After this trip, Erik pitched the tent (which was on its last legs anyway.) |
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| Drying off tent contents. |
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| Moms, breaking into drinks. |
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| Playing cornhole. In a poncho. |
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| Moms and cards. |
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| Erik showin' off his Conway Twitty shirt. |
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| Watching some bag tossin'. |
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| While dads were playing cornhole and the moms were playing cards, some of the kids were up at the front of the campground for the scheduled afternoon kid activity. . . |
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| Bustin' pinatas. |
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| I'm surprised LJ didn't shatter this thing with one hit, the kid's built like a brick shithouse. |
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| Delia takes a crack at it. |
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| Back at the campsite, Matt slices up some dead animal. |
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| Amy emulates her husband. |
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| Still cornholin'. |
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| Dinner conversation, feat. LJ. |
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| Mees in full-on taco-slinging mode. |
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| DeBoers. |
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| Kris, still wearing her blue wig. |
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| Colliers. |
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| Ryan aaaaand. . . I think that's one of Matt's. |
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| Danielle. |
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| Morgan. |
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| LJ gets physical. Again. |
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| Butterfield, in the zone. |
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| Farwellians - Kris and Kim. |
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| Photo ops with the Old Lady |
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| The Larsons |
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| Handsome dudes. |
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| More euchre. |
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| Blowing through their daily allowances up at the arcade. |
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| Later on in the evening, with the weather still holding, we decided to have another fire. |
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| Took a break from that at one point so all the dads could mix up a drink and go for a walkabout around the campground. They have these speed signs all over the place, which is beyond clever - adding that '1/2' to the speed limit really makes you pay attention to your speedometer. |
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| Back at the fire, sans the moms - they had taken all the kids up to the gift shop/arcade area for the big, Saturday night dance party. Dads had zero interest in checking that out. |
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| They had this laser-y glow dance last year, too - huge fan with the kids (and moms.) |
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| Elise, Delia, Sophie, Ella, and Abby. |
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| The Three Amigas. |
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| . . . and that's all she wrote, folks. Once the dance party was over, everyone returned to site and promptly crashed, and the next morning we broke camp (thankfully without incident) and headed back to Midland. Already looking forward to camping in Grayling again next year (of course at Gray Island.) |
- Brian
