(contd.)
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| The next morning, per the usual, I was one of the first people up (despite being one of the last ones to bed.) After a slow morning of sitting around and drinking coffee - and BP once again serving his legendary breakfast casserole - our weekend's big 'storm' rolled through. This consisted of a light rain that lasted about, oh, a half hour or so. During this time, most folks got their showering for the day out of the way, but I, like the previous day, opted to hold of until after I had spent some time swimming in the campground pool. Today's itinerary was blank - we determined that today we would just hang out and let the kids enjoy the campground - so the kids basically had free reign the entire day. This allowed them to spend their time doing whatever the heck they wanted. . . like follow stray cats around for hours on end, like you see here. |
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| At one point in time during the morning, the kids all went down to the front of the campground to color in the pavilion. One of the things that's cool about this campground is they announce kid activities over a PA system about ten minutes before they start one, then a second announcement that serves as a 'last call' for said activity as it begins. It helped out a lot because as parents we couldn't keep track of all that was going on this weekend (this weekend the campground was 'pirate'-themed, appropriately enough.) |
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| Abby, Ella, Sophie and the Cannonball |
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| Back at our humble gypsy village, the dads - including Lonnie Big Balls, here - entertained themselves with some euchre. . . |
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| Ryan doesn't care for his hand. |
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| A couple Houghs and Yogi. |
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| Lonnie, Yogi, and Erik. |
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| I don't know what you call this thing, but it's huge - like, 200 ft by 50 ft, maybe - and is more or less a bouncy mat. It's made of thick vinyl, almost like the outside of a gym mat, but walking on it is like walking in one of those bounce houses. It was right between the pool and the campground store/front office. |
The kids got a ton of use out of this thing over the weekend, rest assured.
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| Our families' offspring, holding what appears to be a serious council of some kind. |
Morgan gets in on the action.
Nothing dangerous about this at all . . .
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| So Alayna, at one point in time during the early afternoon, disappeared for awhile in her tent and reemerged looking like this. She's really been into make-up lately, and pulls this kinda stuff all the time - totally looks like a frickin' bruise. And yes, of course she walked around the entire campground looking like this before we had a chance to stop her and tell her to wash it off. We were expecting CPS to descend on our campsite at any minute. |
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| More euchre with the dads. |
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| Ryan, some incredibly handsome gentleman, Morgan, BP, and Erik. |
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| After Kris took the previous pic, she yelled at nearby Lonnie Big Balls and Matt to jump in so we could get a shot of all the dads on this trip. Unlike the moms - who seriously take a picture of themselves all together every time they hang out - us dads have, like, one or two. |
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| All the kids on our weekend trip this year. |
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| One of the campground's afternoon activities was a pirate 'treasure hunt' in the volleyball court (sand pit, whatever you wanna call it.) I wasn't here for this, I was playing euchre at the time, but the moms took pictures of whatever the hell the kids were all doing. |
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| Kids searching for 'buried treasure.' |
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| Who knows what they're looking for. . . |
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| Some time later, back in the camp pool. Kids spent a lot of time there over the weekend (fortunately, after the first day, the weather was much nicer - about ten degrees cooler than on Thursday.) |
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| The DeBoers introduced us to a card game they brought up with them, centered around a werewolf, where you have to lie and accuse one another in order to determine who is, in fact, the werewolf. Had a phone app that went along with it and everything, it was pretty fun. |
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| The kids, some time later, playing a card game of their own. |
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| Hanging out, snacking, drinking. . . the usual. |
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| Ella and Sophie |
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| Aaaaand the Hough girls. |
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| Later on in the afternoon, Morgan and I decided to hold a cornhole tournament. Ryan drew up the brackets, having each family (this was a husband/wife affair this year) draw a numbered card in order to keep it random. |
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| BP and Ryan during the DeBoer/Collier match (the Colliers ended up prevailing.) |
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| Erik and his wife, Courtney, faced off against Jackson and Drew (the two older boys in our group that wanted to compete in the tournament.) |
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| Morgan and Danielle, waiting on the sidelines. Morgan is, hands down, the best player in our group. Like, by a lot. So this tournament should've honestly been titled, 'Which Family Wants to Lose to the Larsons in the Championship?' |
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| We took a break in the tournament to eat dinner, which consisted of barbecue pulled pork (courtesy of the Houghs and Johnsons.) |
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| The Colliers defeated the DeBoer and Drew/Jackson teams, and we defeated the Griffins in Round 1 before being shot down by the Larsons (obviously) in Round 2. The championship game went down fast and brutal, and to the surprise of no one, the Larsons prevailed. |
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| Afterwards, a couple families wanted to square off again. The Griffin/Johnson match-up took forever, as we follow a rule where if you go over 21 in scoring, you have to go back to 15. This happened, like, a dozen times, at least. Stephanie, who's generally pretty terrible, was on fire this evening. |
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| She attributed her success to throwing while smoking a cigar and holding a drink. |
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| Seats available all over the damn place. Sit wherever you want, LJ. . . |
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| The Knights of Pokemon. |
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| Watching matches from the sidelines. |
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| Danielle and Courtney |
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| As the evening wound down, it was time to light the Tiki torches and prepare for the evening fire (which we all neglected to take pictures of. . .) |
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| Morgan repairs a busted cornhole bag. They definitely saw a lot of use today. |
- Brian
