Camping 2024

It is well know how much iI "love" camping. To be completely honest, I love most things about camping however the sleeping/tent/ freeze your face off at night part.. I hate. I get anxious as the hours approach "bedtime" and I count hour by hour thoughout the night until I can get out of bed and out of the tent. My attitude about the night tent camping situation sucks. However, I really did soak in all the parts of camping that I do love and I am glad this weekend was the Reed Cousin Camping weekend because we had a blast.

We arrived on Friday for dinner. The kids ran out of the car and took off to see grandparents and cousins and they were busy and relaxed from that moment on.

Grandpa Reed surprised us all with this AWESOME triangel hammock that us adults quickly renamed "the playpen" because that thing kept the kids completely occupied for HOURS each day. It was amazing!

We spent the first evening hanging out, running around, setting up camp and eating treats upon treats. There was a fire ban this weekend but thankfully Steven brought a propane firepit and we were all SOOOO grateful because it was awesome to have!

The first night was chilly. I woke up at 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep but I kinda expected that. Saturday was filled with fun! The playpen was in use the entire day!

The kids and I spent hour finding bugs and hanging out. The time I get to spend with our kids and my nieces and nephews fills my soul.. bugs, not so much... but if that's what it takes to be around these kids connected on their level of bug catching, I would do it every day. How lucky am I. I love them all so much!

We took some time by the river in the sun before lunch and it was lovely.

Before an INSANE storm that quickly rolled in, we played, relaxed, did crafts together and just spent time together as one big extended family.

Just as we served up dinner, a MASSIVE storm rolled in. We had a few shade tents set up and thank goodness for that. What started out as a rain storm, turned into a thunderstorn with sideways rain, turned into a hail ice storm. It was crazy! Adults covering kids, holding the poles to the shade tents so they don't blow away, holding up camping chairs to shield us from the hail, littles crying.. oh man! It was bonkers and completely unexpected. Within 30 minutes, our camp was flooded, mud everywhere and looking at it gave us the sense of "where do we even start to clean this up?!". Wow! Luckily, it eventually stopped and the clouds started to clear and we started to "rebuild" camp and play again but everything was mudding and wet and gross.

We finished off the evening shooting off rockets and eating marshmellows by the fire.

We woke up this morning, had breakfast and started to take down camp. This took longer than usual because we had to wait for each thing to dry before packing it into bags. It was a great weekend (minus tent sleeping) spent with our Reed crew making memories. I am so so grateful for Mom and Dad Reed and all their organizing! They had everything we all needed in order to be safe and happy for camp. They really did pour their hearts into this camping weekend and we are so lucky to have them! Love this Reed family of ours beyond measure!