Blair's Blog

This past weekend was the 3rd annual Cousin’s Birthday Bash for all the cousins on Brenda’s side of the family. We’ve been at Cow Lake Recreational Area each of the last two years at the day use area on the beach. It was nice but also a bit of a chore to keep track of all the little ones so near to the water and organizing all the food and presents was a logistical challenge. This year we decided to try something a little different.

Ronny and Carla are adjacent to a church camp property and have a good relationship with the camp board. It turned out that the camp was not in use this weekend, so Ronny booked it for the family to use for this year’s birthday bash. We also increased the duration of the event and started on Friday evening and went right through to Saturday evening. We started with a pizza supper in the camp dining hall to kick things off. Accommodations were all at Ronny and Carla’s place – Barry stayed in Ronny and Carla’s guest cabin (Breana, who is expecting in the fall, stayed at home with Noela). We drove up in the RV and used the parking pad and hookup next to the guest cabin.

Friday evening after dinner, Ronny set up a screen and projector and we all watched a movie in the camp dining hall. Some of the older boys decided to sleep at the camp in one of the cabins. Once the younger ones were settled the adults all gathered around the campfire and chatted til after midnight. Morning came soon enough with the kids eager to start the day – each family had breakfast on their own and a free morning for the kids to just run about.

After having tacos for the noon meal, we gathered all the kids for the gift exchange. Instead of drawing names as in past years, we did the gift exchange “Yankee” style – each present fit the theme “Summer Fun”. The rest of the afternoon the kids played with their gifts – at least the ones they could retrieve from their uncles! We played some wide games until the injuries put a stop to the fooling around – no serious damage, but I did bang up some ribs and Steven twisted his foot.

Dinner was burgers and smokies , then we just let the kids all run about until dark.  As the adults were tidying up in the evening, we commented on how great it was to see the kids forming and reforming little groups of 2 to 5 as they got an idea for a game or project. We also noticed that we had a mountain of extra food. So we decided, on the spot, to extend the party for one more day.

Sunday we slept in a bit, then had breakfast by family again. Later in the morning we watched a slide show of Brenda’s trip to England and had a family church service. There were more than enough leftovers for everyone to have a good lunch. After cleaning up the camp kitchen and dining hall, we headed for the beach at Crimson Lake with all the kids and spend a couple of hours just enjoying the sun and the water. We stayed at the beach til after 6:00pm.

By the time we got back to the RV, loaded up and headed home it was getting late. We pulled in about 10:30, did a lightning unload and all fell into our beds. It was a great summer weekend!

Tags: Langendoens

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