Last Weekend of Summer 😭

The school year was rapidly approaching as we absolutely packed our final weekend with activities...

Once again, we managed to join the Manassas II ward as they camped at Matthew's Arm in Shenandoah!  It was a little different this time because Bentley and Kendra didn't come-- Kendra had band camp until 9pm, and Bentley had to work the next morning.  Normally I might have fought harder for him to somehow join us, but I didn't really want Kendra home all alone anyway.  Since we only had three kids, I almost took the truck, but after loading it, decided I was worried it might rain and moved everything over to the van.  I hate making decisions like this!  (But it did, indeed, rain for a few minutes in the night, so I was glad our stuff stayed dry!)  Also, the kids would have been awfully crowded in the back of the truck for the two hour drive...

Speaking of Kendra doing marching band-- someone took this picture of her, and I totally love it.  Also, this year she switched from doing color guard to playing the bass drum!  So that's fun!

And here's her section all dressed like frat boys

The campout was really great.  Our food turned out awesome (just foil dinners, but with teriyaki sauce, and cooked to perfection!) and I loved sitting around the campfire chatting with Emma and Betsy.  And Craig loved being somewhere with church friends where he didn't have to be The Bishop.  And it was nice just letting the kids run around with their friends.  Also, after such a hot summer, the weather was so nice and cool.  Perfect sweatshirt weather, it felt delightful.

We had a slight miscommunication where I thought we were in charge of our own breakfast, but actually Emma made breakfast for everyone.  I wish I would have realized that before I made Craig cook for our family!  But I'll know better next time!

We'd meant to go hiking or something in the morning before we headed home, but somehow it just didn't happen.  Too much hanging around talking, I guess?  What a problem to have!

Camille and Ryder wanted to try sleeping in hammocks.  Imagine my surprise when we got Camille's all set up and she immediately flipped herself upside down and grinned out at me like a crazy caterpillar!  I never would have guessed that that would work!  Anyway, she slept great until the rain, at which point she and Ryder both quickly dove into the tent they shared with Colton.  (I was also super impressed with how quickly Craig popped out of bed and closed our rain fly when those first few drops hit our tent!)

Most of the gang.  You can see Craig cooking in the back while I (sleepily) keep him company...

Colton, with Oscar and Henry in the background

Me and Emma

Gotta love a good photobomb

Me, Emma, and Betsy

Sleepy Colton on the way home...

Usually after camping I just want to take a shower and a nap, but there was no time for that this day!  I had about an hour to unpack, and then I dropped Camille off at a birthday party and took Colton to Lake Monticello for an end-of-summer Activity Days activity.  Craig, meanwhile, got the tents all dried and put away, vacuumed out the van.  He picked up Kendra and some friends from the downtown mall, fed them all pizza, and then drove all the older youth in the ward to Harrisonburg for a Stake activity/dance.  It was a very late night for us, so it was good that we'd actually slept pretty well at the campout!  

How cute are these girls having their spa day?  L-R we've got Camille, Olive, Noelle, and a friend I don't know...

This girl!

In the middle of our time at the lake it thundered and poured, so Colton and Gideon took that time to build themselves mermaid tail (merman tails?).  When I took this picture, they were singing sea chanties for me.  Also-- it took me FOREVER to clean the sand out of everything!  Blech!

But I did appreciate the name of this boat!

And finally, after a couple weeks of having only one counselor , Craig finally got a new 2nd counselor called, Scott Huff!  As if Megan and I needed another excuse to hang out!

And they managed to keep the yellow tie tradition going!  Good job, Scott!