Our 1st annual Easter/Spring family weekend is over ... but the memories (and photos!) will be with us forever. We were one family shy of all the fam being present, but we look forward to '09 when my sister, Barbara and her family can join us.

As I watched our families interact last weekend, and looked at the posed and candid photos, many things caught my eye, but one observation warmed my heart. It was the love and show of affection. There was an abundance of hugs, kisses, encouragement, loving touch. Yes, we do have our baggage, just like any other family, but this weekend the baggage was in the trunk and the love was flowing. It amazed me how the older kids looked after the younger ones, the younger ones respected the older kids. They interacted - amazingly. Even the grown-ups behaved!

We had a very action packed weekend...here's how it all unfolded:

Friday at 4:30 We gathered at Dickson Valley Camp - A Christian camp in Newark, IL

First: Unload vehicles and get room assignments for 18 people.

Room #1 The dads

Room #2 The moms

Room #3 Cara/Kenzie/Bailey/Danae

Room #4 Tristan/Nate

Room #5 Grandparents

Room #6 Jersti/Kale

Room #7 Molly/Brigs

Room #3: Cara/Kenzi/Bailey/Danae.

They moved 3 beds together for their giant bed!

Room #4: Tristan/Nate

Molly & Brigs visiting Tristan

Next: Men make fire... (Tom & Kirk)

Then the camera's come out...in full force!
Dee, Mom, Amy....checking their photos ---

Everyone gets in on the picture taking... (Jersti -5), Nate & Kale -3)
I love this pic of Nate and Kale....Nate is letting Kale take a pic of the two of them.
Nate and Mackenzie check out the self portrait they just took...(note --Nate's arm is around Kenz) ....see Kale's arm around Nate's leg?
After the first round of picture taking the ladies got dinner ready...

Friday dinner
Everyone gathered. Thanks given. Food line.
(note the affection in the following pics)
Kale was Kirk's best bud on Friday night...
Kale asking Kirk: "Why don't you have hair right here?"
Kale thinking about the answer...
and loving Uncle Kirk all the same...

Friday evening:
after dinner we played games, hung out, played Wii and went to bed!

Cara and Nate hang'n... A game of "marbles" (Aggrevation)

The girls bathroom at bedtime:

The boys bathroom at bedtime:

Saturday morning:
Brush teeth... Climb the wall... (that's me!)
Keep track of the kids... (Nate/Brigs/Jersti)
Make someone else climb the (difficult) wall... (Danae)
Make man climb the wall .... (Kirk)

After breakfast on Saturday we all headed down to the gym where we did wall climbing, played basketball, volleyball, carpetball, foosball, ping pong ball...then we went to the rope bridge, the initiatives course and finally headed back for lunch at 1pm!

Saturday
more wall climbing....
The rope bridge...
Guitar hero.... (Dirk & Bailey)
More Guitar Hero....I'm a wannabe....I love this game!Kirk administering meds to those over 45 after our crazy day!

Saturday night:

All the kids (except Kale) went out at 10:30 pm to the initiatives course to try it in the dark! Us old folk stayed back at the lodge and relaxed! But the kids had a fun time encouraging one another to do all the tasks from getting over the wall to doing the zip line.



Goal:
get everyone over the wall to other side!


There she goes.....
Danae "falls" into an acrobatic pose!
A little help back to the van at midnight!

Warm up...
So many pictures....so little time to post!
The weekend was....wonderful, exhausting, fun, exciting, warm, silly, vigorous, tasty, loving, laughing, invigorating, tiring.....did I mention fun?
The first half hour! These "kids" are an amazing bunch together. You have to experience it to see how well they all interact with each other.

Yeah baby....it's here! And I have unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping (and menu planning), photoshopping, blogging, cleaning, yada, yada to do. Boo hoo. I AM going to set aside an hour with my new camera today....the two of "us" -- a play date! More pics of the weekend to come later today - this evening?

Last night Nate, Kirk and I drove to Illinois to my sister's house. We got in just before midnight, but before heading off to bed I had to watch the recorded Idol show! I was blown away that Amanda got "voted off". Unbelievable.

Today I went shopping with my sister, took a walk with sis and Kirk and went out for Pizza at Lou's --- now it's about bedtime!

Tomorrow: grocery shopping for the weekend with sis, then do some pre-meal prep and load the car to head to Dickson Valley Camp for the weekend with my sisters and mom....and ALL 3 of OUR kids! We're looking forward to a fun weekend together in a lodge...hanging out, playing in the gym, wall climbing, outdoor fun and indoor games....and LOADS of memories!

Sorry...no pictures today...for some reason blogger is refusing to download even one measly little picture. Maybe tomorrow. Yesterday didn't work either for blogger and pics.

Later.