We were lucky enough to spend a weekend at Laity Lodge Family Camp, near Kerrville, and what a wonderful weekend it was! It is a really amazing place, and I felt so lucky to get to be there with some of our favorite families. Charlie and Evie were on an adrenaline high the entire weekend, and although I thought it might be a little overwhelming for Evie, she could not have been more thrilled with the whole experience. They had so much fun all weekend that they forgot to misbehave--nice treat for me and Clint. :)
When you arrive, you drive right through the river on your way in. Given that Clint and I have both flooded cars in the past, we were a little terrified the entire drive in, but the kids thought it was so cool (and we did too, once we relaxed and realized we weren't going to flood our new car :).
Our family.
The Skaggs crew. Jack went to camp here and then was a counselor here, so he and Amy knew everyone and were awesome ambassadors for us. :)
The Grays, some of our very favorite ex-Dallasites. Edward is Jack's step-brother and they became great friends of ours when we lived a few blocks apart in Dallas. We have missed them so much since they moved to Austin, and it was so fun getting to spend some time with Edward, Abbey, George and Maggie again.
The Reins! They were SO much fun to have there. The kids were so thrilled to have Bobo with us--I think it made the trip for them. The counselors reported that Evie said "I want Bobo" repeatedly until he showed up to the kids' cabin--she did not like to be separated from him for long!
The camp is set on the beautiful Frio river, and it really is stunning.
Although there were lots of activities, we also got a fair amount of time just to play at the playground/bounce house area. It was so much fun visiting and letting the kids go crazy.
Bobo's name tag just said, "Baby," because he hadn't been born when we all registered last year. I couldn't believe that this time last year, we didn't even know his gender!
Edward and Maggie.
As usual, Evie loved the swings.
As did Maggie...these two were so similar!
This is most of what I saw of Charlie--we lost him several times and mostly saw him scooting, running, or biking away from us. Mr. Independent is going to give me a heart attack one of these days!
We had fun exploring the river.
The giant sandbox was another big hit.
Across the big bridge was an amazing treehouse...
Hi Samuel and Jane Ann!
The beautiful camp lodge.
Happy Evie.
Every night we had "Round Up," with lots of singing, dancing, skits, and a devotional. It was late, but the kids loved all the excitement and craziness. I didn't get good pictures of it, but I think Evie's wild dancing was my favorite part. She was so full of herself there!
Here she is (briefly) sitting nicely with Amy.
Kids dancing with Meggie and Daddy.
One of the skits involved Oreos and ended with lots of Oreos on the ground. I couldn't keep Evie away (the girl loves her cookies!) and once she picked up a couple, the floodgates opened and all the kids started grabbing them up. At least I wasn't the only one with kids eating off the floor!
Roasting s'mores!
On Saturday afternoon, we got to pick from several different activities. We thought about horseback riding, but after Charlie had seen the river, he could think of nothing else. So while Evie napped, Charlie and Clint spent over 3 hours swimming, canoeing, paddle-boarding, and sliding at the river. Charlie thought it was just about his greatest afternoon ever. :)
It took a little convincing to get Charlie to go down this slide, but once he tried it, he was hooked!
We also did some arts and crafts. After I let the kids go crazy and paint our "birthday board" (the craft of the morning) on their own, Charlie and I went to find the rest of our supplies and returned to find Clint completely repainting the board. He explained that it "just didn't look good" and he was fixing it. Perfectionist Daddy may need to relinquish a little control over future family art projects. :)
After Evie woke up, we met the Skaggs at another fun swimming spot, with a rock slide, up the river. The kids had so much fun exploring there!
One of my highlights was watching the big trashcan ball (?) game on Saturday night. It was kind of a flag-football-like game that we decided to let Charlie to stay up late to participate in. He was so pumped up about it, but none of us realized exactly how competitive it was going to get. Charlie became a little nervous about it mid-game (especially after he and Clint were taken down in a hard tackle by a counselor who flew out of nowhere), but he wouldn't stop playing for anything. He and Clint got more and more sly with their strategy and had Amy and I dying laughing as we watched. They would tuck a ball between them, hide Charlie's flags as best they could, saunter nonchalantly toward their team's trashcan like nothing was going on, and then, when they got really close, make a mad dash and slam their ball in. It was a brilliant move!
Charlie was super excited when the mascots, Pooh and Tigger, showed up. He was glad to see some friendly faces among that big, swirling, competitive group.
The little athlete just needed a hug after his big tackle. :)
When the popsicles came out at half-time, Charlie became even more excited about the game. ;)
These 3 were unstoppable!
So sad to leave everyone on our final morning...
Sweet Skaggs...
The Burri love Jane Ann!
Such an amazing weekend...I hope we can do this every year! The kids are still talking about how much fun they had.
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