Camping with The Cousins

My memories from when I was a child are disappearing rapidly. Seriously, my memory sucks-and I'm lucky to remember things from 5 years ago. (So sad!) But I have wonderful memories from camping when I was younger. We went a lot back then, and always with our cousins. It seemed so easy back then, we relaxed, slept amazing, and didn't have a care in the world.

So when my cousin Amber came to visit from Connecticut we were all thrilled to go camping together again. The dynamic is a bit different then it was when we were younger with all of us grown up. It was anything but relaxing with 9 kids, 14 adults, and 1 dog. It was freezing one night and we constantly worried that our kids were too cold, so that left us sleepless, and we couldn't seem to have an eye on both of our kids at all the whole vacation. (Thanks everyone for always finding Sienna when she went exploring!)

I realized that camping is totally exhausting, and realized that way back when we were little my parents were anything but relaxed, but also-there is nothing like watching your kids really dig into it. So yes, we will put ourselves through hell again next year, because the kids loved it. It's our turn to worry a lot and sleep a little. And I really hope that my kids have those wonderful memories that we created back then.

It wasn't all stress though, I will admit. We ate. And ate. And ate. We were the super loud annoying campers who laughed till midnight, and I mean really laughed. Our families have been through a lot together, and it was so fun to get all the cousins together again, this time with kids of our own, and husbands and wives. We laughed about old times, and I'm fairly certain that we created some things we will laugh about on our next camping trip.

And we learned how Patrick Swayze lost his cool. (I had to throw that in Sue!) Love you.

Please forgive me for all the pics. Since I suck as scrapbooking and journaling, this is my way to look back, and I can't seem to narrow it down!

This is Amber's little girl Mirelle. She is 6, and her and Adyson hit it off beautifully. I have to say you haven't lived till you've heard Mirelle's version of the scary story "bloody fingers."

The Sexy campers. Really Sexy.My beauties. Seriously, how do they look so cute camping?Some pics of Good ol' Bear Lake. The girls loved being there, and we really relaxed the day away. Too bad we all came home with sunburns.All the kiddies. I don't know how many pics we have of us and our cousins just like this-same picture, different generation.