Our weekend of camping with family and friends was successful! The weather cooperated so nicely - upper 80s but not terribly humid. I did mention a few times that a slight breeze would have been nice, but I think having no breeze was better than having it windy, which is much more common here in South Dakota.

On Friday afternoon, my parents, Myron and Bev, my two brothers and their families, our friends Karine and Laurent and their two girls, and one of Bev's son's and his wife and daughter all descended on Chief White Crane Campground in Yankton. Everything went smoothly for the most part, although both Brooklyn (Jeremy and Jess's youngest) and Dylan (their nephew who is currently living with them) were sick with some sort of virus that showed up as red spots and diarrhea. Cole ended up being a little sick on Saturday morning with a bit of diarrhea and throwing up, but that was all. We had fun playing games and sitting around the campfire (Cole and Elijah - Anthony and Kathy's oldest - had such a good time keeping the fire going), and we also ventured out to the lake. Unfortunately, Cory, myself and Ella all ended up quite sunburned. Cory and I were just stupid because we forgot to completely slather ourselves with sunscreen, but Ella was completely covered. She just has such fair, milky white skin.

So here, without further ado, are some pictures.

First, here is our camper:


We had a fairly large, empty area between our campsite and my parents', so we set up the games we collectively brought along: a beanbag toss, goofy golf, a washers game, etc.



Here's my older brother, Anthony. He works at the hospital in Mankato and is currently going to school to become an RN.


Here's Anthony and Kathy's youngest, Lizzie, who turned three last month:


And here is their oldest, Elijah, who is four months younger than Accalia:


Accalia spent much of the weekend running around with Karine and Laurent's two girls, Chloe (9) and Alexia (6). We won't see them until mid-August because they're heading out to Iceland and France for the next month or so to stay with family:


Here is Brooklyn, Jeremy and Jessica's youngest, who is four weeks older than Ella:


Here's a sweaty Cory with his dad:



We spent much of the time hanging around in this big circle of chairs:


Here is my younger brother, Jeremy, with his oldest, Cody, age 5, his nephew Dylan, age 3, and Jessica blocked from view:


Here's my dad with Brooklyn:


Here's Accalia blowing out the candles on her birthday cake bought for the occasion:



Here are our friends, Karine and Laurent, standing next to my mom:



Here's an exhausted Ella after having fallen asleep in the van on Saturday when Cory and I went back into town to pick up food for the big Saturday night meal:



And here's my sister-in-law Kathy (married to Anthony) explaining to the kids how to do the pinata they brought along:

That pinata was SO stubborn. All of the kids (save for Brooklyn and Ella) each had five or more turns without breaking open the thing. So they decided to have the adults take a turn. I was first and actually broke off the branch of the tree the pinata was hanging on when I hit the pinata. Then Cory knocked the pinata off, but I believe it was Anthony who actually broke it open.

All three of our kids were so exhausted by the time night rolled around. Accalia and Cole would both just finally collapse and ask to go to bed. So we'd get them settled in the camper, and I'd get Ella down. On Friday Ella was asleep before either of them, and on Saturday I nursed her to sleep around the campfire as everyone was starting to settle in for the night. Both nights Cory and I stayed up just talking and talking. Last night we were up for about two hours after everyone went to bed talking. It was wonderful and made us both realize how hard it is to do that with our current schedule of Cory going to bed earlier than myself and usually at least one of the kids.

It's nice to be home, though. We've spent most of the afternoon getting things put away and doing laundry. Accalia and Cole played with Mercedes for a while since she came over almost as soon as we were home. Ella fell asleep around 5:30, and I think she's down for the night.