What We're Doing This Weekend

Lest you think all I do is sit around writing recaps, we're actually out enjoying life this weekend!  So instead of a wedding recap today, I'm going to give you a different kind of recap.

Right now, we're in Warrens WI enjoying a weekend of camping with family and friends.  Every year since I was a little girl, we've spent 10 days at Yogi Bear in Warrens.  It has always been with the same group of people, and it's always been the same week every year.  Over time we've added more people, and the park has definitely changed, but one thing that hasn't changed is the great time we always have.

Our camping group consists of about 60 people, and it's always growing when you add into the mix husbands, children, girlfriends, and friends.  None of them are actually related to me, but they're all related to each other.  Remember my bridesmaids Brittany and Brianna (the cousins?)...

 (personal photo from 2006)

 It's their entire family.  They're what I like to consider my extended family.  They were also ALL invited to my own wedding.  That was one of the reasons our guest count climbed up above 300.  Mr. T didn't really get it at first, but after spending more time with them than my own family, he gets it now.  Lucky him, he had the pleasure of learning all of my family's names AND all of theirs.  He still doesn't get who belongs to who, and how they're all related.  (We've started adding in family members from other sides of the family.  Like for example, Britt's aunt's brother and wife and kids.  They're not actually related to Britt.)  So the group just keeps on growing.

But anyways, hopefully I haven't confused you too badly.  When we were growing up, it was always 10 full days of beach, sun, water, volleyball, swimming, and dances.  Now, as we're all growing up not everyone can make the full trip anymore.  So all of us youngins come and go on the weekends and it's usually the grown ups who are there the whole week because they can afford to take off a week stretch.  It's definitely changed some, but it's just as fun.  Now our weekends are full of different games like beer pong, and flip cup, and drinking around the fire.  But we still go to the dances every weekend, and head down to the beach to work on our tans.

So that's what I'll be doing this weekend.  Hope you'll all be having fun as well!

I'll end with some of my favorite pictures from the last couple of years.  These first few are from the summer of 2006.

We put together a little act for the talent show one year.  The singer of the group needed a little back up act for her performance.  Needless to say, we won first place and some free pizza!

This was a fun little dice game called "Mexican"  It involved lots of tequila shots.  This was the summer after my senior year when I was finally allowed to drink with the older kids.  Great parenting huh?  Although, did you know...in WI it's legal to drink underage when you're with your parents?

We're not too old to take pictures with Yogi Bear!

The following pictures are from the summer of 2007.

With some of my favorites, watching a friendly game of beer pong.

And speaking of beer pong, this was the summer that it all started.  It has now become a staple at all family functions, including Christmas!

The year before, we snuck into a building that housed all the water balloons used at the Water Wars station, and stole a couple bags of water balloons.  Just in case you were wondering, each bag had 10,000 water balloons.  We're still using them years later.  The summer, we filled as many as we possibly could, and loaded them in tupperware containers and laundry baskets, and anything else we could find.  We put them all on a flat trailer that usually carries four wheelers, and we took off through the park, throwing water balloons at innocent people on the road and at their campsites.  We made it all the way down to the beach before we got yelled at.  Now the boys just launch them out into the beach or straight up in the sky trying to catch them on the way down.  Do you have any idea how much a water balloon hurts coming out of a launcher?  It leaves bruises.

We had a full out, four course fitness competition between these two guys.  They made a bet at Christmas about who could lose the much weight and get in shape, and this was the determining factor.  It included pushups, situps, log holds, and a run.  There's even a video montage.

We always close out the dances with a little version of "Stand By Me" once the DJ stops playing.

Did I mention we do a Margarita Night every year?!  Everyone brings a bottle of tequila, mix, and some strawberries, and we blend up margaritas all night.  We also all bring food and have a big potluck.  Something has to soak up all that booze right?

There are also regular volleyball tournaments.  We even set up spotlights at night and play in the dark.  It gets a little intense.  One year there was even a torn ACL.

Here are a couple from 2008.

Every weekend is a different themed weekend, and this particular one happened to be Halloween.  So the boys "dressed up" to head down to the dance.

A shot of all the girls before starting up Margarita Night.

So as you can see, it's a fun time had by all! It's a great bonding weekend for the kids and the adults, as they all get involved in our drinking games too.  You should see some of these moms play flip cup!

So that's what I'm doing.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I'll see you again Monday for some more wedding recaps!