Camping

 Our site...this picture was taken later in the week, and you can just see the remnants of huge puddle on the far right.

This was the view from our site...Gorgeous!

 Beach time!  The beach was our afternoon activity.  Our morning activity was breakfast and usually a bike ride.  Then we'd eat lunch and head to the beach.  Rough life.

 It started raining at about 4 that morning, and when I opened the trailer door Erin's Crocs were floating away.

 Ben stayed entertained at the Lego table for hours.  For the most part, his cousin Justin was there right along with him.

 Roasting marshmallows.  Ben always forgot to take off his bike helmet, and I wasn't about to remind him.  I figured it was just an added safety precaution.

 There's nothing wrong with S'mores every night of the week is there?

 Grandma and Grandpa surprised the kids with t-shirts that have a picture of all of them in a boat.  The caption reads "Boatload of Grandchildren"  Cute!

 The 6 boy cousins

 Our attempt at a group shot.  A few are super happy and one not so much.

 That big green inflatable soccer ball from the Dollar Store was well worth the investment.  The kids played soccer (or I should say argued over the rules) for hours.

 Ben and his Lego buddy Justin.  I love this picture because Ben is actually very particular about his hair and always wants it to lay flat.   This was a result of over-wearing the bike helmet.

 Alex, Jerry, and Ben going for a bike ride.  

 Now some (my SIL whose name starts with a "K") may say that my victory dance and the fact that I'm posting this picture makes me a sore winner.  I fully deny that charge.  I'm only posting the picture so I can look back and remember the fun I had bonding with my 3 SIL's and my MIL.  :)

Summer has gotten away from me, and I have full intentions of back tracking the weeks to show what we've been up to, but I thought I'd start with our camping trip with Jerry's family...now an annual event, 3 years running.  This year we went back to Port Burwell Provincial Park where we also camped last year, but this year we were on a different group site.  It had a spectacular view of Lake Erie and was very private.  The biggest downside was that it basically floods out when it rains...which of course it did.  For the most part this was early on in the week, and the kids thought it was a great adventure to drive to the nearest town with a McDonalds for breakfast.  We wasted time at Walmart and the Dollar Store and then came back to find the water on our site had recessed...only a small pond remained which became a little bit smaller each passing day.  All in all it was a great week.  I don't think I looked in a mirror once, and I probably used a brush (hair, not tooth!) less than 3 times.  There was lots of cousin bonding, bike riding, and marshmallow roasting.  And the food!  Food just seems to taste better when you eat it outside.   We had a little mishap on the way home.  The car overheated at the gas station which popped some hose which made a tremendous noise and then steam came gushing out of the hood of the car.  Jerry was inside the gas station at the time, and I was in the car with the kids.  Of course I thought the car might blow up so I hurried the kids out of the car and jumped out with only one shoe on.  I was too scared to get my shoe so my 3 barefoot kids and one-shoe me walked into the gas station to get Jerry.  After a week of camping and minimal showers I'm sure we were a sight to behold.  Jerry fixed our car in no time and we were on our way!  That's memory making at its finest!