Camping

We held our annual Goodman camp-out this weekend, although we were missing half the family, Laura (surgery), DJ (9 month old twins) Mark (8 month pregnant wife) and Joe (in Dallas) {totally lame excuses} so it seemed so small and intimate (Karrie's word) but it was still fun and it was exactly what it was suppose to be, a whole lot of nothing. We shared stories, laughed a lot, ate together, played a few cards, hiked to the water hole, walked the loop,jumped into each others pictures,and caught over a 100 crawdads, simply put we made memories that will last a lifetime.

Cousins Ryan and Austin made the trip up for a few hours on Saturday, it was exciting to see them. I hadn't seen Ryan in over a year as he now lives in California. I wish they could have stayed longer but I will take what little bit we got. (if you look close you can see Loren in the picture, a classic picture jump in)

The boys really caught over 100 crawdads, the creek was really low and they refined their technique, a stick with bait (bacon, chicken or ham.) Loren boiled them up and we had them with our Friday night dinner, yummy I hear:)


Saturday the Ricedorff's and the Platt's took whatever kids wanted to go to Box Canyon up the road and went cliff jumping. I didn't go, I had some serious napping I had to do, so I have no pictures, but I guess Ty jumped off a super tall cliff, probably 40-50 feet tall. My favorite part was sitting in a circle, not always the fire, we went where the shade was during the day and played games. This year we played "Only ask a question" where you only can ask a question - if you answer the question you are out, it's tough but fun, we were laughing. The other game was "What have you never." You hold up 5 finger then someone says something they have never done, for instance Nedra said "I have never been to Hawaii." If you have been to Hawaii you put a finger down. You want to be the last one with fingers still up, but as we discussed this game further, we realized that means you are the biggest loser, and haven't' done anything. That totally changed how the game was played you didn't want to "win" because then you are the biggest loser. I don't know where we get the competitive spirit from but it came out in each game. It was fun to watch and play. I came home exhausted but full of love for my family!

Wyatt and Annie - she is a funny funny girl, I am surprised we got a picture with her looking, she usually didn't look but notice she did not smile - silly silly girl.
Abby, Kate and Kyley playing in the creek, the big girls were so good to the little girls, playing and telling stories with them.
Ty and Loren fishing for crawdads, look at the peace sign, Jay dog getting in the picture, any way he can.
Matt and Kyley playing cards - notice the table cloths those are grandma Taylor's I am so thankful that they took us every year, it is because of them that so many of us love it now, and are passing the love of camping down to our children.