The Great Outdoors

For the past thirty-some years, we've always gotten together with my Dad's family the Sunday before Christmas, but as all the cousins have moved away and/or started families of their own, its gotten harder and harder for everyone to make it. So, we decided to have "Christmas in June" camping trips at a state park in lieu of our usual December gathering.

I have to admit, while I was looking forward to seeing our family, I wasn't so sure how the boys would do camping. I'm happy to report that they did great, and we thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. It was so relaxing to spend time together enjoying the nice weather, appreciating the great outdoors, and cooking over the campfire.

On Saturday afternoon, we went down to the marina to feed the carp. There were so many fish competing for the food that they were practically on top of one another -- talk about fish in a barrel. Zach enjoyed dumping handfuls of popcorn so he could see the fish jump to get a piece, while Evan dropped one piece at a time.

After feeding the fish, the great squirt gun battle of 2009 broke out. Evan would squirt and run, while Zach camped out near my sister and me, expecting us to protect him. He was ruthless squirting anyone who came within his range. Uncle Bo and Daddy got some good shots in, though, and Zach ended up drenched. Evan ended up happily drenched too.
On Sunday morning, we took the boys down to the beach for what we thought was going to be a quick dip. Well, more than two hours later, we finally drug them away. They had a blast playing in the sand, wading in the water, and building a sand castle -- no a sand village is more like it -- with Daddy, my uncle, and his grandson. I'm not sure who enjoyed it the most, but in the end, they had several lakes, islands, a channel, and a castle.

This picture doesn't do their creation justice

Evan was a wild man in the water. He'd run and flop face down, then get back up and do it again. Getting water in his face didn't bother him at all.

Zach was more into building sand castles than swimming, although he did manage to tear himself away from the construction to play in the water from time to time.

When my Uncle Steve took a break from building the village to go swimming, Zach asked him "Hey, where are you going?!" He also tried to order our 14 year-old cousin Justin around, telling him where to dig and pour water. I got a kick out of eavesdropping on the conversation. Zach would say "Hey, Justin" as if Justin were one if his preschool-aged friends. Justin was great with the boys and very patient with Zach's bossiness.

What a great weekend! Can't wait til our second annual Christmas in June camping trip!