ANNUAL FAMILY CAMP OVER...

MEGAN...A coon cap wearing knife whittling,
darling little tomboy of a girl. We sure do love
her, she reminds me so much of me as a girl!

Our family all gathered for our annual family camp over.
In our family, that includes our dogs too! This is our dog
Cougar on your left and our son's dog Jake on your right.

We are off to Boulder Mountain...it's only about 20 minutes
from our home (close enough so if needed anyone can run
back to the house and with several little ones it happens.)

The weather was PERFECT and considering
that we have had so much rain this Summer,
that was a real miracle!

We went down to Lower Bounds to go fishing and what a
great fishing trip that turned out to be! Megan was the
first one to catch a fish too!

My Mr. Bo Jangles loved sitting on rocks...

but Zak preferred the soft patches of grass.

Cougar and Jake never left the water...and the same could
be said of Megan! When she wasn't catching fish, she was
in that cold lake swimming with the dogs!

What a doll she is but at the same time, she
is not afraid to gut a fish either!

I couldn't decide if she was more muddy or
bloody! What a crazy girl!!!

She caught at least 4 of these babies...
I think grandpa was pretty happy about that!

Our son Darin, a proud daddy to Megan,
she let him catch a few too!

This was the most fun fishing trip I have
been on, I just loved watching it all.

Our daughter Lisa's big old dog Bruno, he
is such a sweetheart!

Kelton, Megan and Brody, looking for frogs.

Brody and Kelton are great friends...they
chattered and talked from the moment they
got up til they went to bed!

We watched a big old spider crawling across the creek by
way of his spider web, the kids loved it!

Our daughter Lindsey just hooked her two dogs together
and they happily went everywhere...together!

We played badminton and volleyball...

Sophia entertained us with her funny faces...

And she said push me a lot.

Kelton and Brody, having so much fun together.

We played Horse shoes...Michael and Dad here. Dad
was a pretty serious champion too!

We had set up swings for the littler kids, Brody here...

And Kelton loved it so much her fell asleep on his turn!
(That way he got to stay in it longer!) ;)

Our cute teenagers...Kelsey, Stetson and Ronnie.
They were good sports and did it all, we had
some great talks along the way too.

Sophia was a great sport, here riding her balance bike.

It was also her birthday! So we celebrated
with a birthday cake and balloons and gifts!

She was pretty happy with her Bubble gun!

Oh boy...dirt and worms!

She loved her bubble gun a lot!

And she loved teasing grandpa with her flashlight! She
would shine it in his face and he would growl like a bear!

It was a beautiful camp spot and we had a big old Harvest
moon at night that I never could get a good picture of!

Catching those bubbles...so much fun!

We ate so well...

and hot desserts with whipped cream....YUM!
Each family took a meal, so we had a great
variety of meals.

Never a shortage of good food, along with talk and laughter!

Lots of love going around with all ages!

Old Jake had about had it after a full day of run! The dogs
all loved sleeping around the campfire as we gathered to
roast marshmallows and talk.

Sophia, she loved playing hide and go seek...Oh where, oh
where did she go?!

Our sweet Ronnie...the dog magnet!

Grandpa's 50 year old lamp that he is so proud
of, got away from him for a moment...can you say
EXCITEMENT!!!

We all went on a hike...along the way there are many caves
and places to crawl into for a good picture! This is me,
(Grandma Julie) with Megan.

It's a place called...Grand Wash...and believe
me, you wouldn't want to be there if a rain
storm came up...it's not called WASH for
nothing!

It truly makes you stop and realize how puny we are,
in comparison with God's creations of his mountains!

Megan with her brother Britton and Cougar up in a cave to
cool off...it was hot!

~Noble Cougar~

Did I say it was hot? Yes, it was, the middle
of August...hot!

The shady spots were a welcome place for sure.

A really awesome hike...even though it was
hot, we loved every minute of it!

The rock walls rising WAY UP above us were
breath taking indeed!

There are many holes like this that are fun to set little dogs
or little kids in for a fun picture. The last time we took this
hike, our kids were all little kids and we took many a picture
with them tucked into holes.

You can see how big it all is around us...see the
us in the very back?

Toward the end of the hike we were all hot and tired...
stopping in every shady spot!

Such a fun hike a fun hike for all ages...
the last time we had Ron's mother along,
she was in her 80's then.

Looks like others have stopped in these
opening too!

Our son Shane and his wife Kenra with their
youngest Kelton.

And Darin's family here.

The kids were plenty tired too...and hot!

When we came out of the Grand Wash, guess what everyone
did...right! And the water felt SOOOOO good!

These two little dogs of mine who NEVER get
into water, dove in and just laid there drinking!
Yes, we had water with us too for them and us
but the river was wonderful!

I didn't want them to get into the truck all muddy,
so I carried them and got good and wet too!

Sophia standing in a hut built by some kids.

Camp fires every night were fun...there is just something
about a campfire...it gathers everyone and stories are
shared and lots of love too. We had 3 days of camping
filled with love and laughter and good food and so many
memories to hold...until we can do it again next year! Or
maybe something else just as fun...nothing like FAMILY.

~TIL WE MEET AGAIN~

JULIE