{Don't} Rain on My Party!

Come Friday, we strapped down the trailer, seat-belted ourselves in, and set off to the coast for a weekend of camping with Papa's family.  These pictures give their thousand-words- worth about a trip we will never, ever forget! 

Crab. Garlic butter. Feast. 

Little man watching big man wrangle his crab. 

Aunt Hiedie enjoying her share. 

Central pillar of the weekend: food!  Uncle Larry flips some flapjacks in the picture on the right. 

We celebrated Rebecca's college graduation and Mikaela and my fast-approaching graduation all at once.  My Aunt Vickie is to be held responsible for the atrocious blown-up photos behind us. 

l-r: Cousin Amanda made Melanie an amazing beaker pinata for her birthday, Mikaela and I open up Polish pottery (a family tradition!), and Rebecca unwraps her kit and kaboodle of kitchen gadgets from our family. 

Game time: Who knew Jonah could balance five dice on the end of a popsicle stick held in his mouth?

How many pencils can you toss in the air and still catch?

Zach creamed us!

Cousin Ryan demonstrates the next game which involves a pulley system using your ears. 

l-r: Aunt Vickie, Aunt Lisa, Mikaela, and I

Aunt Lisa and Amanda

Uncle Joe introduced Micah to his passion: golfing!

Cute toenails!

Cousins compete with cards!

Mama and Reed

We had a gourmet s'more cookoff complete with several rounds of five entrants, and three judges per round.  Pop rocks, bacon, espresso, mascarpone cheese, tea, raspberries, sour patch kids, cream cheese, and molasses cookies were just a few of the ingredients used, with surprising results! 

A judge examines his scorecard. 

Grandma and Grandpa approve!

l-r: Ryan and Micah

Happy Camper

Apparently I come by my love of reading honestly. 

Say cheese!

Our true selves come out! 

On Sunday it rained, but all the other days were nice.  Except for when the thunder woke us up on Saturday morning and everyone simultaneously scrambled for tarps.  Oh, yeah, and when the rain was our alarm clock on Monday morning.  But puddles in your tent are normal, right? 

Needing some warmth, we travelled to the Tillamook cheese factory, a favorite stop.  Get a look at the worker's t-shirts!

"Fall in loaf for the first time" says the official hippy loaf van. 

Aunt Lisa and Susanna's matching umbrellas served a good purpose in soggy-hamburger-bun prevention. 

Monday, the final day of the trip, we scrambled to pack up early and head to complete Papa's birthday present: a kayak tour in the ocean bay! 

First things first: none of us tipped over! 

And we had a lot of fun, too!

We returned home five pounds heavier, a bit more sore in the arms, on marshmallow overload, with sand yet between our toes, and still talking about all the silly and sweet memories of the weekend.  Eager to rejoin civilization, we raced up to our door only to realize two things: our water was about to be turned off for construction in a few hours, and church family camp was only days away.  But the sun was high in the sky, and we suddenly realized that showers aren't all they're cracked up to be, anyways.