Camping at Grandma and Grandpa's 2012

The first night

Ever since I can remember, my cousins and siblings and I have gone camping each summer with my Grandma Kock. (Even though I'm sure there were a few years that we didn't go and we didn't go last summer. lol - but I guess I have blocked those years out of my memory!) When we were younger, we'd go for about a week and camp with my Grandma and Great Aunt and all my cousins and second cousins at Blackhawk Lake in Lake View, Iowa. We would swim all day long and go putt putt golfing and eat Sno Cones and play at the park and walk around the lake and feed the ducks. We'd also eat a lot of wonderful food and play games and just have a blast together.

Mattie! She had fun camping with us too!!

I would guess that we started doing this maybe over 15 years ago... (That seems like a long time now that I say it out loud - we'll have to look into that and figure out how long it has actually been.) Now, when we go camping it is just my siblings and my 3 first cousins that go camping with my Grandma. And now that we're older and have a lot of stuff going on in our "grown up" lives, it has become increasingly more difficult to get us all together. This year proved to present the same issues with everyone's busy schedules. The only weekend that we could all get together happened to be a busy weekend in Lake View where we normally go camping. It was the weekend of the Lake View Water Carnival and also the weekend right before RAGBRAI would be going through town. And those things mean that there would be no open camping spots for us at the camp grounds. Because of this, we decided that we'd just camp at my Grandparents instead! Grandpa got the camper out and parked it behind their shed and he and Grandma got it all ready for us to arrive.

We all got to their house whenever we could on that Friday and the fun began! My parents and my Uncle Dan were also there just like they would be if we were camping. Usually when we are camping they'd come up every night for supper and a few games as well. It was just like old times, but just at a different place! It was nice to be there at the house because Grandma could cook for us all right in the kitchen and there was plenty of room for everyone to sit and eat and hang out (and enjoy the AC). On Friday evening, we all made our way down to the camper and played a few games of bags and sat around the fire. Then, Grandma and Grandpa called it a night and went up to the house and all of us 'kids' piled in the camper to sleep. 

Usually when we'd go camping, Grandma would get up before us all and go outside to read a book or do a crossword while all the rest of us kids slept in. (We're really good at that.) But with this arrangement, she could be nice and comfortable in the house and we all could wake up when we wanted to and make our way to the house for breakfast. One thing that didn't change at all from how camping has always been is that breakfast was very scrumptious, as all meals are at Grandma's!!

All the cousins (Except for Wade)

The rest of the morning was spent chatting and working on word and number puzzles in the puzzle books that Grandma has (another favorite activity at Grandma's). A few people had to leave for various things throughout the day, but those of us who stayed got to spend time with Grandpa and shoot some of the many guns that he has. I hadn't shot a gun in a very long time despite the fact that my Grandpa, Dad, and brother would go to the gun club or go hunting often as I was growing up. It was nice to have it just be us kids with Grandpa there and have him let us shoot at the targets, etc. Trent and Jared shot some of the exploding Tannerite targets again like the ones that they had shot a few weeks earlier at my parents when we had our birthday party. We all then took turns shooting at the targets (pieces of metal) that Grandpa had up on the hill. After we were done with the rifles, Grandpa got a few of his revolvers and hand guns out and we shot with those. I wasn't so good at shooting without the stability of the tripod... AT ALL! Ha!

 That Saturday was another VERY hot day, so when we were done shooting, it was nice to get back inside in the AC!

Later that evening, my parents came back and we had supper followed by a game of Dominos. (Which I won fair and square by the way!) My family members are sore losers. They think that I win just because I keep score... NOT true! I'm just good!

WINNER!! =)

Sunday morning, we got up and had breakfast again followed by lunch (if you haven't noticed a pattern yet, we do a lot of eating at Grandma's) before I had to head back home to join my hubby and puppy who had gone back home on Saturday. It was an amazing weekend. I love spending time just hanging out with my family! I cherish those times and look forward to them more than anyone could know! I am so blessed to have such an amazing family!

Have a great weekend!