Memorial Day Weekend

We left Friday after school and work.  The girls really pressured me to leave as soon as possible.  They just couldn't give me any peace about it. The relentless nagging and brow beating, it was so overwhelming.

We got in the car, me cussing under my breath the whole way, and we pull into the parking lot of the campground.  We were the only car, not another car in the lot!  We were first, absolutely first!

Then the kids were like, well, maybe we should just wait here, maybe we should come back...I wouldn't allow it, we unloaded and carried everything going to the camp site all in one trip.  Felt so good.  (Of course there was bickering the entire way, but we made it)

Eventually we set up the tent and greeted our friends.

Some of them I hadn't seen since losing Lainey, the first time seeing people is always the worst.  You think, "Do they know, do they care?"  I find I use her name often and I love hearing it.

We enjoyed great food, the fire, smores, great company.  It really was a wonderful time.  At night the girls and I would settle down in our tent and talk a few minutes.  Just us.  The kids played volleyball (until the ball went in the fire) they played card games, they played that statue game where they smack each other, they chopped wood, went fishing, swimming.

I'm so glad to have such great friends.  I felt like I spent quality time with everyone in attendance. Just so good to laugh and visit with people you know and love.

The best fun was at night we had bold raccoons trying to get our food, climbing trees right in front of us.  Saturday and Sunday nights were both spent with a white clothes basket, "raccoon bait" and a trick limb to capture the raccoon.  Sunday night Rick was deemed, "The Trap Master!" by one of the boys.   It was fun, they spent hours sitting quietly, then shushing people as the raccoon came close to the trap.  Someone mentioned, "This is what we used to do before cell phones!"

I wasn't nearly as weepy for Lainey as I thought I would be.  I got to talk about her and tell her story, it felt so good.

We really were blessed.  Monday morning we had some delicious pancakes and sausage and packed in all in, headed home to get ready for our Monday company!  We were tired, oh so tired, a good tired!