Family Campout

Wow, I really need to put an update on here. Well, from Aug. 3rd-Aug 8th was my family's annual camp out. As always, it was a lot of fun, but there were issues. This is likely to be VERY long. :)

We left on Monday morning and spent most of Monday driving to the campground. Once there, we set up camp. Tuesday is the hike for the guys and the craft day for the girls. Wil was able to go on the hike this year, so after breakfast, Wil, Dad, Aaron, Jason, and Dad's dog, Chloe, headed out on the hike with their lunches with them. After they were gone, Jenn W showed us what our craft for the year was. We painted camp pillowcases. I loved this craft because it was something we could use every year rather than bringing our nice pillowcases. I made one for me and for Wil. They turned out pretty good, even though I don't think that I'm very creative. I had a little help though from my family. The pillowcases turned out amazing. Steph made really cute ones for her and Josh, and the one Mom made for Dad was incredible. When the boys got back, Chloe collapsed on her bed and didn't move much for the rest of the evening and the next day. The boys didn't really move much either. They were all very tired and a little sore. For dinner, Jenn S and her kids cooked a full turkey in the dutch oven. They decided to theme their foods around holidays so we had a Thanksgiving dinner while camping. It was really good.

On Wednesday, Wil woke up feeling miserable. Apparently, he was sick and going on the hike pushed him over the edge. He spend most of the week, except for meal times, and a few other times, in the tent trying to feel better. Wednesday was also the first day of the Weight family Olympics. Aaron and Wendee were in charge of that this year and they had us doing the Weight family version of the Amazing Race. There were some crazy events. The worst one was the food challenge. One member of each team had to try to eat some tiny fish (eyes, heads, bones and all) and then drink this wheat tea stuff that Aaron had while on his mission in Japan. I was on a team with Mom, and my 10 year old nephew, Tyler. Mom had done the knot tying challenge so it was between me and Tyler to do this one. I figured I was the best bet because I've had some pretty weird stuff. I was not excited about it at all. I tried really hard to eat the fish. I shoved 2 or 3 in my month and tried to chew. When I swallowed and my stomach realized what I was doing, I started to gag and the fish came right back up again. I was dry heaving for a good 5-10 minutes after that. Jenn W threw her fish into the wheat tea and just downed it. Of course, it all came right back up, but she did manage to do it. Wil took the bullet for his team, mainly because he couldn't taste anything anyway. He said the fish didn't bother him, but as soon as the wheat tea hit his stomach, he puked it up too. Jenn S and I were the only ones left at the table, trying to make ourselves grab the fish or the tea. Finally, we decided to take the penalty of 30 minutes in order to save our stomachs. Aaron then made us a deal that if we drank the tea, it would only be 15 minutes (it would have been less, but since Jenn and Wil were able to do it, it wasn't fair for us to get out of it). So down went the wheat tea. I thought it was fine at first, and then I got the after taste. As soon as that hit, I was puking for another 5-10 minutes. Jenn S threw hers up too, but I was the only one who was on the ground with dry heaves even after my stomach had nothing in it. It was awful! I never want to do that again.

Thursday was another day of the Amazing Race. My team and Jason, Jenn S, and Dessa's team were tied in last place. We decided to work on the compass challenge together. Thanks to Tyler's good eye for spotting the envelopes and the teamwork between me and Jason with the compasses, we did that very quickly. My team fell behind in the challenge to light a fire using a specific "style" of placing the twigs and a specific type of fire starter. We had to do a log cabin and were supposed to light it with a magnifying glass. There wasn't any sun and Wendee didn't bring the magnifying glass, so we had a regular fire starter. I had a lot of trouble getting it going and was able to have Dad help me get it going (so sad since I'm usually the one that started the camp fires in the evenings...don't know what happened on that challenge). Dad and his team had just won and so that's why he was free to help me out. After that, we ran down to the last challenge. Wil's team (including Steph and my 12 year old niece Annee) were there along with Jason's team (who had no trouble starting their fire, unlike me). We had to try to match people up to their favorite things. Our board was favorite songs. Wil's team had favorite ice cream flavors. Jason's had favorite books, and Dad's team (Jenn W, and Matthew) had favorite movies. Some of the songs were really hard since my team had no idea what they even were. Wil's team got second place when they were finally able to figure out the ice creams (in the end, mine and Wil's were switched, but that's ok I guess..). We got third place thanks to Mom and I finally figuring out the last 5 that we had NO clue who's favorite they were. It was fun, but kind of frustrating. When each team finished, Aaron was waiting with the video camera to find out what each team's favorite part was. When Dad's team came in, Aaron's 3 year old, Matthew stated that his favorite part was "when we winned". It was very cute. My favorite part was finally getting all the songs matched up to the right people. Apparently, Jenn S's favorite part was watching me puke my guts out after the food challenge, but Jason was nice and said that watching me puke was his least favorite part...gotta love siblings.

Friday was mine and Wil's day to cook. We were worried that the food wouldn't stay cold enough all week, but it tasted great and no one got sick or died, so I guess we were ok. Our food turned out great really. They were some of my favorite meals, so I loved it. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it as well. Friday evening is always reserved for the Showcase (SO MUCH FUN!!) and for the awards ceremony. So, right after dinner, we all headed to the parking area where we created a stage and got ready to perform our skits that we'd prepared in groups earlier that day (at breakfast, we were assigned groups and had to create an "act" based on what was inside our envelope). My group (me, Dad, Mom, and Dessa) had to do a spoof on a musical. We chose Sound of Music and changed it to Sounds of Dessa (Dessa was SERIOUSLY loud all week and spent most of the week singing her made up songs, so it fit well). Our main song was "16 going on 17", but we changed it to "8 years going on 17" since Dessa acts like such a diva all the time. It went really well until I forgot one of the verses that Dessa and I had to sing together (and it was my favorite too). Wil and Aaron had to be adventurer's. They had to take us as their audience on an adventure. They ended up doing something similar to Star Tours at Disneyland, except they took us through different periods of time. It was very funny and very well done. They ended up winning the prepared act award, even though Wil was losing his voice.

For the second part of the Showcase, we all get assigned randomly to groups again and have to come up with something on the spot. Wil and Annee, and me and Tyler had to come up with things to do with props that were handed to us by Matthew. Some of them were really good. Others, well not so much, but it was still fun. The last group was the funniest. They had to do a variety of things (like crab walking, pretending to be a fish out of water, and playing air guitar") all while staying in their small hola hoops. It was really entertaining to see Dad pretend to smash a guitar, and watching all of them actually moving their hoops with them as they crab walked was impressive. Their group one the improv award.

At the awards ceremony, Dad, Jenn W, and Matthew took their prizes for winning the Olympics. Wil and Aaron got the best prepared skit award. Dad's group got the best improv award. And the overall best performance award went to Wil this year. He definitely earned it. He was very funny and made it so much fun to watch his performances. The cooking trophy went to Jenn S and her kids, so they don't have to cook next year. Wil and I got second place in the cooking contest, so we don't have to cook either next year (we just have to bring stuff for s'mores). All in all, it was a great camping trip. I just felt bad for Wil since he was miserably sick all week and couldn't even taste all the great food that was prepared this year. I'll post some pictures in a different post. This one is long enough :)