Disaster Averted

We bought a new tent at Costco for our camping trip.  It was a big Colman one, that sleeps 10 and is tall enough that you can stand up and walk the whole length of the tent.  We were excited to use our new tent.  I didn't think it would be a problem that we hadn't had set it up before because my sister had bought the same tent and had experience setting it up.   She was camping across the way from us, so she could help us if we needed it.  Well, we needed some help, but there wasn't anything she could do.  

Here is her tent set up so beautifully (it looks just like the picture on the box).  We kept running across the road to inspect her tent to figure out what ours was supposed to look like.  

Ours didn't turn out as nice.  Can you tell what is wrong?

Yes, we were missing part of the tent pole and one of the top poles, instead of making a nice "C" shape when put together made fore of an "S".  This was the first time we took it out of the box, so one of our kids didn't loose it.  But, we were hours from home and at the start of a family reunion.  We decided we wouldn't let it ruin our fun. 

  

 Here is what we came up with.  It worked out just fine.  Once we got the rain fly on, we were very snug. 

I called Colman today and after holding for 22 minutes, the man was very nice and said he would send out the missing pole and a replacement for the misshapen pole right away.  

HLC Reunion!

This summer my siblings and I were in charge of hosting the HLC reunion for my grandfather's descendants.  We spent 3 days in Westport, WA.  My Dad has 7 sisters and 1 brother and they have children and their children have children, so potentially there could have been a lot of people there.  But it was held in an out of the way place, so there weren't.  There were 6 of my 10 siblings and their families, my mom and newdad (my dad passed away a few years ago), my cousin, Craig, his wife and their daughters, plus one of the daughters husbands.  My Aunt Linna, her husband and one son, daughter in law and 2 little boys.  And my Aunt Sandra, her husband and one of her daughters.  We had a fun time, even though it rained part of the time.  (what else would you expect from the Washington coast?)

Thursday evening we all met up at the LDS church in Westport for a pot luck dinner.  It is such a tiny cute building, with a great big lawn.  The kids had a blast running around while the adults visited.

We then went back to the camp ground that some of us were staying at and made s'mores.

Some heated fried chicken instead.

Lucky us, we got to sleep in our new tent.  

At one point, Trip took the little boys to the tent to put them to bed.  After a few minutes, out came the little boys.  But I couldn't see Trip anywhere.  Then it occurred to me what happened and I called, "Trip, did you fall asleep?"  No answer, so I looked.  Yup, he was sleeping peacefully.  

Rez wasn't with us, he was at scout camp.

It sprinkled that night, we be were nice and dry.  The next morning it was still heavily misting, 

so we had our family meeting at the campground also, so we could sit by the fire.

My niece drove the little kids around the camp ground in the back of the truck to keep them occupied while the grown ups, caught up on all the family.

During the family meeting, Mo was roasting a marshmallow over the fire in the center of the meeting.  Mo's marshmallow caught on fire and he tried to blow it out a couple of times, but couldn't, then he panicked and screamed, "Fire!"

There were great climbing trees there.

By afternoon, the rain had cleared up and we all headed to the beach.

Some of us walked the trail from the campground...

And some drove out to the beach.

 

Playing in the sand is always fun.

Zelda's first time in the sand (she didn't get sunburned the whole trip:).

The water was a great draw.  It was cold at first, but then you got used to it.

 

Jumping the waves and body surfing were so fun.

Daphne made a giant sand leg.

Her cousin found a sand dollar.

Some of us flew kites.

Made sand sculptures 

and castles.

Ocean buried himself

It clouded up again

and we all headed back to camp for a wienie roast.

Harvey got a little to much of something (I can't imagine that it was sun) and didn't feel so good after dinner.

But, playing Angry Birds took his mind off it.

We played games and had more s'mores.

The next morning, we packed up camp

and headed back to the LDS Church house for breakfast on the lawn. 

It was a very fun reunion.  

I love my family.