Devil's Lake camping

We went camping this past weekend with the St. Matthew group as we do every year, and it was just as much fun (maybe even more fun!) as ever. The kids are growing up and that meant less babysitting and more activity. Of course, things were a little different this year with an 8-week old, and because of this we had a hotel room for Sedric, Gemma, and me. Marcus and the 3 oldest kids got a head start on Thursday and the youngers and I headed out on Friday morning, just in time for lunch:


Daisy got to come, too! (although she was a little neglected the whole weekend, since Bunny was more interested in biking than cuddling with her dog).


Devil's Lake State Park is in Lincoln City, just across the highway from the coast. It was different being in town and not out in the boonies, but I kinda liked it...on Friday afternoon our friends who organized the trip offered BABYSITTING (!!) for 2 hours and the adults could go out and do what they wanted. Outlet mall shopping was a favorite, but Marcus and I just went to Starbucks so he could catch up on emails.

This was a very very common scene:


As was this scene. The littler ones (and sometimes big ones) loved playing in the dirt with kitchen toys:


Saturday brought the talent show. Here is the audience:


We performed the hukelau! It was very cute. Marcus is playing his new ukelele:





Nicole organized dirt babies for the kids:


We made it through the week with a lot of help from our friends Caroline and Tess (here is Tess holding Sedric):



Saturday evening was Mass and the potluck. They had roasted a whole pig, yum! I will spare you all the pictures of the head that James took.


The weather was great for us, no rain and mild temperatures. It was in the 90s at home but just the 70s (and 60s) on the coast. The hotel was so close that one night Marcus came with me to give Gemma a tubbie, and then he just walked back to the campsite. Some highlights of the weekend include a bonfire on the beach (complete with fire dancer), kids biking all day, pushing Gemma in the stroller (got lots of walking in!), and of course s'mores. They even had a movie night for the kids! I loved sleeping in the cozy hotel room and having clean towels and running water. :o). The whole weekend was great and a lot of fun, lots of memories were made.

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