I signed Courtney out of school early, and Mel signed Erin and Ryan out early too. We met Becky and Joyce at the church building to get all our food and supplies gathered up for the weekend. Then we were off to Hochatown USA for a fun filled weekend. We rented two cabins this year - the same 6 bedroom we rented last year, along with a 3 bedroom cabin right across the road.
BEWARE: Picture Overload. It may not seem like it, but I did weed through a lot of the pictures that were taken.
We arrived at the cabin around 3pm and got everything unloaded. Dorris and Teresa weren't too far behind us. The kids played while us ladies tried to get some food prepared, so we wouldn't have to worry about it the rest of the weekend.
Becky, Joyce, Dorris and Teresa did a great job cutting up vegetables for the hamburgers - even if it did make them cry.
Joyce put together some candy bowls, which was hard to stay out of! Dorris brought some homemade white chocolate covered pretzels. Joyce brought some cookies and Vivian sent some cookies too. We had lots of sweets!
After we had every thing unloaded and food prepared, it was time to take a break
Then Grizzly Adams arrived. I know his Nanny would fuss at him to shave this mess off. He doesn't listen to me like he did her!
Courtney and Erin found a nice quite spot to play a game of Phase 10 before everyone arrived.
Avery did not lack attention at anytime over the weekend.
She was really happy when one of her friends showed up.
It was nice to sit and visit as we waited on others to arrive.
We were so happy that the Newhouse's were able to come. They are such a nice and fun couple. It was their first retreat with us. And I sure hope it was not their last (more about that later).
Scott and Kenny were the chefs for the evening. They did a great job!
Burger time!
Courtney and Avery
Friday was Autumn's 8th birthday!!
And Saturday was Becky's birthday! So we had cake for both and Friday night.
The Phillips clan
Little Jack was having a good time
We would have to move the ladders off the bunks when we left the room, or little ones would find their way to the top.
Amy and Lanny had a super fun game for us Friday night. They divided everyone into 4 teams. And gave each team a piece of poster board, a container of play doh, a pair of scissors, a roll of ribbon, and some tape. Then each team had 10 minutes to go outside and find whatever they wanted or needed to make a "creation" along with the items they had been given. And then the creations would be judged by none other than John Henry Graves.
Dorris, Deidra and Mandy searching for their items
The Adams family, Becky and Reese searching for their items
Courtney, Lenita, Lanny, Grace and Hannah
Reese hit the jackpot with his find!
And then the items collected along with the items found began to form into some pretty unique creations
I was the offical photographer. John Henry was the official judge. And Sandra was the official encourager.
Little Evan was a helper for his team!
This creation was titled "Beavers Bend"
This creation was a campfire
A teepee creation
And the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs.
After careful consideration and telling each team what a wonderful job they did, John Henry concluded that he could not decide on a winner, and that he was going to have to take the matter before the Elders...lol
Courtney had some fun with the leftover tape
While Dorris had some fun with Avery
After the game, the kids all wanted to go to a big hill that is right down the road. So the men took off with the kids so they could climb this hill. We thought it might be fun to dress as ghosts, hide in the trees and jump out to scare them when they were walking back to the cabin.
We tried to scare the kids, but they didn't even really give us a second look. Guess we don't make good scary ghosts after all. Oh well, we had fun visiting in the scary woods while we were waiting.
Everyone finally settled down a bit and started getting ready for bed.
The boys slept in the living room upstairs, while the girls slept in the living room down stairs.
It was after Midnight before everyone got in bed after a busy evening.
If you actually read through all of that post and looked at all the pictures, you deserve a prize!!
Part 2 coming soon!
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