Families Gone (Not So) Wild

On the Friday after Labor Day, we packed up and began the drive to Deep Creek State Park Maryland for Families Gone (Not So Wild). Our annual gatherings now include the husbands and the munchkins! But first, we stopped in Dexter for a quick haircut. Luckily, we timed it so that all three got a chair at the same time!

It was a long drive through beautiful countryside! The boys can now add West Virginia and Maryland to the list of states that they have visited. 

The boys were super antsy by the time we arrived at the rental house. Joe, Julie, and Nora had arrived much earlier in the afternoon and Steve, Nadine, Zach, and Sydney had arrived about an hour before we pulled in around dinnertime. Joe, Steve, and I kept the kids moving while Nadine, Julie, and Reid were out gathering supplies. Pizza it is! 

Zach waiting to catch the football

Fletcher, Sydney, and Graham playing soccer

Nora getting in on the action

Throw-in

It's not tackle soccer boys!

The girls take control of the ball

Sydney checking out my camera

Nora found the buttons on on the camera fascinating!

After dinner, the kids played themselves out and we finally got ours to bed around 10:30.

The next morning we headed into the park for fishing, swimming and sand castle building at the lake

Fletcher has his bucket ready in case there's a fish

Here fishy fishy

Searching high and low for the fish

Hmmm...there don't seem to be any fish here. Let's go to the beach

Zach wasn't interested in going on the water..too cold!

Showing me how the sand blows when you hold it up and let the wind catch it.

Let's try fishing over here with Steve!

After a few hours fishing and playing at the beach, we had a late lunch at the house. Some munchkins needed a nap...but not ours. I know you're shocked. We were too! So we took them for a drive hoping that would lull them into restfulness. Instead, we found a mini-golf course and took the boys putt-putt golfing for the first time. They had a hard time with the rules and by the end we were just trying to keep them close by and not using their golf clubs like baseball bats.

After putt-putt, we found a pirate ship play structure!

After playing on the pirate ship we met up with the others for dinner at a BBQ joint followed by ice cream at a homemade ice cream shop. Reid and I had sugar-free butter pecan ice cream. YUM!

Sydney and me watching some football. Again the boys were up way too late...I think it was around 11 before they finally quit.

Sunday turned into a MUCH nicer day than Saturday. This was our last day in MD because the boys start preschool tomorrow! We got all packed up and headed back into the park for a few hours of playtime.

Fletcher didn't want to put his suit on and he didn't want to go swimming.

We left around noon and had a nice trip back to Michigan (ie, both little men took LONG naps..after we fed them of course). Macs was very happy to see us (also a little miffed that he'd been left out of all the fun!)