Family Camping!

Well another Camping Trip with my family has ended. Usually I always look forward to camping, this year I was a bit hesitant in going. My cousins are all at that stage in their lives where they rather go hang out with friends or go clubbing than go camping with their family. And addicted to their blackberry, or phones. So I wasn't sure who was going to be there, and how social they were going to be. Sure enough, I was wrong.

Getting up there after about 3 hours (listening to Backstreet Boys the whole way), we quickly set up our tent and was ready to relax. Just getting to catch up with everybody and see everybody is so nice. My grandma's sister and my grandpa's brother married eachother, and their family of 3 boys was like brothers to my mom and her 3 sisters. So for years now they have gone camping together with their families. It gives everyone a chance to see eachother, catch up, do something different, and get away from civilization so to speak. So baisically we just talked all day, and had a kick ass camp fire at night. It was also freezing that night!

Also, we brought the 2 dogs up! (For those who don't know, we just got a new 5 month old puppy named Tucker!) Everyone knew and loves Chloe and were happy to meet Tucker. He is at an awkward stage in his life, he's only 5 months and still developing. His hips are pathetic (like mine), and he's so clumsy! My aunt and uncle have a dog so we were introducing them. Then, the damn dog started to attack Tucker and jumped ontop of him! Tucker is under a table trying to get up and I was ready to kill my aunt and uncles dog! That's my baby! So anyway, while this is going on Chloe was barking away, trying to beat up my cousins dog! Chloe is 3lbs, Tucker is 40lbs, and my cousins dog is 30lbs! She's a fiesty one alright!

Saturday was a hot one. The day started out over cast, and was calling for thunder storms all day. After an hour of over cast the sun was bright and shining. My mom, uncle, cousins, nanny, great uncle, great aunt and myself all played horseshoes. We are all competitive so it was pretty funny how into it we got. My one cousin had to work and her older sister was going to a party that night so they had to leave unfourtunatly. My mom's sister, her husband, and 2 oldest kids had to leave because my cousins best friends mom passed away and it was the day of the funeral. Totally understandable! So they would be back at the end of the day.

Next we went down to the pond where everyone else was fishing away. Ryan had no worms to use, so he put a grape, that's right, a grape on the end of his line and no word of a lie, 30 seconds later he caught a 5lbs fish! It was the funniest thing! We always fish when camping and now have a fishing trophy that the winner get's to keep for the year and then brings it back the next year for the new winner. So far we were winning!

The rest of the afternoon, my uncle's 2 kids (I hate the one of them) came up for about 3 hours! The point was to stay up over night, not 3 hours. The female cousin talked to us for about an hour then went in a trailer alone for the other 2. We were playing Botchie Ball and Lawn Darts. Ryan was really having fun with the kids, aka my brother and my twin cousins his age. My cousin and her boyfriend had to leave aswell, so again, my cousins were all leaving. My great grandmother and great aunt came up for the day aswell.

Once everyone was really starting to leave and get dinner started, me and my cousin/teammate Shannon went on a walk down the street. We were both not impressed that everyone was leaving so we both vented. She also wanted to leave because she had to go to her summer job the next day, but felt like she had to stay since no one else was. She is one of my cousins closer to my age and we grew up together, so we've always been close. If it wasn't for her being there I would've died. Yes I talked with my aunts and uncles, but I'm not that close with them, and it was sort of awkward at points.

For dinner we had a huge BBQ and everyone provided something. It was so nice to have everyone that was there eat a meal with eachother. For dessert my great grandmother made Rice Pudding and once it was brought out all of my mom and her cousins raced to go get some like savages! It was so funny. While they were all fighting for some food, all of my generation was like 'what the heck is so great about Rice Puddin?'. The rain clouds came, but no rain yet so we all quickly cleaned up! It always rains when we're camping so we're used to it. We had thunder and lightning but no rain. Just my aunt and uncle came back, leaving their older two at home-thank God-they don't socialize what so ever so it's not like we were missing them that much. Supposedly there was a huge storm going on and everyone was texting us, and we had nothing but a few bangs, and lightning!

We had a short camp fire. But while that was going on, the prank war started! My brother and twin cousins put a frog in my fucking tent! And it was in my fucking bag! I hate bugs and frogs and snakes (which we all saw!). So they got it out. Then before my brother and the twins bed time (they were all in a tent together), Ryan snuck into their tent and jumped out and scared them! I had a great laugh! In the morning when we were cleaning up Ryan threw a fucking dragon fly in our tent and held the zipper so I couldn't get out! What an asshole! (We love eachother so much haha!).

We ended up staying longer then planned, went canoeing, floated on a raft, and Ryan won his fishing trophy, he was the only one who caught a fish! We left, got ice cream (I love brownie ice cream!) and we stopped in at my great grandmother's for a bit. Then we got home. It was nice being away but damn I missed my bed!

In the end I had a great weekend and want to go camping again! Family is so important and I can't stress it enough how much you should take these opportunities while you have them. I know it may not seem as cool to hang out with your family, but it's all you got in the end. It gives you a chance to catch up, see people you don't usually see, do something different and have a great weekend. Not to mention get a tan! And mosquito bites....my bum is covered (the one place I didn't spray!). Both Ryan and I loved it!

Thanks for reading my blog and finding out how my long weekend was! I hope everyone had a great time with their families this beautiful long weekend! It's time for me to take a break from this blog, and prepare for my surgery tomorrow morning. It's nothing big, just fixing a plate in my nose (long story!). Can't wait to catch up with you all soon,

Brittany xoxo