32 Hours of FUN!

(I apologize for the longest post in the universe, but it had to be done for the book :)
As I type I am still recovering from a packed weekend.  Coming home to piles of laundry and planning/prep for the school week was not my idea of "woohoo", but I would do it all over again and again and again to have a weekend like we had this past one.  It was awesome.  Times 3.  And then some...

Our scheduled Opening Day for football and cheer leading had been rained out the weekend before, so we were all geared up and excited to start this week.  I wasn't sure how well the teams would look after ONE practice, but to my surprise the teams actually played extremely well.  And the cheerleaders... now they were just cute and loud and super excited to wear their uniform. 

The coin toss. 

Luke made 2 TD's and ran in 2 two point conversions. 

Did I mention I love football?  And we couldn't have had a more perfect Saturday to kick off the season.   The weather was cool and crisp.  The smell of coffee and hot dogs hung in the air.  The shout of the cheers.  The blow of the whistle.  The call of "1st Down!"  and "Touchdown".   All of it makes me so very happy. 

Hayley cheered her little heart out. 

Baby bear did so well all morning.  We let her run some.

And eat some

And cheer some

and snuggle some

The combination made her a happy camper for the majority of the time.

After our wonderful morning at the fields, we ran back home to load up the car for our first family camping trip with all 5 of us.  You would have thought that we were going to be gone for a week and not one night with all of the stuff we had packed.  But the goal was to keep everyone happy and busy and we far exceeded that goal.

Luke loved helping Chris set up the tent.

As soon as the tent was in place, everyone jumped in for a tour.  We set up our "beds" for the evening and tested them out. 

After unpacking and setting up camp, we headed down the hill to the camp store to get a few more loads of firewood and to fish a little.  The kids saw the Jumping Pillow and we HAD to make a pit stop.

 You can tell that Hannah Beth is less than thrilled in this picture.  She was too little to get on the jumping pillow therefore she shed a few or a hundred tears. 

We attempted to fish with no luck, but got great practice. 

We walked back up the hill to our campsite to hunker down for the evening and make some dinner. A long walk can apparently make a girl thirsty.

 Chris made the most amazing steaks and the kiddos roasted hot dogs over the fire.  As we all sat by the fire that night, I just wanted time to stop.  I was soaking in every moment.  Thanking God for blessing me with the most wonderful man and children.  I never want to forget the time spent that night around the camp fire.  We talked and laughed and told stories.  Those moments are forever burned in my memory.  So precious.  So thankful. 

I woke up to the smell of coffee right outside the tent the next morning.  Chris was working on preparing a Breakfast of Champions for all of us.  He made eggs, bacon, toast, oatmeal, and coffee for me.  It was wonderful.  The temps had dropped to 45 degrees that night, so we all hovered around the fire that morning  to warm up. 

These are the faces I love to wake up to....

Wrapping up our weekend adventure, we headed up the road to Luray Caverns to see what all the fuss was about.  Amazing is all I can say...

To sum it up...

We had fantastic time and weekend that I will never forget.