July 27th marked the one year anniversary of my dad's death. While we certainly didn't "celebrate," we did gather as a family to remember. Mom wanted us to have a camp out, so we met at her house, pitched tents in the backyard, and spent the evening, night, and morning together. We played games, ate well, and tried to sleep. Kent didn't feel well so he arrived at Mom's, lay on the couch, helped get the kids to sleep in the tent, then went home. We didn't see him again.
Mikayla made up a treasure hunt for the kids, complete with treasure chest, we tossed water balloons between towels, we had fajitas for dinner, and we read stories. When it got dark and was time for bed, we climbed into the tent with the kids. Blythe was hot and tossed and turned and complained that she was uncomfortable. Brandt leapt up every time he heard something which was about every 23 seconds. Brandt needed the laying on of hands (I had to rub his back and hold him in place) to get to sleep, and Blythe needed me to sing, a lot. When they finally fell asleep, Kent said, "We could go home. We have nothing to prove to anyone."
I agreed, we didn't have anything to prove. However, at that point, there seemed little reason to wake the children and take them home. So I slept with them in the tent. Well, I spent the night with them in the tent. I'm not sure that I actually slept all that much.
It was great to be together, just as Dad would have liked.
Mikayla with
Luke, Brandt, Griffin, Blythe, Blake, Andrew (Griffin's cousin), Lyla, Ava, and Makenna
Treasure found!
The map that took the children all around the cul-de-sac
Mikayla doled out "treasure" to everyone,
cute candy bags and a toy.
All the grandkids, with Collin off to the side
less Donovan
Blythe is eating her candy and Lyla is sitting in the water balloon bucket.
We had a beautiful sunset.
Preparing dinner
Our campsite
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