Camp Zarahemla – August 21-23

We had a few days to regroup after our Colorado expedition before we were off to our much anticipated camping trip with some of our favorite Auburn families.  We booked five cabins at Camp Zarahemla and filled them with friends.  We have fond memories of camping with many of these same families each year – a few times at Camp Zarahemla. 

I got this picture from Tara of Natalie, Emma, and Carly way back in May 2007. 

Here they are eight years later (2015) with Chloe and Sophie. 

We all arrived by dinnertime on Friday and enjoyed Café Rio burritos family style.  I loved doing joint dinners with everyone.  The food is always fabulous and it’s so much easier to plan and prepare for.  We did have a strict burn ban, but thankfully one of the cabins had a stove/oven and we had electricity for crockpots so we were able to cook whatever we needed.

Peach cobbler for dessert – yum, yum!

Katie spent a lot of time playing with Jason and the big boys.  They were so great about including her.  They played lots and lots of card games during the weekend!

The “big girls” also played lots of card games, especially later at night in the cabins.

I was able to get a little baby fix over the weekend with the newest Andros – no pictures though :(  Baby Jocie was four months old and perfect for snuggling.

We stayed in cabin #2 on the left.  The Hatch family was in cabin #3 on the right

I loved the Christmas lights on the cabins 

   

Our cabin was nice and toasty thanks to the included gas heater and it was dark enough in the morning that our family slept in until after 9am.  We had the entire day to enjoy!

We had access to the canoes

Though the water was so low that it was easy to get yourself stuck on a sandbar 

  

Tradition is that the kids set up all sort of traps to catch squirrels and other creatures.  I love their creativity.

I’d say they were pretty successful

Transporting a captured squirrel for release 

   

Sneaky setup to lure in the birds 

   

The hammocks the Andros’ brought were lots of fun!

Olivia and Drew were such cute little pals.

Another yummy shared dinner – BBQ and plenty of fixins

The kids wanted to have a talent show Saturday night and they worked on their routines throughout the day and even asked the caretakers if we could use the speakers and lights at the amphitheatre. 

so glad to reunite these two boys 

The kid’s talents were entertaining.  Carly’s age group did several skits, but no shocker that Carly opted to control the music instead of participating.  Drew and Olivia kept her company.

   

Abigail’s group performed a dance routine to “Fight Song”

The adults had a skit planned as well that resulted in some very uncomfortable teenage boys.  Synchronized song to “Kiss the Girl” with lyrics adapted for our current camping environment and a much more successful outcome than poor Ariel’s rendition.

Such a fun group!

We seriously couldn’t have picked a better combination of families. I think everyone had someone to play with – the kids were so inclusive and kind.  I love these families so much and am so grateful for this extended amount of time we were able to spend with them.  I felt like my kids bonded with these old friends like no time had passed.  Hopefully we can do again next year!