Thursday-Saturday it was our Coleman family reunion. We had plans on Thursday, so we couldn’t go up until Friday, but Friday is when most of the activities are, and when most of the family shows up. For the past few years, we have gone up on Thursday and come home on Friday because of our summer theater activities, but this year there was no conflict with a play, so we planned on Friday and Saturday fun at Payson Lakes. Ryan couldn’t go up with us until later on Friday because he had a business trip to prepare for, but since we couldn’t fit all 8 of us AND all our stuff and sleeping bags and tents, etc, in the back of the suburban, he was just going to bring some of that stuff in the truck later in the afternoon.

Once we got up there and ate our picnic lunch, we went to the lake, where my brother’s family and my parents and my cousin’s family were already having fun playing.

John went out in the canoe first, with his cousins Bryce and Danny.

Cole and Megan took out the smaller, inflatable canoe.

Natalie and Jenna went out in the canoe with their cousin Kaylee.

Bryce serenaded us with the ukelele.

We even convinced Marie to go out in the canoe. It really was the perfect weather.

Until Cole, Marie, and Megan went out in the canoe, that is.

I don’t know if you can see the raindrop ripples in the water in that picture, but that was about the time it started to rain.
Within minutes, the rain was REALLY coming down, and the whole family was huddled under my parents’ canopy that they had put up to shield us from the sun.

Amy’s son Jacob was the last one out in the lake. I guess since he was already wet, he didn’t really care about the rain. But we called him in, just to be safe.

The wind picked up and even under the canopy we were getting wet, so we had to put that down, haul our stuff back to the cars, and run for cover. Everything in the camp was wet, including our tent, which I had taken out of the car, but not set up yet. We all changed our clothes, or at least put on jackets, so that we wouldn’t be cold. The rain stopped and we started our craft time.

I had brought up all these cans, along with hammers and nails for the kids to make their own lanterns.

John was exploring, wearing his orange jacket perfect for outdoor activities. I love that I can find him easily when he’s wearing that jacket.

Pretty soon Ryan got there, and he could soon be found holding the babies.

Marie had really wanted to go fishing, and pretty soon, off she went with my Uncle Keith to fish in the lake. As we set up for dinner, it began to rain again.

We ate in the rain, happy to be there with our cousins and relatives. Soon Marie came back, and she had caught a fish!

I offered to bring it home and cook it, but she shook her head at that. I guess she doesn’t like trout, which is a good thing, because I didn’t want to have to bring it home and cook it, to tell the truth. My sister said she would take it. They had caught three or four and they do actually like to cook and eat those things.

The rain did NOT stop, but the kids still played in the fire.

As the rain continued to fall, we decided that we would NOT tough it out. The tent was wet, and not yet set up. The sleeping bags were probably wet. We packed everything back up and came home. While I was sad to have missed the ‘camping’ part of the camping experience (not really), we made the right decision. Ryan wasn’t going to stay over anyway (something to do with breathing and his c-pap machine), and my mom told me it rained again that night and again in the morning, so it would have been miserable.

We had all the fun of the camping, and got all our clothes and gear wet and muddy, without the restless night of sleeping in a tent!