The Sometimes Annual Family Campout

I’m at the Sometimes Annual Family Campout in cool, breezy Tyler State Park. If any of you have been to Tyler State Park in June you know that I am full of it when I say cool and breezy. We are all sweating like crazy, but that's part of the fun. Along with swimming in the lake and the little kids getting as dirty as they possibly can. There was the time Phyllis’ grandkids found the delightful cold fire pit full of black ashes. Then after a rainstorm my niece and nephew discovered a hill of slimy red mud. This year it is a plastic wading pool full of sand. Poor Faith got her undies completely inundated.

When the sun goes down the young'uns become terrors with their flashlights. No one is safe from their beams. Today someone gave the toddlers a huge bottle of bubbles which kept Trace busy keeping refilling the dipping pan. Then tiny little water guns that had to be refilled after about ten shots appeared. No one was complaining about getting hit. It was that hot. No one complained either when the water balloons came out for a girls against guys fight.

This Sometimes Annual Family Campout usually includes 50 or so people. We don’t call it a reunion because most of the people here reside in the same town and see each other on an almost daily bases. But a few of us that live other places join in.

Then there are the people that aren’t really related by blood or marriage, but by love, sweat, and tears. It can get real confusing for a newcomer trying to figure out how we are all connected. Some of those “related by love, sweat, and tears” are more involved with the family than the blood ones.

One thing about this family is that we are all crazy as loons. There are some individuals that say they are crazy, but deep down they believe they are the sanes ones. Hah! Those are the craziest of the bunch. They’re also usually the ones that stay up all night playing 42. Or the ones that decide to swim across the lake and then spend the rest of the evening wishing they hadn't decided to swim across the lake.

The 42 game wrapped up early this year. Seems to be all the players are getting a little long in the tooth. Meaning, they're getting too old to pull all nighters. We did notice it is a lot quieter with them not playing the night through.

And I have to say that one of the members of this family is a big wimp. Trace brought three fans and a window unit air conditioner for his screened in cabin.