Barriere 2014

*There's another post from this morning below this one!*

Jon and I went camping with his family in August for the first time in four years (and so our first time with kids!).  They only go every two years, and two years ago we decided not to go because Jon was teaching summer school.  Thank goodness, because I started miscarrying our baby that week.  It would have been awful to have been camping then, when all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and die.

Other than a one-night camping trip to Allouette, this was the first time we used our (new-to-us) tent trailer.  It was great.  We didn't even forget to pack anything!

We took advantage of having the entire family together so we took a bunch of family pictures: 

Jon and his four (older sisters).  I'm not going to lie...it's definitely not easy being the only sister-in-law (and also being the youngest couple) when you're really introverted/shy/quiet like myself.  I was quite nervous about spending a week with Jon's family as I've never done it before...but I think I did good!  :)  Nathan needed a nap each afternoon, so for most of them I retreated to the tent trailer with him and read/napped while Jon watched Matthew and Kayla.  It was absolutely wonderful.

Us!

Oma and Opa (Jon's parents) and all 19 of their grandkids.

The whole family!

Opa and his grandsons.

Oma and her granddaughters.

Jon and I

These six are all so close in age!  So cute how they all had different-coloured Puddle Jumpers.  

Nathan having his routine evening bath.

Jon's nieces and nephews spent a fair bit of time playing with a bucket of random McDonald Happy Meal toys that I've accumulated from free bags of toys I've received.  For the whole week after camping, Matthew kept mentioning how Josh (his oldest cousin - in the green tanktop) kept clumsily throwing toys in the air whenever Matthew blew his whistle.

Napping at the beach in the afternoon.

Me and my boy :)

Kayla was such a fish!  We could barely keep her out of the water.

He refused to be left out of having a ring pop during 'church'.  You can't hide anything from Nathan!

My favourite moments of the week?  1) Out-scheming Michelle in one of our many late-night rounds of Mafia.  So much fun!  2) Tickling Jen's calf during Mafia, making her think that the skunk we had sighted was rubbing against her leg.  I may have nearly peed myself in laughter.  

Looking forward to our camping trip in two years!