Home--Again!

Wall to wall people!

Miracles still happen. After almost a week in the mountains in a tight fitting cabin all nine families have returned unharmed and still friends! The still friends part is the most miraculous. Some are still here, but tomorrow they start departing for their homes. It has been a hectic kind of fun. My children never cease to amaze me. All families had a meal to cook and all had an activity to put on either in the afternoon or the evening. To say we ate well is a supreme understatement. And the activities were so entertaining no one wanted them to end.

The event began with a surprise. Some of the girls had ordered T-shirts for all of us that said, C+S= one crazy, happy family. And after that everything was off with a bang.


We had a Minute to Win It event that had everyone cheering as the two teams did everything from eating chocolate pudding out of a diaper, to stringing penne pasta on a piece of fettuccini held in the mouth of the contestant—no hands allowed! They knocked cups over with a ball held in the foot of a pair of panty hose with the panty part worn on the head. My favorite was watching everyone try to get the Oreos placed on their foreheads into their mouths without using any hands. I couldn’t do it, but several of them managed it.

Another activity was a scavenger hunt with the older kinds following clues to find stations where they had to perform feats outside and the young kids inside. I have to say I have some very bright grandchildren who figured out the challenges very fast.



The donut garden we grew. You can't see the worms,
but they are in there!

 When it was my turn we had a chocolate pudding eating contest. The catch was that the person eating the pudding had someone else feeding them and all were blindfolded. That night I had all the grandchildren grow donuts in cups of “dirt” made out of crushed chocolate sandwich cookies. We planted Nana’s Donut Seeds (Cheerios) and magically the next morning the plain Cheerios had grown into brown cake donuts and the frosted Cheerios had grown into white cake donuts. But somehow (gummy) worms had gotten into the “soil” during the night also.

We have a tradition of holding a raffle whenever the family gets together. I buy fun prizes from the dollar store and we have tickets and everyone wins a prize. The hit this year was the blow up pillow that when sat on makes vulgar sounds. The adults didn’t much like the squeaky toy Jenna won, but she liked it a lot.

Night time was the most fun when all the kids were sleeping where ever they could find a spot and the adults stayed up half the night telling stories about their growing up years. I now understand what the old adage, “Ignorance is bliss,” means. There were a few things I’m glad I didn’t know until now.

My favorite part was watching my family interact together. Since they all live far away, I don’t get to see that often. When I was growing up the adults did their thing and the kids did theirs. I don’t remember any interaction. But my family includes everyone. One night we, adults and children, danced in a big circle and someone got called out to go into the center to perform a solo dance move. Everyone was included and that’s how it went the whole time. The adults participated with the children and included them in everything from the B-B gun shooting to the hiking to the storytelling.

In short, at Johnson Camp a wonderful time was had by all!