Camp Wanica, Fall 2013

This was Eliette's first trip down to Camp Wanica. This time, it was just us girls going down there... Why? Well....Gage was invited to a certain someone's birthday party. He chose the birthday party. He was given the choice. He'd been invited to Camp Wanica many times. He'd never been invited to HER birthday party, though he suspected she'd had birthday parties in the past...

Here we are at Mema's house, going to spend the night before heading over to Camp Wanica.
Oh, Sweet Mema. She loves the little ones...

The next day we had to get up and get ready to head over to Camp Wanica. Sweet girl, all decked out in her pink...

Terrible pic of me, but it was one that we sent to the guys letting them know we missed them. Daddy stayed back with Gage to give him a ride to the party... Good Daddy.

Other pics from the day....

Oh my goodness, these next pictures of my nephew meeting and holding Eliette...oh, they crack me up! 

Yes, he literally said, "Um, can you take this baby?"
Hahahaha!!!!! {Hey kid, she poops, she pees, she cries....remember this in your teen years, mmmkay?}

We were all very excited to celebrate Mema's birthday this year while we were at Camp Wanica. 91! Wowzers!!!!

It was a very fun day. Camp Wanica is ALWAYS fun.
This year, each girl was assigned a color. By "girl," I mean, Mema's girls. AKA: The Sisters. My mom is #7 out of 7 sisters. How cool is that??? 4 sisters are still living. We've lost my Aunt Nell, Aunt Jean, and this past April, we lost my Aunt Wanda. Here is Mema & "The Girls" as they are now...

Anyway....each girl was assigned a color to wear, and her family (kids & grandkids) were to wear that color also. Maybe a little dorky, but a lot of fun! (Aunt Billie/maroon, Aunt Pat/lime green, Aunt Loraine/blue, Mamasita/pink, and then Mema. She chose a pink top to offset her very colorful corsage.)(PawPaw's shirt reads, "Bitty's PawPaw."

"Oh! Is it time to leave already?"

Back at Mema's house...

I have very few pictures from the Sunday that followed Camp Wanica.... I know that we slept late...went to Sonic, where Eliette had a blow out diaper and we didn't have very many wipes, and I was given expired drink coupons.... Mema, with her dementia, was saying some rather humorous things, and she was tucking away half eaten food in the backseat of my car. It was eventful, I can assure you. Then, we went to a nearby Russel Stover candy store....they had a lot of things, but not the peanut patties that Mema was wanting. We stopped by the grocery store for those. You know that you are in Small-Town-Texas when you see a sign like this:

 After all of that running about, I think we were all tuckered out!

Little Miss had a nap and I'm sure that shortly after that we hit the road and headed home.... Good times....

Camp Wanica !!!!

So, I've posted about Camp Wanica in the past....and I'm going to post about it again, because this past weekend, we went back.

Camp Wanica: this campground near (or in) Corsicana, where my mom's whole family gets together about twice a year.
There is a pool, a playground, cabins, and a main lodge where we all gather. It's So.Much.Fun for Everyone!

My mom's side of the family:
My grandmother (Mema) is the oldest girl in her crew of siblings.
She & my grandfather had SEVEN GIRLS.
My mom is #7 of the 7 girls.
Each of the girls had at least 2 kids, and I am the youngest grandchild.
So, my grandmother has great-great-grandchildren that she gets to see when we all gather. It's pretty amazing to see this huge family tree....

And the kids have so much fun!

So, Saturday, on our way out of town, Gage & I stopped at Cavender's for the tax-free-shopping weekend. Gage was ready to get his new boots for the school year.

{he also required a new belt with longhorns on it & called it his "GrandDaddy Longhorn" belt, a pair of spurs and triiiiiied to talk me into getting him a new cowboy hat. $100 later, we left.}

And then it was down the road to Camp Wanica!
Of course, Gage was asleep when we arrived...

Which, made my normally shy child extra-shy, grumpy, and not in favor of being around 100 family members all at once. Good times.
He was actually dubbed my "shadow" and my "tail." Why? Because my rear end apparently makes for a great hiding spot, and he spent a great deal of time RIGHT behind my behind!

But...he relaxed a bit, let down his guard a LOT by the end of the weekend...so that was good.

Pics from our family fun:

Swimming on Saturday


Fun on the playground {Yes, boots with shorts....as parents, we pick our battles, don't we? This was one I didn't have the heart to fight. So, he's wearing brown boots with a black shorts outfit. Whatever. I'd already battled him to NOT WEAR JEANS because it was so hot. I let him wear the boots...}




Nora & Gage {Nora is my cousin's oldest little girl...she & Gage are exactly 3 weeks apart; she's older}


Gage & Mommy... {man, I'm lookin' good. As mom would say, "How's my hair?"}


Playing "corn-hole." {Isn't that just the most AWFUL name for a game!?} My cousin, Carrie, re-named it "corn-toss." You toss the bean-bags, aiming for the hole. You get points for ones that go in the hole or land on the platform.


Me with my cousin, Robin...

{when I was little, I wanted to be just.like.robin. She was everything! She was beautiful, and blonde, and older than me, so she had make-up, and watched MTV, and I just thought that she was the coolest-bestest-thing ever. She was. And she's still so beautiful & fun!}

And here is the very best picture from Day One at Camp Wanica:

Trystan, Gage & Lane.

At the end of the day, we headed over to the hotel to spend the night....
This child of mine is just nuts for hotel-living!


And about 5 minutes later:


Oh, it was GREAT fun.
And I've only uploaded a fraction of the pictures we took.
It was just so much fun!
It was HOT, but it was fun!

Day Two.......
Darnin & Gage


Darnin & PawPaw


Gage's very own pool style {again, let me remind you: we pick our battles}:


Playing SpongeBob Memory...



Me, Mema, Mamasita, & Aunt Tipper (what Gage calls my sister)


My pretty Mema....she's going to be 88 in October...


Back to the pool! More swimming on Day 2...

Gage & Rush (Rush is my cousin, Jan's grandson!)


Uncle James was throwing Trystan & Gage in the water. They LOVED it! And, I got to snap a few in-the-air pics.



Oh, these kids had so much fun in the sun!



My cousin, Nicole, helped us get Gage's spurs on...
Yes, the city-girl that I am had no idea how to do spurs. She quickly schooled us both on proper spurring.


{She also gave me true Texas Mama Advice: don't pick up a fit-throwin'-child with spurs on. And then I thought---Only in Texas!!!}

It was hot. Gage was finally satisfied & wearing his jeans. Bless his little sweaty head!


And then it was time to wind down, pack it in, and head on home....

Lane & Ty winding down with cards...


While the Aunts packed up the kitchen, the Uncles handled the clean up. {I've never stayed so long that I actually saw the clean up!}


And then----then----Allen got to drive! Yes, that's right. He got to drive Aunt Tipper's car down the gravel road down to the main road. I can't believe he's growing up so fast!

We all said our goodbyes, and Gage & I hit the chocolate factory on our way out of town. How FUN!!!!




After that, our trip ended much the way it started---with this little guy WORN OUT & asleep in the back of the car....


It really was a great trip.