The First Annual Fox Family Camp pt. 1

Now that we have married children and grandchildren, Abe and I talked about what kind of family reunion traditions we wanted to begin.  For us, a successful, sustainable tradition would require a few conditions be met.  Such as:  

1.  The reunion cannot be too expensive.  For the next many years, we will have young families who are just starting out in life.  They likely will not have much money for a while.  And truthfully, Abe and I cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars every summer. And as the family grows, the costs of a reunion will grow.  So it was very important that we come up with a format that won't be a financial strain for anyone.  The costs of travel make distant locations impractical.

2.  For the foreseeable future, we will likely have lots of pregnant moms, nursing babies, and toddlers.  Traveling with little ones is hard.  Babies and toddlers need naps and a lot of equipment (strollers, highchairs, swings, etc.)  It's hard to away from the comforts of home (like your bed and proper pillows) when you're pregnant.  We wanted our reunion to feel like a vacation and not just more work. 

3.  We don't want to have to rethink all the logistics of a reunion every summer.  We wanted a proven recipe/format/formula that we can tweak and update, but is more or less that consistent from year to year. 

So here's what we came up with

Inspired by the YW girls camp I (and my counselors) were planning this summer, we decided to follow the general formula of a girls camp.  It checked all the boxes, so we started "FAMILY CAMP".  We pitched tents in the backyard, we had t-shirts, we had craft time, we had sharing around the campfire, we went adventuring and shared meals together.  It was all the fun of camping AND all the comforts of home.  

We were missing Daniel and Brianna in this photo:(

Grandma time

Uncle time

His eyes look blue in the pic, but I think it's the reflection of the sky.  This one is a brown-eyed boy.

Swimming Daniel

Elinor in a happy place with Daniel and Charlie, plus she's wearing her signature "Adam Sandler meets Grandma Lou"

Abe wrote new lyrics to, and sang, two songs in honor of his two grandsons.  "Daniel, my Grandson" instead of "Daniel, my Brother" by Elton John -- here.  And Paul McCartney's "C Moon" changed to "C Ben (Charles Benjamin)" --- here

Hunter and Daniel dancing to Grandpa's singing.

Portrait painting was too much fun

Highly recommend as a family activity

Such concentration

This is serious business

I believe there was equal effort extended.  But, not such an equal amount of talent on display:)

The reveals 

No comment on this.

Here's where the talent came into play:)

I'm not sure what was happening here.  But it was quite funny

Close ups

I had no idea Elinor was such a painter

I am speechless

Super Clark

Abe's delicious breakfast sandwiches

Morning time around the campfire

The Family Camp logo