Rufenacht Annual Camping Weekend

First off, we survived. Whew! There were some points where I second guessed our choice in going but we survived.

Lemme back up and start at the beginning. Back in 1999 (2000?) we started teh Rufenacht family reunion.  Being as there are just a few "Rufenachts" and we all lived within a few miles of each other, the term reunion was kind of a predictive term for what we hoped it would become.  And it has.  You see, on the Rufenacht side, it's my dad, Uncle Dean and Uncle Frank.  Grandma used to come visit but it's been years since she last made it out to the reunion.

We used to all meet up at the family homestead farm in Wheatland and do real camping...think middle of nowhere.  The old house was there but actually pretty creepy with it not having anyone living in it for several several years and had been broken into a time or two.  Trust me, it was creepy. As much as dad and the uncles would go down to mow and debug and clean  up, it was still creepy.  Usually we'd camp out on Fri and Sat night...roughing it with just the camp fire and a water hydrant that came straight from a stream fed well (think ice cold). Saturday we'd take the boats, jet skis and kids (actually I'm not sure there were kids for a while...) to Pomme de Terre lake and spend the day there...hanging out at the beach and riding the boats.  We'd often head in town and go to the races as well on Saturday nights.  So hot. So dusty and dirty. After a few years, we moved the site closer to the Mt Zion area, at a nearby campsite.  One year we were even under tornado warning while we were out camping. Talk about scary.  Another year we were back in the fields between Uncle Dean's and dad's farm.

Eventually we moved the camping site onto the back field at mom and dad's farm. Dad had built an 11 acre lake with several fishing docks and a beach.
 It has proven to be a great move!  The kids love the beach and the fishing. It's close enough to the house that we can run to the house if necessary (think: Abbie naps) and mom can hang out there when it's too hot or her allergies are acting up. There were a few years though where we used the house as the campsite because it was raining too much too.

This year was probably the best yet. We got to the farm on Friday afternoon and set up our tent.  Dad had really made it beautiful down there. Heather and I decorated with some festive 4th of July flags and banner while the guys did guy things, as usual. Eventually more people showed up: Uncle Frank came in his RV, Uncle Dean stopped by, mom and dad rode down to visit and the Naylors set up camp.  That first night was pretty mellow.

Saturday brought the people: Cheri and her crew, Mindy and her pack, Heather's friends the Hankins, and Uncle Dean set up his camper.  Even with our campsite population almost tripled from Fri night we still had lots of room.

We spent the morning slowly waking up and then mom made breakfast, scrambled eggs.  The whole day had everyone just kinda hanging around, swimming, fishing, eating, and then doing more of it all.  Saturday night we had a fireworks show. Hayden actually sat and watched the whole time - Abbie slept in the tent and wasn't bothered at all.  Wait - have I mentioned that this was Hay's first time camping, successfully?  No? Let me back up a bit.

This was Hayden's first successful camping trip.  Oh we'd taken her to the reunion camping trip twice before but this was her first REAL camping trip.  The first year, she was almost one and refused to sleep in the tent...she and I ended up at the house for naps and bedtimes.  The second year I remember her being terrified of fireworks so we watched from inside the car and then she went went Grandma to sleep up at the farm.  Last year we didn't go but she and Ethan had set up camp in the backyard one day.  All was fine and dandy until it was bedtime and she realized that I wasn't going to sleep out there with them (someone had to stay inside with newborn Abbie, I got the lucky straw).  So the tent sat outside for probably a week (yes it even rained) and no one slept in it.

Fast forward to this year.  Abbie napped in the tent and slept like a champ!  We did nap at the house once, that was just because it was too hot though.  And Hayden? Wow, she just had a blast at the lake and loved sleeping in the tent.  She stayed up late and slept hard, woke the next morning all excited to do it again. She caught 2 fish.  The second one she did it all by herself! She was super proud, as she should be. The first night I made a little pallet next to our mattress (we need to buy another mattress...2 is plenty on the queen blow-up) but the 2nd night she made her way onto our mattress and  was quite snuggly.

Overall it was a great weekend, the best camping yet. After this trip we decided that we ought to take Hayden on a camping trip, just the 3 of us.  Thinking she would love it. Love that we can make these memories with our little family and hopefully continue the tradition, down at Grands' Lake.