Annual Labor Day Camping Trip

We rejoined our old KC neighbors for our Annual Labor Day camping trip!  We have been looking forward to it since the last one...seriously!  There is NOTHING I enjoy more than a weekend spent unplugged from electronics and plugged into relationships with my friends!  The boys were in HEAVEN playing with their friends on the farm!

Jill's sister lives in Grand Junction, Iowa (EXACTLY mid-way point between KC and Minneapolis!), so it couldn't be a better meeting spot!  Plenty of room to set up and camp, two separate out buildings for meals, bathrooms, etc.  

 No Youngwirth family is event is complete without a craft!

Even a chicken coup and Tom the turkey :)

Grace and Maverick were two peas in a pod during the trip.  They certainly have a special bond, it is adorable to watch them play!  Just today, I was showing Maverick the line up of the kiddos and he named each one by name until he got to Grace and then he said "my best girl friend, Grace". 

Prior to the trip, Grace announced to her family "the next time I see Maverick, I'm going to KISS him."  And, well, she held true to her word! Ha :)

Mitchell was super excited to be reconnected with his best buddy, Luke.  There were lots of silly exchanges over the weekend :)

It was a HOT Labor Day (upper 90's)...not so perfect for the pregnant me, but great for water fun for the kids!

We worked long and hard to talk the Weber family into coming on the trip...and we succeeded!  Jill just had to set up a little campsite joke to greet them for their arrival :)

Jill's family has the funniest sense of humor!  They decided they needed to buy a wheel chair at a garage sale for extra camping seating.  I'll say it was pretty popular :)

Jill's family (she's one of six) has been doing this annual camping trip for 10 years!  They each have families of their own and we were happy that they let our neighbor group "crash" their family camping trip! :)

The below picture is of Jill's sister in law (Liz), her son (Theo - 15 months) and the baby they are currently fostering (Keylan - 3 months).  They also have three older children.....house full!

Keylan was born to a single, homeless mom with a drug addiction.  Liz and her husband (Jill's brother, Tom) have been his foster parents since he was released from the NICU at 2 weeks of age.  We have no idea what his life holds ahead of him, but we all enjoyed cuddling and spoiling this beautiful little thing.  

The theme for the weekend was "Hats Off" in honor of Jill's dad who passed away last Labor Day.  He had an extensive collection of funny, unique hats that he loved to wear.  The hat worn by Luke below is the last hat I saw her Dad wear.

Jill's brother (Joe) and sister (Dawn) got pretty creative with their hats!

Bev is paying tribute with her fedora :)

 Even the youngest athletes get to participate in the annual softball game :)

 The kids literally played from sun up to sun down....they were dirty, exhausted and fulfilled :)  In the picture below, they were entertained by a game of musical chairs....looks fun, but unfortunately it led to lots of tears from the ejected gamers!

Miss Lilli with her watermelon between meals.

Miss Sadie at Jill's beauty parlor.

Maverick decided that he didn't really need his swimming suit on to get drenched.  Pretty much anything goes on this camping trip!

Here are all of the neighbor kids lined up by age.  Is it typical that only my YOUNGEST is actually standing and smiling at the camera? :)

We MISS our neighbor friends and this camping trip was the perfect way to reconnect.  We haven't seen them since MARCH!  Rumor has it that they might be planning a New Year's Eve invasion on us in Minneapolis this year...we'll see! :)