It was the week of Camp Skinner!!  Our reunion was hosted by our much-loved Grandpa Skinner . . . and his very funny cane. 

It is a very uncanny experience to be around such a large group of people with the same last name.  Kevin had four brothers there with their families and even his sister goes by Skinner, so . . . I couldn’t holler “Skinners!!” if I wanted my children’s attention and our camp chairs that said “Skinner” on them – well, that wasn’t really all that useful, now was it?

Instead of going to Bear Lake like we have the last couple of years, we met at Grandpa’s house in the woods.  It is a beautiful spot and has plenty of room for tents and trailers.  It even has bathrooms, showers, and a kitchen.  That is camping at it’s greatest – especially considering we put all our air mattresses inside the house and left our tent at home!

On Thursday, we got to go to the lake with Grandpa.  I left my camera in the car so I didn’t get pictures of all the kids on the boat, the twins being pulled in the raft, Savannah and I and Bethany being pulled in the raft and Beth loving the water in her face, Sarah trying to water ski, Savannah and Megan and Mariah trying to water ski, Dad waterskiing, Benjamin in his lifejacket that doubled his girth, and all the kids screaming on the raft as they took their turns being pulled by Grandpa.  Of course, you wouldn’t be able to hear the screaming in the pictures, anyway.  I did take a picture of the lake when I got back to the car.  It was a beautiful day!

On Friday, more of the families were there and Kevin and Savannah went back to the lake with lots of cousins and uncles and aunts.  They had fun on the lake that day, too.  Back at the ranch, our other kids decided to take a turn on the four-wheelers while Benjamin napped.

  They have decided that country living is the best!! They had great fun!

After Benjamin woke up, we drove to a nearby lake just for swimming.  It even had sand and a dock with a slide.  Fun times!

Saturday morning Kevin went back to the lake with his brothers while the rest of us packed up.  Grandpa had one more surprise for us, though . . . a hayride!

Doesn’t that look fun?  What a cool Grandpa.

Every morning we had a hot breakfast and each night someone different cooked and we enjoyed some good meals!  After dinners we got to visit.  The kids got to jump on the double trampolines and the rest of us could all sit around the fire pit Grandpa had sunk into the ground and talk some more.

We happened to be there on the anniversary of Kevin’s and my wedding seventeen event-filled years ago.  It was fun to be in Idaho since that was where the happy event actually took place.  Grandpa even surprised us by buying us a cake!

Now that’s worth seventeen years, isn’t it?

They’ve been great years and I hope we see at least three more sets of seventeen as we go along!

In the meantime, we had a great time in beautiful Idaho and loved seeing our family and all their beautiful families.  Long live Camp Skinner!