So last Friday, our family went camping in Chester! Chester is up in the mountains about an hour and a half away from our house, maybe longer, depending on who's driving.
So my mom, Sophie, and I went to Chester in the white car together, and my dad and Ezra went
in the van. The white car has AC, but the van doesn't. So they just put the windows down to feel cool air even though it's super hot. At least in Chester, it only gets to the 90s.
When we got to Chester, we stopped at a beautiful green park and had lunch with Nicholas, Caleb, Risa, Simeon, Ezra, Dad, Mom, Sophie, and me. We didn't go straight to the campground because it hadn't opened yet for people to come in. It opens at 2:00 PM, I think. So we had lunch, talked, and then went to the campground to set up our stuff. The rest of our family wasn't coming until way later that day.
There were about four people next to us on a different campsite. But I am so glad I didn't bring Ria with us because guess how many dogs the people had? Four yapping dogs! And by yapping dogs, I mean super small dogs, like a pug's size.
Noelle and Cameron arrived around 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon. By then, we had already swam a bit and were chilling in the hammocks we had set up. Then my mom made us some Italian sodas! She had bought everything for them and brought them with her. The Italian sodas tasted good! Then we had some dinner. I have forgotten what we had for dinner; sorry.
We had almost the whole family with us except Gideon and Jonathan. Gideon was supposed to come that day all the way from the State of Alabama, but his flight was canceled. They said it would arrive early the next morning. And Jonathan, my oldest brother, said he would probably be here at 11:30 PM because I think he was busy with work.
Julia (Jonathan's girlfriend ) also came at around 6:00 PM and had dinner with us. We all played Bang! together. Bang! is a really fun card game. I won't explain everything because that would be super hard. But you can go look up the rules on Google. If I tried to explain it, nobody would understand me. 😂
We played about two games of that. For somebody to win, each game would take about an hour or more. So we stopped playing at about 10:30 PM. The campground has a quiet time that starts at 10:00 PM. That means everybody in the campground has to be quiet because other people are probably sleeping.
I took a video and pics of us playing Bang! at night.
Here they are:
Nick is looking super sus!
We all have cowboy hats, too!😁
The next morning, we heard that Gideon's flight had been canceled again, so he would probably get there tomorrow or late at night. The next day, we were going to go back home, so we really hoped we would be able to see Gideon!
Jonathan came late at night and slept in a hammock. So now we had everybody there except my brother Gideon.
That morning, my sister Noelle made a delicious breakfast! It was cooked potatoes, eggs, tomatoes, zucchini, onions, and chopped bacon! It tasted super good! After that, we got out some kayaks and kayaked a bit. Then Noelle had a huge raft, so we put it in the water and went on it. But first, we had some lunch.
The lunch was what Nick had made. I forgot what it was called, but it tasted super good! It had chicken and cheese inside a corn tortilla. Then, after that, we went on the raft. We were on it for about three hours! And by then, it was almost 4:00 in the afternoon.
I walked to the bathroom, and on my way back, a van was behind me, so I moved out of the way. When it passed me, I looked at the guy driving, and it was Gideon!! He was just smiling at me. I walked with him back to the campsite.
So now we had everybody with us. This also included our friend James too who came to visit for the day all the way from our neighborhood! We all hung out on the hammocks and chairs, and Gideon told us about his flights and other interesting stories. By then, it was dinner time. And we also played even more Bang!
Then, after dinner, we sat back in our chairs and talked. Then Caleb and Risa (my sister-in-law) said they had to go home, so right before they left, we all took a family picture and had the water in the background.
Then Nicholas, Cameron (my brother-in-law), and I started playing some music Nick had picked. And James was our music stand.🤣
After that, we all sat by the fire, roasted marshmallows, and talked some more. Then we were all tired, so we went to bed. The next day, we started cleaning up our campsite because we were going back home that day. After everything was packed up, we went to church in Chester. It was Sunday.
After church we went to a coffee shop nearby and had some coffee and ate a bit of lunch, which was leftovers from the past few days. Then we said goodbye to Gideon and Simeon and drove back home.
I couldn't wait to see our dog Ria again! She was super happy to see us when we were finally made it home.
Here are some pics and vids:
