The Canal Campout

We don't take vacations.  We do not leave home.  Pretty much.... ever.

When Matt suggested we go on a vacation, I felt like I had won the lottery!

And THEN, a few months later, Matt's family suggested we all take a boat/camping trip together.

I couldn't believe my ears.  I didn't actually believe Matt would agree to it.  After all, we had already had an amazing vacation.  But he didn't even flinch.  (It happens they are some of his favorite people.)

So... the Newman Canal Campout was organized and planned.  We got to experience the locks on the canal.  Nathan and Gary both have pontoon boats.  Each of the daughters-in-law took care of one dinner.  Grandma and Grandpa took care of each breakfast.  And the rest of the time we snacked.  (And snacked.  And snacked.)

It is ridiculous how much we Newmans like to eat.

This would have been a relatively inexpensive vacation had it not been for the speeding ticket Matt got when we first arrived.  

While driving our van... following traffic... in the slow lane... sandwiched between the two pontoon-hauling trucks who did not get tickets?!?

You can tell which was the FUN boat... every kid wanted to be with Funcle Nathan and Aunt Leia.

From the looks of it, Moses knows full well he was stuck on the "boring boat".
But WE had the good snacks!

 While everyone else was helping everyone else set up camp... Andrew was helping ME.  He is always looking to meet a need, and he honored and loved me well that day by looking to my needs first before helping everyone else.  He does that often and I am pretty sure he has no idea how much that means to me.    Man, do I love this guy.

Leaky glowsticks can be even more fun that regular ones

I packed a few supplies for minute-to-win-it games...

Exhaustion sets in

Grandma and Grandpa treat us all to icecream sandwiches- and the Byrne Dairy didn't know what was coming!

There was a local military museum/barracks that we were able to check out too.

And somebody discovered a special photo feature on Papa's phone...

The weather was gorgeous for this family trip too- hot and sunny- right up until the morning we had to leave.  We packed up our things early because the forecast looked like there was rain coming and we got our things in the van just in the nick of time.  By the time we were getting the boats back onto trailers, there was torrential downpours and we all were wetter than otters when we drove home again.  

 We squeaked every ounce of sun out of that weekend.