Is "First Annual" an oxymoron?

First Annual 

Craig & Janet Wampler 

Family Reunion!

A trend has been noted--at any large family gathering, Chris and his siblings tend to visit some with others in attendance, then they basically just hang out with each other. The question, then, was why not have a reunion with just those people?

Done and done.

We all ventured varying distances to the great Lake Cleveland (great as in fun, cool, awesome...not great as in "large").

First off, our annual "traveling in the car" pictures.

We set up camp. Ben wasn't particularly helpful, but Brenda's boyfriend Ryan was.

Then we proceeded to entertain ourselves however we wanted for the next two days.

Everyone sitting in the chair has the middle name of Leigh (or Lee).

There was fishing to be done, though the catch was rather inconsistent. Evening seemed to be the magical time of day. Chris caught three, I don't remember how many any one else caught.

Note that his fish is still alive. Gross.

The highlight of this particular trip for Chris and I was a hike we were able to take together. Thank you, Janet and Amanda, for watching our kids!

I thought we were going to walk around the lake.

Our path was...a little more steep, let's say.

Chris decided to climb a mountain instead. I've roughly marked the direction we went.

Ha. The trick to climbing up a mountain is climbing back down, right? We opted instead to take the long way around and follow the road.

Past this picture, we went another mile or two before we actually made it back to camp. We did cut through some of the foliage to shorten the distance just a bit. We also happened to meet up with Brenda and Ryan near the top of the mountain and they walked back down with us. Having company was fun.

Other adventures included making smores with mini marshmallows--everyone had forgotten to bring big ones, though we did have graham crackers and chocolate. Luckily David had a stash of minis for fishing. We made it work. Oddly enough, it tasted the same...but I don't have any pictures. Those are all on Michael and Amanda's camera. Several games were also played.

With the assistance of rocks, I might add. Idaho wind is killer.

When prevented from participating in the card games, Megan opted for a one-man (or one-girl) dice game instead.

"Look Mom, I built a tower!"

"Take a picture!"

"Take another picture!"

"Ummm, I guess you can take another picture, but I think I might be done with dice..."

Funny moment. We wanted to take the tent down to pack up and go home, but Ben was asleep. Rather than wake him up, we found another way.

On our way out, we stopped by the lake for one last our-family-only game of Throw Rocks in the Lake.

Good times, good times.

And to conclude today's viewing pleasure, all the other random pictures that I haven't said anything about but would still like to include because they're cute.

Stay tuned for Part II: The Wamplers' Introduction to "Write That Down"