Campfire endings...

Today was an early start for me... I woke up at the crack of 9am! Did some reading in the morning and afternoon before the rest of the family started to arrive. It was a relatively lazy day and that's alright by me.

Got to spend some good time with various family members as they started rolling into camp. It's always exciting to see the campground start to fill up for the weekend. Never a dull moment camping over the 4th of July weekend...quiet, relaxing mixed with loud and boisterous, yes, but never dull...

We finished off the night sitting around the campfire, staying up later than we should... but, hey, we're camping, right? Tonight's snack was hotdogs... nothing quite like a hotdog, polish sausage, or kielbasa slowly cooked over an open pit fire. That's how you should end a day when you're out camping....

Our family gatherings over the 4th of July and Christmas have always been joyful and wonderful times. However, this weekend is bitter sweet. Like I mentioned yesterday, not everyone can make it every year and this year is now different in that respect. But this is the first time that we have gathered here at the campground where one of our family members will never be able to join us again... and it's just not the same...

My mom shared this passage with us before dinner tonight:

Romans 5: ¹ Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

We have an expression the we often repeat with each other that went "Great Joy," accompanied by raising you hands in the air and shaking them like you just don't care. This year we might not feel the "Great Joy" that we have had in the past but we still have "Great Hope" given to us my our Savior. And for that, I am thankful...

Times have changed...

My family on my mom's side, the Ware Family, has been getting together for the 4th of July weekend of over 30 years (I think we're over 30 now anyway). This year is not different... We usually get together and go camping for the weekend but every once in a while we do something different. This is not one of those years... so we're camping at our usual haunt of Somerset Beach Campground in beautiful Southern Michigan. Of the 30 years, this have been our primary location.

4th of July, 2007

When I was a much smaller than I am now, our little "family" camp only took up four campsites. One for Grandpa and Grandma, one for the Ware family, one for the Winter family, and one for the Cole family (the Lacy's were on the mission field when back then). We now have at least eight sites, maybe more! It's hard to tell since we set up a big canopy where we gather all day long and we only separate at night when we finally pull ourselves away from the campfire and head off for a few hours of sleep. Not everyone makes it every year now, but there's always room when you can, and we sometimes even have "adopted" family members join us!

4th of July, 2010

As kids, my cousins and I tore around the campground on our bikes doing the craziest things that I know look back on and wonder how none of us ended up in hospital... We use to spend hours down at the beach, fishing on the lake, and just being kids while our parents did whatever parents did back then. Now we're more apt to sit around the table to talk, put a puzzle together, play Euchre or Rook, or sit down for a good game of Scrabble. One of the new activities is chasing around then next generation making sure they don't run out into the road or crawl into the fire pit. In a few more years hopefully they'll be the ones tearing around on bikes...

4th of July, 2010

Then there's internet... yes, the internet. It started with cell phones, and now, just a few years later (our family has only used cell for a little over 10 years) we have iPhones (or a Droid, Black Berry, etc), iPads, and laptops... all connected to internet via Wifi provided by the campground. 20 years ago, the teenage me, never would have imaged that I'd be laying on my bed in my tent writing this on my laptop something that will shortly be wirelessly posted to the internet for anyone in the world to read! Of course, 20 years ago, how many people even knew what the internet was... Times have changed indeed...

4th of July, 2009

Although we have all these gadgets and gizmos that connect us to world, there's something more important going on here at Somerset Beach Campground. Some of us may sleep in tents, some in trailers, but the big thing is that we're here, together, spending quality time together making memories as a family.