Hodgson Reunion

On Friday morning we packed up the car and headed to the Mapleleaf Girls' Camp in Mantua (near Brigham City) for the Hodgson Family Reunion. It was a long drive, but we had plenty of goldfish crackers to keep them happy. When we got close to Brigham City we realized that we didn't have the map to the camp, but Bryan figured that he knew where we were going...but we didn't know where we were going and got lost. But about 20 minutes later we found Mike and Lisa who were also lost so we didn't feel too bad. Luckily, Bryan's parents showed up and were able to help us find the place.

We looked around the camp, which is really nice. There are campsites with a pavilion/firepit/kitchen/bathroom/shower place where everyone else had set up their camps. There was also a huge house that has a large kitchen, bathrooms/showers, a large room on the first floor with tables set up and then a huge room that is the entire top story of the house. We all decided that we would sleep in that top room of the house since no one else was going to use it and it seemed a shame to waste it.

By the time we got all set up, everyone else was back from their days activities and we had dinner and then activities around the fire pit at the house. It was fun to hear stories and talk to everyone else. Then we put Ethan and Courtney to bed...oh, and we went to bed too...while others stayed up and listened to ghost stories and played games.

The next morning we had breakfast and then the missionary in charge of the camp asked us to supply 6 boys for the flag ceremony. Ethan helped out and got one cub scout requirement out the way. He was a bit nervous but did a great job and said he loved it afterward.




Then our family...along with Bryan's Aunt Kerri...went out to Pelican Beach at Willard Bay to play around. It was great water temperature and we had so much fun. The kids swam in the water or played on tubes. We had water fights and Bryan even got in an open water swim for training. We were there about 4 hours before we were all ready to go back to camp...after a little detour at an ice cream shop in Brigham City.




When we arrived back at the house, everyone else was back from their activities and had set up a homemade slide with plastic and tarps. They were pouring dish soap on the slide and watering it down so everyone would slide really well. We had to join in the fun and it was great!! You had to get a really good running start and then you would go for a long time. It got to the point where you ended up off the end of the plastic in a mud puddle. Courtney would scream the entire way down even though she had to propel herself most of the time because she didn't get a very good running start. Ethan did great and loved sliding all the way to the bottom. Bryan only went down once but he didn't hit the wood on the side like everyone else did...he did a great barrel roll to avoid it. And I went down a bunch of times and have the bruises to prove it.






When the fun was over, we had dinner, cleaned everything up and drove to Aunt Kerri's for the night. After Church on Sunday (Ethan was nervous to go to Primary but loved it and Courtney was anxious to go and ended up not liking it) we ate lunch and then drove home. It was a long drive because everyone was tired and grumpy but we got home in about 5 1/2 hours.

It was great fun and we loved seeing everyone.