ThE wOnDeRfUl WaCkY fAmIY of BaRkMaN's.

What a week.
What a weekend.
What a time.
What a family.

A weekend where we actually got there before Dark. (thanks to me driving, of course.)
When we never got to bed before 12:30.
When waterfights abounded with frightening intensity.
To quote Cherie:

  "The Barkmans are basically a cool family."

Yeah, that pretty much sums it all up.
 I shall now proceed to narrate the weekend with pictures.

The swing is definitely one of the highlights.

Big time.

Even when the swing becomes too short, and they build another tiny

little platform off of the original one.

That sometimes freaks people out.

The Uncles are very child friendly.

Up to the point when every ten seconds,

they give them the "sockers".

That's not even a word.

Here, Joel talks to them about

the deep mysterious things of life.

The creek is lots of fun.

And it's cold.

Here, Zoe finally simply gives up

trying not to fall into the creek, 

and so she just crawls on her hands and knees.

She's my kind of girl.

:)

ANY excuse to eat chocolate, and

WE'RE THERE!

Or Starbursts.

We love our Starbursts.

This picture took a little while to set up,

with help from Zachary.

But, I wikee.

Meet Manthony.

(that's his favorite name.)

We interrogated him.

Of Course.

And we found out these random bits of information:

#1: His favorite color is pastel pink.

(he was lying)

#2: His favorite animals are the wombat and the sloth.

(he was lying again)

#3: He has a horrible fear of mice and snakes.

(but Jana doesn't mind.:)

#4: He almost blew his head off with a shotgun.

(it was something about strange old guns.

We didn't quite understand.)

#5: Some of his worst fears are clastraphobia, and being tortured.

(hmm . . . tell us about your childhood.)

#6: He drinks approximately 17 cups of coffee a day.

(well, that's not SO bad...)

#7: His least favorite nickname is Manthony.

(we aren't exactly sure whether he's lying or not.)

But, all in all, he's a nice guy.

I think we approve.

Okay, this was hysterical.

You might think that when children knock a pinata open, 

that they eat all the candy?

Nope, not here.

The mother's were all sitting around getting high on Pop Rocks.

"This is wild!" -Rose

"You can't really tell if you like them or not" -Patty.

Our moms are the rock.

(tee hee)

NEVER cause Chams to have a reason to throw you in the freezing, disgusting creek.

I must say that he doesn't need a hair cut anymore; 

I pulled it all out. 

:)

Waterfights were awesome.

We never did get Chams back.

He hid in a vehicle.

We basically didn't care if we got wet anymore.

We were too wet.

This pretty much describes Barkman Campout in an expression.

The Uncles finally fell in defeat to the Cousins,

 (although Kenny was dangerously close to joining their team)

Cheryl was brave and went off of the platform, 

we all sat around and wrote letters to Ervina and Claudia,

(our cousins who were too busy in Cambodia to come to campout)

there were a whole lot of random questions asked that week, 

I lost two hairclips down the cracks in the showerhouse,

(for some reason, Dawn and I just thought that was hilarious)

we tried a zip-line this year . . .  it kind of failed,

(Or I kind of failed it)

I was a wimp when it came to spiders in the tent,

(I ended up sleeping in a car)

It rained and rained and rained and rained Sunday morning,

(I love how it takes a rainstorm to get the Barkmans up relatively early out of their tents, or cars)

There was a wonderful supply of coffee,

(Until the morning when there wasn't, and we all nearly died)

AND THEN,

Some of the Barkmans had left, 

And it started raining again, 

and then, 

Right as Clarita and Cherie were hugging goodbye,

A lightening bolt hit a tree only about 30 yards from the tent where we were all hanging out.

(we weren't sure if we wanted to do anymore hugging)

Talk about scary.

But, miraculously, 

we all lived, 

by the Grace of God.

It was a grand time.

We missed Ervina and Claudia horribly.

But, Kenny and James shall remember to give them their letters, 

won't you guys?

-

Christina

Celise

Barkman