Survivor: Elkmont

Ain't to proud to beg.

Seriously.

Especially when a group of families that we love are involved.

When I caught wind that there were some of friends going camping,

all it took was my sweet friend Mandy saying, 'Call the Joneses and see if yall can go too!'

I did and we were in.

Another cool aspect of the trip:  seeing the synchronous fireflies.

Synchronous fireflies??  Check them out here.

Pretty doggone cool.

(Unfortunately, we didn't see them though.

Seems the cooler spring had them coming out a bit later.

No biggie - we'll catch 'em next year!)

There were 11 families.

That means 22ish adults.

That also means 27ish children.

Which all equals a CREW.

We had a blast.

There were so many kiddos that all had playmates.

They rode their bikes,

played card games,

played in the river.

The adults visited and then visited some more.

We laughed and photo'd the kiddos in the river.

We ate yummy campfire food.

We sang songs.

And my favorite part?

We were totally off the grid.

As in no cell service, no internet access, no TV.

Which also meant no electricity, no running water (at our site), no showers.

It really was quite fabulous.

And very Survivor-ish!!

(we did have sinks and toilets, however!)

Our sweet little campsite ...

The river that really made this campground a winner ...

The kiddos had a blast tubing down a section of it ...

and thanks to all the rainy weather, it was running pretty swiftly!

Just pure fun ... this shot makes me so happy!

Jarrett has such a sweet spirit with the younger kiddos -

and they love him for it!

Mike Dickinson did a daily devotional with all the kiddos every morning.

Love that!

War was the card game of choice!

Seriously??  Heaven ...

All the ladies, just chatting it up.

Solving all the problems of the world, of course.

This kid has never ridden his bike so much -

loved watching him enjoy!

Jacob and Alton Strange.

I go waaaa-aaaaa-ay back with the Strange family,

so this is a super sweet relationship!

Pretty young ladies!

After tubing a long section of the river ...

they were so proud and felt so adventurous!

This was the Camo Team for the olympic games.

Doing their chant ...

This was serious business!

Having a totally miserable time, can't you tell?!!!!!

Mr. Ben, the organizer of the games, took on all the kiddos in tug-o-war.

Guess who won?!

Tribal Council ... announcing the winner of the games.

Yeppers - Camo Team won.

Please ignore the tall guy on the right ...

he's the official Photo Bomber.

(you know, instead of Uni-Bomber.)

Our car, as well as the Henderson's and Hartsock's.

We were packed to the hilt. 

Next year we will be pulling a trailer.

It's worth it.

Looking forward to it already!!

And for history's sake, the families that went were:

Stan & Shannon Jones

Mike & Carrie Dickinson

Cary & Heather Strange

Cory & Angie Robinson

Chris & Rebekah Cooper

Chris & Michelle Harmon

Hoovey & Stacia McGuirt

Barry & Christa Mock

Ben & Amy Hartsock

Chad Henderson (Mandy blew her knee out & had to stay home ... boo!)

Team Jenkins :)