Wedding & Family Camp

Elizabeth and Travis got married on Wednesday, September 25th. They had to do it in the middle of the week because Elizabeth finished vet school in St. Kitts and only had about a week to come home, get married and move across the country for her residency. I have known Elizabeth her whole life. Her mom was my boss at my first real job (after college graduation). We went to the same church and lived in the same neighborhood and have been close for over 20 years. I think of Elizabeth like a niece and the girls think of her as a cool aunt (yes, I know those don't match up, but we think how we think). So, we were excited for her to start this next chapter of her life. The girls were junior bridesmaids in her ring ceremony (they got married in the LDS temple) and had a great time being part of their special day. 

I didn't really get any good pictures of Elizabeth and Travis. We did some with their photographer, so hopefully I can get a copy of those.

They had an area to take a picture and put it in a book along with advice. We looked at the book and saw A & K took this awkward photo and left this gem: "Things have to get worse before they can get better." Great marriage advice, right???

They had this picture hanging up, baby Elizabeth and a young Kori, 20 years ago!

This weekend was the much anticipated (especially by Luke) family camp. We had some neighbors who did the camp over Memorial Day and raved about their experience, so we decided to join them for the Labor Day edition. Camp started on Friday night with hotdogs, smores, and family dodgeball. We slept in a nice, two-bedroom cabin. Saturday morning, Luke, Anna, Jack and I did early morning canoeing. Luke and I had fun, but Jack and Anna did not cooperate well with one another and therefore did not have a positive experience. It was not fun to listen to them bicker, but fortunately, it was a big lake, so Luke and I just paddled away.

After canoeing and breakfast, Kara, Luke, Jack and Thomas did what was called a high ropes course, but was really just challenging obstacles. They climbed a rope net, did a high wire walk and climbed regular ropes. I knew I would not have the upper body strength to handle all of that and Anna was not interested, so I took pictures and she relaxed in the cabin.

Ready for adventure

Luke climbing, all of them successfully made it to the top.

They also successfully did the wire walk

Thomas and Luke climbing, Luke on a rope and Thomas heading to the wire walk.

After that, we all gave archery a shot. The kids were pretty good. It took me a while to get the hang of it and I was the worst. Thomas was really good, but the way he held the bow left him with a huge, painful bruise. 

We had lunch and then Jack and Thomas did riflery (bb guns) before joining the rest of us at the lake. The lake is spring fed and very pleasant, with a soft, sandy bottom and a nice temperature. They had a wibit obstacle course, which we all did with varying levels of success before moving to the giant blob. The blob was hysterical! I got some amazing videos of people flying into the air. The best was when there was a large weight-disparity. Luke especially caught some serious air! We spent the entire afternoon there with our friends (the Cantells) and had a great time. Here are some screen shots from videos.

Thomas and Jack

Anna and Luke

Thomas and Anna

After dinner, the kids (ours, the Cantells, and other kids from the camp) spent a while playing Gaga ball. Then, it was the evening campfire (more smores!). We were all incredibly tired! Sunday, we did more of the same: archery, riflery, gagaball and swimming. We also did a family team building exercise. That was okay. They had one game where we divided into teams and one person on each team was blindfolded and the other team members gave them directions to lead them to a "sword" to try and be the first person to hit the other blindfolded person. During that one, Luke walked into the corner of a piano. It was chaos and I was yelling at him to stop, but with so many other people yelling, it just happened. He cried and cried and has a cut/bruise on the bridge of his nose. But, he liked the other games and still said he loved the teambuilding. Anna did not love it, for some reason, she got frustrated (during a different game) and refused to play any more. She is the least competitive Wilson, so maybe that had something to do with her frustration? Our family definitely has different communication styles and approaches to problem-solving. I am not sure if the exercises helped, but it was (mostly) fun. We also did pretzel and pizza making during the afternoon.

That night, we did a family face off game. Only 2 other families participated and we did not win. But, we had fun. It was just Luke, Kara and me. We had to complete 12 different stations and I thought we did an amazing job. After that we did what was billed as a "night hike", but was really a very short walk where we stopped and talked about night vision. It was fun, just not what we were expecting.

Today (Monday), we had breakfast and then packed up and came home. Everyone had a good time. The kids all said they enjoyed it and would like to go back. We have about 10 loads of laundry to do (we had to bring our own bedding and towels). But, it was a pretty fun little getaway. It was almost like a cruise. We had a list of activities and got to choose each day what we wanted to do, but it was way cheaper.