The Clegg Family: Franson Family Reunion

So the J. Clegg family packed up their gear and headed towards the mountains friday afternoon to spend a weekend of camping with family for the Franson Family Reunion. This was a first camping trip for Jaxson, and really a new thing of camping as a family for the rest of us. I was excited to camp because it had been a couple of years since I last did it. Anyways, here are some things that happened and that I learned:

#1 There's no sleeping in when you go camping-that darn sun. Jaxson got up early every morning, but we convinced him to come crawl into our bed and snuggle so James and I could a couple more minutes of sleep. Our solution to the problem nexy year-tarps.

#2 My boy can pee on a tree. James took Jordan fishing Friday night, and Jordan said that he had to go potty. James told him to go over to a tree and take care of business. Jordan then proceeded to pee on the tree next to them, hitting the tree and James leg. Jordan was proud because he didn't pee on his pants. Is it weird that I find this funny, and that I'm so proud of my son? Jordan is turning into a little boy-more and more every day.

# Squirrels are now called "R-U's". Jaxson spent saturday morning with me as the bigger boys went fishing again. As we were playing up at the firepit, some brave little squirrels wandered into camp to try and get some leftover scraps of food. Jaxson was fascinated-from a distance. We left out some fruit loops so we could coax them to coming back, and Jaxson would sit on the bench and say, "Where are You?" (with his hands searching over his eyes). So eventually throughout the day, we noticed that he started calling out, "R-U", as he looked out towards the grass, and since he can't say squirrel, Jaxson started to call them R-U's-very very cute.

#4 James has some great cousins. Being a mom of two little boys, you can imagine how hard it can be to watch over your boys and want to help out with camping duties. Enter in the cousins. Jordan was not shy at all with any of the little kids, and although most of them were a couple years older, he played around with them and had a great time. Jordan had such a great time running around, he wore his shoes out and we now have to go buy new shoes to replace the holey ones. I never really worried about Jordan, always made sure I knew which direction he was at, but he never wandered off by himself, and never showed any desire to go off into the forest by himself. Jaxson didn't have many cousins his age to play with-Avery was there, but for some reason the two of them could not play together-so Jaxson stayed with me. Enter in older cousins. Jaxson's 2nd cousins Marci (18) and Jenni (16), were so good and throughout the entire weekend Jaxson would go up to them and they would hold him and play with him and take him on walks (Jordan too when he was around). I didn't ask them, they did it themselves which was wonderful and they are wonderful.

#5 It's about family. The weekend was not only enjoyable for the camping part, but the time we got to spend with family that we haven't seen for two years (we were in Branson last year). James and I both enjoyed hanging out at night with the cousins talking, getting to know what people are up to now in their lifes. We don't get to see people as often because of the distance, so it was nice to reconnect again.

(Jaxson, "Daddy, Fishing")