Surprise! I'm camping...again.

Two weeks after coming home from Young Women's Camp in New York, I had a different camping trip planned.

My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary  at the end of last year and when my brother, sister and I were talking about what we could get for them, we agreed that what they'd like the most is a family camping trip.  We couldn't surprise them with a camping trip- as this would require too much preparation, but we could however surprise them by showing up at the campsite!

My big brother Eddie did all the planning and got my parents, his family, our grandma, my aunt and uncle and all of their kids, spouses and children, and our BFFs from the Valley to come to this campsite near Oxnard, CA.

Melissa and Mike picked us up from the airport and we covertly hid behind my Dad's truck, teeming with anticipation over their reaction.

 

"OMG! This is so exciting!"

 "What do we do?"

 "Surprise!"

Okay, so the photo doesn't really capture the essence of what went down.  My parents seemed shocked/confused/upset/happy all at the same time.

My Dad said, "WTF?!?!"

Needless to say, they were so surprised and happy to see us.

"Did you think that we'd let you go camping with the family without us?"

So we settled into our campsite and wandered over to the beach...

 The kiddies had a great time by the water.

We waited for everyone else to show up.

Ashley built an amazing fire (with some help from Suvivor-Man Mike)

 Yes, S'Mores were had.  Yes, I have two marshmallows on the stick.

So last week I spent making 10 freezer paper shirts for the fam. 

Here we are in them:

 Awww... we're so cute.

 Presh. Right?

The backs say "Mayer" with the number 40.

The front of the shirts have our nickname.

Amber did a brief tutorial on how to make freezer paper shirts on her blog.

 And here are the nieces doing the Hookie Lau.

 And the ladies making skirts for the girls.

Cobie Lynn and I doing a Hilly-Billy dance.  She taught me everything I know.

 "Nobody gets between me and my cheeseballs... nobody."

 Eddie, Shilo, Ashley, Melissa and Christopher.  We have a picture like this at every age since we were like two years old.

And one of these too!

Well, that's my life for now.  I need to get back to applying to jobs and organizing my room.

Be a happy camper!