Clarke's Family Reunion

So this last week we had the Clarke's family reunion. We had it at a resort some member of the church owns...actually Irene, is Elder Schar's uncle ( remember the guy??? from Switzerland?? super cute...remember?). Anyway, I only stayed there for a night, and thank goodness it was just a night cuz it was a horrible night. It is the first and the last time I go camping with kids...I guess kids of 2 and one years old. It was HORRIBLE! with capital letters! I already hated camping to begin with...there is something about nature creatures in the form of bugs, not having showers and toilets and a BED, a comfy, warm bed that is not appealing to me for some reason... Now add to that children...filthy children, always looking that they are save, that they are not putting gross things they found on the ground in their mouths, needing to warm up bottles in the middle of the night...crying all night cuz it is freezing cold, not wanting to go to sleep because it is light out so it is time to wake up even thought I haven't been able to sleep for more than 2 hours straight... ( a little bit of consideration is hard to ask of a 2 year old)... in other words....HORRIBLE experience.
So I have some options...never go camping again, period, or never going camping with kids. I'm happy with the first myself, but my husband likes it so I see I'll have to do it at some point.
Besides that, I really enjoyed what I enjoyed from the reunion. Family home evening was super good. I have a great respect for Evan's parents and the way they've raised 12 kids....yes, 12 kids. Ever since Evan knew how to read, he's always done family scripture reading. Every morning of his life! It takes a great effort to do it just Evan and I, I can't imagine with 12 kids. But...they've done it and I admire them for that. It was very special to be there. Seeing them with most of their children, all together. I hoped for my family to be gathered together like that one day. We also had a talent show. The best for me was my little Carmen, as cute as usual. They had some of the little ones singing "Twinkle, twinkle little star" and Carmen was the lead voice...the best part was that at the end, everybody clapping and all the girls left the "stage" but Carmen stayed to bow saying " THANK YOU, THANK YOU"...super cute. Evan sang "Wasted", one of the songs I inspired, cute, eh? And with some pushing from Evan I sang the only song I've written myself with which I'm not very comfortable but I had to sang it, and people seemed to like it. We also had a campfire and sang songs. Evan had to teach me some before hand so I wouldn't feel left out, and enjoyed some meals with the fam.
All and all was good. Not because I liked where I was but because I liked who I was with....and I guess that's what matters...