THE MULLEN FAMILY CAMPOUT!

Last weekend we got together with the Mullen Fam for our annual campout. We went up and camped at Newton Dam. Who knew you could have so much fun at Newton Dam!!? :) Newton is where Todd grew up so it was fun for him to go back and visit all his childhood memories. Todd was telling the boys all the stories of him growing up...where he hunted, the ditch he had a bad bike crash in, the fields where he moved pipe, the trees he used to jump over, where he played baseball, etc. It was so fun to hear all the stories and see how happy Todd was thinking back!!





I am hesitant to post some pictures because of all the bald heads and super bad farmer tans. But I will anyway because they show how much fun we had together! ha ha :)

Well, were should I start? Ok, I guess I will start with this awesome picture of Todd's brother Jim..ha ha!! There were some rope swings at the reservoir that we decided to try out. Well, one of the rope swings didn't last long. Jim was taking a turn on it and as he swung out over the water it totally broke. I am sorry Jim, but it was really funny! I am glad I had my camera to catch this moment!!!! :) There was another rope swing so we all still got a chance to try it and it lasted through all of us!

Todd taking off to make his big splash.

Ouch!! The little splash in this picture is Pace and you can tell by everyone's reactions that it didn't go to well. Pace wanted to try it so bad but was kinda hesitant. When he finally did, he let go of the rope a little early and barely landed in the water. He got a good scratch on his belly but was ok. He came up smiling and said he liked it but he for sure didn't want to go again!

It felt like an eternity that I stood on the stump holding the rope before I finally dared to let go. There was nothing pretty or graceful about my swing, but it was a blast!!! Even though when you landed you could just stand up in the water, Todd still had a noodle ready to throw me to save my life. I am not that good in water!! :)

Briggs cooling off with a popsicle and adding some sticky to all the dirt on him! :)

Todd, Pace, and Jaygen

We had a couple fishing boats there that the guys took out fishing and the kids loved to just go for rides in them.

After all the exciting swimming, we went to the gun range and had a little family shoot-around...lots of fun!

Jaygen shooting his BB gun

Todd is a super good shot!

I got 3 out of 5 when it was my turn...not too bad!

It was such a hot day and we had kept really busy, so i finally got a chance to just float on the water in a tube. Well, it didn't last long. All these cute little kids started splashing me like crazy. It was me against them so I had no chance!! :)

The last day of our get-together was Newton's 24 of July celebration so we decided to join in on all the fun. The celebration started with some fun runs. Some of the grandkids ran the 1 mile and some others ran the 5K. Candace, Melissa, and I also ran the 5K...fun, fun, fun!! The rest of the fam was there to cheer us all on.

Pace did so good running the 1 mile run! Todd rode his bike and kinda followed along with Pace. While he was running, Pace told Todd that is was taking a really, really long time. He did awesome. It was a long way for such a little guy!!

Jaygen was amazing too. He ran the 1 mile in about 9 minutes which I think is so good for a 6 year old! Jaygen is really liking running in these little races...yea!!

I made a PR running the 5K. It was down hill but who cares, right?! I still did it and that is all it took. I have the running bug back so bad now I can't wait for my next race!!!

All the family members that ran a race...good job everyone!!!

We couldn't miss out on the Newton parade. If we would have been late we would have missed it, but that is just the perfect length. They threw good stuff too!!

The kids were having a great time!

After the parade, we headed to the park to get in on all the festivities there. It totally reminded me of Delta but much smaller. I was loving it!!!

No, this isn't a picture of me bossing someone around because I never do that (ha ha) but it is a picture of Briggs getting ready for his little kids race. It was so fun watching them. Briggs didn't really know what was going on, but oh well. None of the kids did!

Pace's turn...the older the kids got, the more serious it got. Pace totally took off!

Jaygen's group was even more serious. Jaygen was totally in it to win!!!

The boys got a little something painted on their faces. Pace wanted a baseball, Jaygen a snake, and Briggs wanted something pink. I whispered to the girl painting that he would just have a basketball...he was not going to have pink. So we just pretended and Briggs thought he got something pink! :)

They had a great big slip n' slide there that Briggs and Pace had a good time on. You can see them both there with their pants falling down..ha ha!

The park had lots of stuff for the kids to do. Jaygen took off and did some things on his own. I know he did a sack race because he came back with a ring pop and said he won it in a race. Who knows what else he did but he had a good time.

That morning we made a spontaneous decision to sign up for a volleyball tournament that day. Our team consisted of Todd's siblings and some of Todd's neighbors from growing up, Todd and Susie Maughan's kids. They were the nicest people ever and I loved getting to know them. I think we all thought we were going to just get beat out because our first game was kinda a disaster but then we won our second game and that changed everything. After that we kept winning! I wish I had more talent to contribute but instead I just kinda pretend I know what is going on. It was double elimination and we finally got beat out and took 3rd place I think. I felt bad our kids were stuck in the heat at the park all day watching us play but it was so fun!!!

Tana, Jim, Ben, Kevin, Todd, Me, Brody, and Tracy...the volleyball rockstars!!!!

I was sad that our reunion was over. We all had a great time! It was really fun getting out and doing all these fun things with Todd's family. Thanks to Kevin and Candace for putting together so much fun!!!