Palmer Family Retreat - Friday night

Palmer's first (in a long time) Family Retreat was a huge success. We joined about 10 other families for a fun-filled and relaxing weekend at Camp Allen (about an hour from Houston). Gay & I rode up with the 4 kids so that Will and Don could join us later after work (and a steak dinner). The weather had gotten bad (rainy and cold) so we weren't quite sure how much fun we'd have, but things began to look up as soon as we got out of the car at our campsite.

McIver and Sam had fun jumping from top bunk to top bunk. They even ended up spending the first night on the top bunk together.

Abby & Olivia each chose their bunk and worked hard to help get the beds made. They also worked hard at making our cabin a mess - it felt like Grand Central Station in there b/c they kept bringing the new arrivals to check out our cabin.
Cabin 8 is great! The cabins were up off the ground and look like tree houses so the kids thought that was great fun. We shared a cabin with the Stricklins and had a blast. The front porch was big enough for 4 camp chairs and a cooler for after the dads arrived and the kids went to sleep.
When I asked McIver what his favorite part of the retreat was he said: playing in the dirt. In addition to the dirt/sand in the middle of the campsite, there was also a huge pile of dirt near the 'forest.' There were at least 5 kids on that dirt pile at any given time. If anyone lost sight of a child, that was the first place we looked for them!
After getting settled in on Friday night, we walked over to the campfire for some S'mores. Yummy!