Dessert night and hanging out with friends!

The last night that we were camping I was sitting around the fire pit with ten (maybe 11- including the teens) kids and they were pretty spent from the day of play. As we waited for dinner, I went around the circle and asked each of them to tell me what was their favorite part of camping at the beach. Most of them said hanging out with friends after dessert night.

I do have to admit that it is quite satisfying to just "be" with friends after a successful day of beaching. Once the sand is all showered off and our bellies are full of dutch oven cooking... it's nice to just chat with a friend or stare at the bonfire with a content feeling that your kids bonded a little bit more that day with you or someone you love.

I often feature the kids in such situations, but the feeling definitely carry over into our adult dynamic as well. Laughing so hard at "pass the pigs" that you just can't talk anymore and tears are welling in your eyes... I mean that is priceless and times like that are few and far between. The inside jokes that aren't funny to anyone but us. Or the ridiculous (in a good way) hand jesters and head bobs from Jeff that caught on just because it's his form of communication and we SO "get" him. These are memories that we might loose in years to come, but we WILL make more.

I see the above picture of the boys wrestling in the "way too small" tent and it makes me smile. Soon they will be the "teens" and "way too big" to wrestle in a tent. But they will make more memories too... and their favorite times will probably be hanging out after dessert night with their friends - just like always.