Brown County + Friends = Perfect Weekend

Last weekend, twelve of us dropped our eleven kids off at grandparents' houses and headed to southern Indiana for a weekend in a cabin together. We had been looking forward to it for a long time! We used to always go camping with this group of friends once or twice a year, but because of so many kids being born and busy schedules, we haven't been able to do that for a couple years. 

The six girls piled in a van together on the way, and the guys took the other van. It was so much fun to start talking and catching up with each other!

  

 After a couple wrong turns and some really hilly, winding stone roads, we found our cabin.

It was really nice! It had four bedrooms, two pull-out couches (which turned out to be a little uncomfortable...), five bathrooms, a fully-stocked kitchen, a living room, a pool table, a wrap-around porch, a fire pit, and a hot tub out on the deck. 

When we got there, us gals were pretty hungry, so we ordered some pizza,

and the guys went out to buy various kinds of meat to grill. (They thought getting pizza was too "not-outdoorsy".)

The guys also did some other "out-doorsy" type activities, like frog gigging,

catching flying squirrels,

 

 eating their meals outside,

hiking on muddy trails in Brown County State Park,

chopping down a large dead tree,

and spending hours and hours sitting around the fire.

Meanwhile, us girls spent most of our time talking,

playing games in the cabin,

 laughing,

 preparing meals,

shopping in Bloomington,

and sitting in the hot tub. (Well...the three non-pregnant girls sat in it...us three pregnant girls sat on the edge of it with our feet dangling in.) :)

We also all went out to eat together one evening

to a steakhouse in Nashville called Holy Cow,

and on the way home from Brown County, we stopped for lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise. (Thanks for jumping in this picture, Brandon...)

Brandon and Aaron were in an interesting mood...I'm pretty sure they were sleep-deprived from staying out by the fire until 4:00 am that morning.

Also, thank you Alex for the not-so-pleasant surprise when I opened the toilet lid on April Fools morning...

What a great and uplifting weekend, overall! We are so thankful for our awesome group of friends. Also, thanks to all of our parents for watching the eleven kiddos :) We decided to try to take more trips like this in the future for sure!