Family, BBQ, Animals, & Camping

my oldest brother and his family came to town for the latter part of their spring break last week.  Tim and i decided to take Thursday and Friday off to spend time with my family. we couldn't have been more happy that we took those days off!  our family "weekend" began Wednesday night with dinner at Nana's house {my mother}, followed by a BEAUTIFUL Thursday at the zoo.  all the animals were out soaking up the sun and playing.

after the zoo, we headed downtown for a trolley tour and the rendezvous. Tim had never been to the rendezvous so that was a great experience to have with the whole family.

rendezvous is not our favorite BBQ in town, but the atmosphere there makes it a great experience. 

after dinner Tim and i headed home but not without some dessert.  brad has tried to talk us into trying sweet ci ci's for a long time now {instead of yo lo}.  we finally tried it Thursday night and LOVED it!  much better than yo lo.

on Friday Tim and i packed up to go camping at shelby forest.  we got away around 2:00 and headed to the woods.  this was our 1st time camping together, it was also the 1st time to camp with the dogs..........ALL 4 of them.  it was a good learning experience.  we will not be taking the big dogs camping anymore. :)  too much work and too noisy! poor doggies had to be on a lead the whole time too and untangling them got old pretty quick!
we did let them run around some on Saturday morning when we were away from the other campers.  we didn't want to keep them leashed up the whole time.

all in all it was a great weekend and very relaxing.  we will definitely be taking the kids camping soon before it gets too hot.