For some it’s just a picture of twelve people who look like they haven’t showered in days but despite that fact they pose anyway. To me it’s much more than that, to me it’s a fun-loving group, a support system, an extended family, and a sense of belonging.

 Some families lack the experience of having family friends or some do have family friends, but they don’t get along or they only see each other once every year. Family friends have given me memories to cherish forever. What you see here is actually a much smaller version of what it used to be. Our group has been going to Door County and camping at Peninsula State Park since my sister and I were in Pack and Plays. The group itself has shrunk from pure lack of interest in camping, divorces and disputes. But through all the years the core has stuck it through.

Peninsula State Park holds a beauty that isn’t found anywhere else in Door County. The people at the park live to immerse themselves in nature. A common tourist might see Peninsula as just another State Park, but it has many little safe havens within it. Some of my favorites include; the sunsets at the kayak launch…  watching the bats pile out of the bat house at dusk…  the breathtaking views from the lighthouse…  watching the fishermen return with their prize winning catches at the boat launch…  seeing little kids with towering ice cream cones at Nicolet Beach…  and my all time favorite seeing people’s reaction to racoons visiting their campsites. Peninsula will always be a place of peace for me. It’s a place to relax in nature while making thousands of memories. 

 We were raised through camping and through the wisdom and knowledge of not just one but five sets of parents. Parents are people we can turn to when you have questions or worries. Having ten adults that I could go to anything with is such a blessing. These families were always around. We watched sports together, celebrated birthdays together, and always enjoyed each other's company. It’s like having a second family. Our scrapbooks from when we were little were filled with pictures from the adventures we went on with each other. We went to the zoo, Brewers games, festivals and waterparks. Today our parents consider us all as brothers and sisters. 

As we got older we outgrew chalk, scooters, and games of lava monsters. We were forced to sleep in tents for a week. All the kids piled into one tent. We stayed awake telling scary stories and doing Mad Libs. The subpar showers held not only spiders but frogs as well, that we soon were not phased by. We took long walks just to get to the pit toilets which had a heinous smell to them. We spent night after night making our dinners over the campfire. At the time it might have been something to complain about but looking back on it, there is no way I could ever thank my parents enough for taking us on such fun adventures. 

We learned to have fun in nature and step away from the chaos back home. We created many traditions through this. Something that we do each year is a bags tournament throughout the week. We pick names out of a hat for partners and battle in hopes of making it to the championship game.  Now we’re almost all in college, as I am the baby of the group, and the parents do less work than we do around camp. They taught us their ways, so that we could carry the tradition on our own. Through their teaching we have learned to become independent young adults. 

There have been some slight upgrades through the years we have gone from tents to pop-up campers to, new this year, a pull behind RV. Although some things have changed like which campsites we’ve been on, some of the families we go with and the place we lay our head at night, something that will never change are the memories that were made those weeks in Peninsula State Park. Every smile above is a smile out of joy these people have taught me how to be myself and enjoy life in the moment.