For the past few years, we've loved hosting a Memorial Weekend Campout.

Our tradition was interrupted by an untimely motorcycle accident in 2016, so you can image how excited we were to get back at it last weekend. If you love hosting or just want fresh ideas for your 4th of July party, here's some details:

Schedule:

We do set a semi-loose schedule (since it is a whole weekend) and send it out (via text) a few days ahead of time.

Friday night (grilling, bonfire, set up tents)
Saturday mid-morning we start the games
Announce the winners around dinner
Eat dinner (even though we've been eating all day)
Campout
Sunday brunch
Farewells

Olympic Setup:

Without going into Derek's 4 page Bi-law handbook, the Quarry Olympics are essentialy created to encourage people to play games and get to know eachother. Each game you play, you earn points. First place will get you 10 points, second place 7, and third place 4.

You can assign points however you want (Scooter Race was worth more because there were a lot more competitors) and everyone just writes down their total on a sheet of paper.

To determine the winner, you then take the average of how many games they played and what their score was. In order to qualify for prizes, you must play at least 7 games of 5 different varients.

We did have a couples prize and single best athlete prize. Try to make your prizes someone enticing...it helps a lot!

A Few Games Options:

Bocchi Ball
Egg Toss
Croquet
1 legged race
Razor Scooter Relay Race
Darts
Corn Hole
Trivia Questions

Food:

For large gatherings, try this Smoked Pork recipe for pulled pork sandwiches or a super delicious nacho bar. We fed lots of mouths with a $15 Costco Pork Loin. I did have to put the pork on at 7am but it was DELICIOUS.

This year, we asked each couple to bring a specific side dish and drinks to share which GREATLY helped my stress.

We are firm believers in building a community with whoever God has placed around you. These get togethers tend to involve lots of random couples who actually have never met...but by the end of the weekend they feel like close friends.