One Day Camping

Some where between my childhood and having my first baby, I lost my sense of adventure! We have never taken our kids for a camping trip!! Pretty sad, right? The idea of sleeping on the ground, with crying kids, and babies who need feed and changed in the middle of the night, does not sound appealing and so we haven't tried it! This year we were going to try it out! We were all set and then a thunderstorm totally dumped on our "enthusiasm" to sleep in a tent. So we decided to meet my family at the camping spot the next day and just spend the day up there! 

Mathew and Kaylie in the hammock! They are only two weeks apart and love to play with each other!!

So sad that this turned out blurry...sigh

Julia wasn't too sure about all the dirt but she soon learned to love it!

Camping clothes dryer

Matthew was just too funny! He picked up the stick and took it my mom and then handed her the marshmallow! 

My dad and brothers took the kids for a fishing trip. I was sent only to document and "supervise." I wasn't going anyway near any worms, hooks, or fish! My brother James was frustrated that all his daughter wanted to do was throw rocks in the creek!

 Andrew holding his pole...Grandpa showed him the right hand position and was concentrating so hard! 

I couldn't even get him to look at me!

Matthew had to get in on it as well!

Peter came running excitedly to tell us that he can caught a fish!! It was a baby and had to be released. I was so disappointed...

I loved these of my dad and Andrew! 

Andrew gave up on my dad when Peter caught a fish with Glen and moved over with him! And won't you know that  he caught something when he went over there! 

Look at that face!! So proud! It was also a little small so it had to be released! Our kids don't like fish so it was all good!

The wildlife and landscape was beautiful and had fun "fishing." 

Matthew then had his turn! It was also a small one!

Glen caught a frog and gave it to my sister Rachal to hold. 

She was hoping that the story of the Frog Prince was true...

Back at camp, our boys learn the art of rolling each other up in a hammock and then letting in unwind!

Matthew went for a hike!

Julia loves hats!

We had some yummy dutch over for dinner! I watched closely so I could repeat it!

It was a great trip and I loved it every minute of taking my kids to my growing up camping site! 

Braver Than Me

We installed a net around the tramp so that's why the picture looks so funny!

We were suppose to go camping with my parents last weekend but because of the fact that we have two small children that still don't sleep all the way through the night, we decided to stay home. That and it was raining and the idea of sleeping in a tent didn't seem all that exciting!  

Anthony, being the awesome dad that he is, decided to sleep on the tramp with the "boys" instead! The wind was blowing and I predicated that they would only make it an hour! I stayed inside where it was nice and warm and only felt little sympathy for my "boys."  

They all came in about 1:30 because it just got too cold! The next morning there was a heavy dew and was slightly above 45 degrees!! 

A walk in their shoes

We thought it would be fun and educational to take our kids on a pioneer walk the day after pioneer day. We had a lesson the pioneers and then got all dressed up and walked around the block! We got a few weird looks but that only made it more authentic! LOL!

Matthew slept through the whole thing! When that boy sleeps, it like waking the dead!

We let the boys push the stroller through the grass and compared it to the handcarts! They thought that was awesome!!

Overall it was great activity and one that I hope that we can repeat every year! 

Old Times

It was just like old times...getting to hang out with my best friend in high school and her family! It was so much fun to reminiscence and to eat and play volleyball! And meet all the husbands, wives, and kids...  

Matthew decided that he didn't want to eat his marshmallow and smeared it on his legs! One big sticky mess!

Julia's birthday

Our little girl turned one on July 12th! The year has flown by and I can hardly believe that it has been a year! She has grown up so quickly!

Julia enjoying her birthday doughnut! This has been a new tradition this year and has helped to make the day special for everyone! We do get a little doughnut out by the time July is over but well worth it! And yes...sadly her hair looks like that every morning!

All dressed! Having a girl has been so fun! All the pink, hair bows, and dresses!

At one, Julia has mastered crawling, knows how to get her brothers in trouble, and has started walking! She loves to follow Matthew around because she knows that he will be getting into something fun! She absolutely loves to go outside and to jump on the tramp (her sitting and us lightly bouncing!).  When I push her in the stroller, she likes to put both arms up in the arm like she is riding a roller coaster! Thrill seeker? maybe....

Peter with his bright idea! LOL!! They couldn't stand that I was taking pictures of Julia and not them too!

Her first doll! She absolutely loves it! It amazed me how she knew what it was and that she was suppose to hold it close and hug it!

Every girl needs a phone!!

She was in pure heaven with this sucker!! She crawled right over and grabbed from my hands the minute I got the wrapper off!

Her cake! I tried to make a sneaky version of a yellow cake but too much squash in and then the frosting was really nasty as well!

But she loved it!!!

Julia, you came into my life when I thought I wasn't ready! Oh, what did I know?!!!  You have completed our family and made it feel that we are all indeed special to have you in our family! 

4th of July 2011

The 4th of July always mean tradition and family. To me, family is what makes a holiday. Playing with cousins, having parties and lots of good food...it's what it is all about!  So that's what we did.... spent it with family!!

  Matthew playing with a sparkler at my parent's house.  He was so excited to play with a firework!

Julia enjoyed playing with all the garbage! One's man trash is other's treasure, right?

The fireworks!!! 

So I was completely disgusted when I went to open the package of fireworks that I bought from Walmart for $30! I thought that I was getting a great deal! A large box of fireworks for 30 bucks!!! Much to my dismay, when Anthony opened it, it was just a large box of poppers and confetti shooters!!! So much for fireworks at our house that night!  The boys loved it though! They spent the 4th shooting fireworks, literally, from the time that they woke up till they went to bed! The evidence is in the pajamas!

The after math!!! What a mess! But it was a lot of fun while it lasted!

 Mom thought it be good to have a flag ceremony...something we haven't even done and I was appalled that my children had no idea what to do to salute the flag. We can no longer rely on others to teach our children these things. We then attempted to sing the anthem and that was kind of scary too! We stumbled over the words and I'm pretty sure that we didn't get it right. How utterly horrible! How can I expect my kids to show respect and love for this country if they haven't been taught the right way to do it? A great inspiration for me to do better in my teaching.

We then spent a lazy afternoon playing at Grandmas! Bikes, a barbecue, and 4-wheeler rides!

Priceless!!

We then headed home to do fireworks with Anthony's family at our house. Little did we know that a tornado had hit the inside of our house while we were away...LOL!! Isn't funny how dirty your house gets when you are trying to get ready to go out of town? We had two hours to clean up, eat dinner, get refreshments ready, and get our yard "presentable." We made it with a two minutes to spare! Luckily, Anthony's family brought fireworks and we had a great show while we waited for the big fireworks to go off. 

We waited  and waited....and waited some more. The family gave up and went home when the fireworks hadn't gone off by 10:30. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the day with family. 

P.S. The fireworks did go off... eventually...at 11:30!!! We were a little upset because we had just got all our kids in bed and our boys were disappointed that they hadn't got to see any of the big ones! Way to go!