Our one day camping trip

Monday we set off for our last camping trip of the summer. We spent one night at Fisherman's Bend and planned to head up to Suttle Lake for the next two nights. Tuesday morning as we were getting ready Craig looks over at Anna and says "is she ok?" Anna was just laying on the bed with a glazed over look. I said she looked like she didn't feel well and sure enough she said her tummy hurt and started puking about a 1/2 hour later. We decided camping with a sick baby didn't sound like much fun (not to mention the day before I had taken Will into the doctor to get medicine for poison oak up and down his leg)..... so we packed up and headed home. Actually Craig packed up and I held Anna and she fell asleep on me. I definitely got the better end of the deal on that one.

I was glad I got my camera out the night before around the campfire. Craig and I stayed up late after putting the kiddos to bed and just talked around the fire til it burned down. As we were heading to bed Craig mentioned that it's amazing how after being married 10 year we are still finding out new things about each other. I realized that's one of my favorite parts about camping. Being outside with a campfire just has a way of spurring good conversation.

By the time we got home I could tell Anna was already starting to feel better. She took a three hour nap and woke up famished. I kept giving her small amounts of food and she kept begging for more.

Despite the work that went into only being able to camp for one day, we had a fun time. And I admit, I am really enjoying this time at home with Craig before he goes back to work next week. Since Anna was feeling better and it was pouring outside (another reason I was glad we weren't still camping), we took the kids to OMSI this morning. Then we decided to tackle our closet while Anna took her nap this afternoon. Nothing motivates me more than when I have someone to work with. Right now as I type I am glancing over at our amazingly organized and neat closet. Even if it's only a little piece of my life that feels organized, it sure is nice!

Tomorrow's agenda: Build better shelving in our linen closet

Label!!! (I just bought a label maker and I am going crazy with this one, it's just too much fun!)

Spiderman lives at our house

I rounded the corner of our bedroom to walk down the hall this morning and was greeted by spidey staring down at me!

Kinda freaky, huh? He actually made me jump.

He's assured me he was a nice spidey, though.

The River

Here we are enjoying a day at our favorite spot on the river.

Panning for gold.....

Hanging out in the sunshine and cooling off in the river
Great grandma joined us, and Anna loved playing in the shallow water by her.
Swimming with dad....she's got the vice grip around the neck going.....
And we even were lucky enough to have another visit from, whom we now refer to as our friend. Thank goodness when this guy showed up I was OUT of the water. Later a smaller friend came along and Craig gave me sufficient warning so I could scream and scrambled out of the water before he got too close.

And this is one of the scary parts of having boys! Jumping off rocks! It looks like Wyatt is pushing Will (he didn't!)
The very first jump Will did was a TOTAL belly-flop. In fact his belly stayed red the whole day from it. But he was brave and got back up there for several more feet first jumps.


Even big boys are good at frightening the women.


This picture makes me laugh. My little nature boy found this huge leaf and used it for a hat. I think he'd make a darling cabbage patch doll. Don't tell Craig I said that.
Floating with the noodles, the kids and I plus Ama.

We swam and we ate, and swam and ate. The kiddos enjoying their lunch!


Cute Wyatt with a bouquet full of Ama's flowers!

Fun Times!!

catchin' up

We've been busy this past week and I'm just now finding time to catch up the blog.

First, we spent a couple days with our good friends Brian and Jessie who were visiting from the east coast. We stayed at a beach house and got to meet their (almost) 11 month daughter Ava, for the first time. Jessie is an amazing photographer and took some family picture of us on the beach the evening we arrived. We had planned on doing more beach photos the next morning, but woke up to rain. So we settled for some indoor shots of the kids. None of which I have seen yet and I am very excited about them. She always does a great job.

Our kids with their new friend, baby Ava. She is adorable!

This week we have been busy with Wildcat Hoop Camp. Craig and Brian, a fellow teacher, coach, and friend have run this camp for 8 years now. It makes me a little sentimental thinking back on how I used to bring Will at age 1 to visit daddy at hoop camp and now both my boys are old enough to participate. Will is competitive and gives his all. He looks forward to each day and hopes to get an award at the end of the week. Wyatt wasn't so sure. After the first day he was hot and tired and said he would rather be home picking flowers with me and digging for worms. I told him that you have to go every day to get a medal (each kid gets one for participation) so then he was inspired. This morning he was up and dressed in his bball gear before I even knew it.

We may have another hoopster on our hands, yet. He's a little wild and crazy on the court, but we'll see.

Will practicing little dribbles
My two younger nieces are doing WHC as well. This is sweet Hilary with Wyatt. She is about 7 month older than Wyatt and Wyatt just loves her. Really, and truly he does. In fact, he tells me all the time "I'm going to marry, Hilary, mom".

(Side note: bandaid on Wyatt's face due to him sliding down carpeted stairs on his face at the beach house. Nice rug burn!)

Next up: The Good News According to Uke!

This is Will's ukelele class. He had been taking lessons from my mom (an avid uker herself) for the past 6 weeks. Notice he's the only boy among the 6 other girls! He is such a good sport and is coming along with his songs. Next week they perform for a group of retired folks at an assisted living facility. They do lots of gospel songs and hope to share the good news according to uke. Thus the name of the group. Aren't they cute??
And lastly I have squeezed in a little sewing. This is a re-usable grocery bag I made with (you guessed it) fabric from my stash. It is designed after a plastic grocery sack, and turned out ok, but I'm still not sure if I really did it right. I am currently working on a different style of grocery bag (designed more like a paper sack) and if it turns out well I want to sew up a bunch for Christmas gifts or to use as gift bags. Going green, you ask? No, not really. I just like to sew and this is a good way to use up my fabric. And I get .06/each for bringing my own bags to Ware Mart! And let's face it, who couldn't use an extra .06??
The remainder of our summer is pretty much all planned out including swimming at Aunt Paige's pool, a trip to GP, one last camping trip, school shopping, and my parents keeping the kiddos overnight so Craig and I can go to IKEA. I know it's bound to go by fast, so I am treasuring these last few weeks of summer!