Camping 2013

 Ok, in between birthdays and before the first day of school, I'm going to finally post about our camping trip a few weeks ago. I will say it was quite an adventure. I had a hard time narrowing down the pictures so feel free to scroll quickly if you want.

 We went with our friends who were graciously willing to take Ethan (even with his history of throwing up on the way to this campground:() with them so that we could take our truck. We were glad we were able to take the truck because as you can see we needed every square inch of space. We pretty much brought everything we own.

 Here is little Miss Brooklyn about 1 hour after arriving. Look carefully and you'll see how dirty she was almost immediately.

                                                 Exploring the lake the first night after dinner.

                                                             A little boys paradise!

                                                            A big boys paradise too!

As we pulled in to the campsite we recognized the campers right across the way as friends of ours from school. It was fun to see them there and Morgan loved it because she had a couple girls to play with for the first evening and the next morning. They walked down to the lake with us after dinner that night and offered to take a group pic of us. The kids all had fun running around together.

        Yep, that's pretty much what those little hands looked like all week. I just tried not to look when it was time to eat. We did lots of washing, but somehow they stayed grimy for 4 days. But he was happy!

 Campfire time! I like camping more or less for the campfire and smore time, and the kids loved it too. Since we and the Tamelings are such party pooper parents this was the only night the kids were up late enough to see the stars. The next two nights they were sound asleep before the sun even went down. But the parents sure enjoyed the quiet campfires and the kids enjoyed the much needed sleep time! Don't worry the kids got their smores before it was dark:)

                  Morgan, what was your favorite part of camping? "The smores!" That's my girl!

 We took the kids bikes and scooters along this year, which was an awesome decision. They spent hours riding up and down the hills and all over the rocks and dirt. Little Talen even got in on the action as he got his training wheels off that morning!

 Hudson and Talen playing trucks in the water. The weather was beautiful and the lake temps actually quite warm.

                                                                The big guys!

We love camping at Pinecrest because of all the fun we can have at the lake. The kids have a great time playing on the beach and swimming out to the buoys. We can get by without showering for 3 nights if we just take a dip in the water once a day. The older boys and the dads hiked around the lake one afternoon and the next afternoon they went kayaking and cliff jumping with some more friends who had joined us for the day.

Breakfast outside is so yummy! Happy tummies = happy kiddos.

Nightly wash in the lake. We would take the kids down and wash their upper bodies as best as we could, then we would wash their feet in the faucet once we got back to the campground and Kevin would carry the kids one by one to the tent so their feet were "mostly" clean.

                                                                      Sibling Love!

                                                                  Buddies!

 More sister/brother love. The lake in the evening is absolutely gorgeous! The lighting is perfect for pictures.

                            A family pic on the last night. Don't we look like we need showers??

Kevin and Ethan went fishing the first morning there and Ethan caught his first fish! And it was the only catch of the trip. He was pretty excited. I was impressed he would hold it. The last morning the dads took the older three fishing. Nothing was caught but they had fun. The second morning Ethan and Brooklyn were the early risers so I took them on a little walk down to the harbor, the lake at 6:30 in the morning is so calm and beautiful, it was early, but nice to be somewhere so beautiful. All in all I would say our camping trip was a success, memories were made and fun was had, but it was sure exhausting!

Party time!

We were able to celebrate Ethan all weekend. On his birthday we had a little family swim party at my parents house. Here is Ethan with sweet little Emily. Isn't that suit adorable?

Ethan got some golf shoes! He was pretty excited about those and is eager to give them a try.

Ethan was gracious and agreed to Costco cinnamon rolls instead of cupcakes for the family party. Mommy ran out of time to make anything fancy for this party!

Ethan has been asking for roller blades for quite sometime. We found a good deal so we thought we'd surprise him. He is determined enough to learn how to skate and he is actually doing quite well.

We did a swim party again for Ethan this year. 7 of Ethan's buddies were able to come and celebrate with him. They all had a lot of fun jumping, swimming, pushing, laughing and burping. Ah, to be a 7 year old boy....

Last year the boys seemed content to just swim. This year we decided we needed to come up with a game. Good thing Kevin was there and he is quick thinking. He came up with a great game for the boys to play and it really wore them out!

This year the cake of choice was a Minion cake. I had fun with this one!

Happy Birthday Ethan! We sure had fun celebrating with you this weekend!

Happy 7th Birthday Ethan!

Ethan John, it is hard to believe that 7 years ago you made me a mom. SEVEN years I have been your mommy...that is so hard to believe! I will say that you have given me more joy and more frustration than I have ever experienced in my life. God has used you to show me my own weaknesses, sins and struggles. He has also used you to show me the little things in life and the caring heart of a little boy. For all of it I am thankful and today we celebrated you!

You love sports of all kinds. This was your first year in t-ball/baseball. You loved it and did great. Your passion right now is golf. You seem to have a natural knack for it and it is fun to watch you grow and develop the skills you need for that sport. You are very competitive within yourself so golf is a great sport for you as you try to constantly improve your own score. You also have your daddy's mind for sports stats...you know all kinds of players and teams and scores and points and lots of stuff I don't understand:)

You and Morgan continue to be best buddies and worst enemies. It was fun to watch you this year as you and she missed each other when you were away at school. You also really enjoy crafts and putting things together. You love to follow directions, but have a hard time just creating something. You had a great year in school. You are reading chapter books like crazy, improving on your writing (when you want to take your time) and loving math (again that's from your daddy!).

Your brother Hudson is becoming your little shadow. He adores you and loves to play with you. As he gets older I know you two will spend hours playing sports and wrestling. This summer you have finally been able to play together in the pool. It is fun to watch. You are also super sweet with Brooklyn and really like to take care of her.

This year marked the loss of THREE more teeth, we are still waiting for two to grow back in!

The older you get Ethan the more important friends become to you. Here you are with Mason on our camping trip last week. You have a great time with him, as well as your buddy Trey. I think those are your two closest friends, but you have a whole group you like to play with at school.

Your daddy and I are proud of the little boy you are becoming. You have a kind and compassionate spirit when you want to. You also have a strong and determined spirit when you want to and we pray that with the help of God we can mold that spirit to do great things. I am excited to see how you grow and develop this year as a big second grader. We love you buddy and pray that you continue to follow Jesus and love him more each day.

Beach House Summer Trip-2013

We were blessed to again make a trip to the beach house. These pictures are mostly variations on hundreds of pictures we've already posted on here, but since this has become our family scrapbook I am going to post them anyway. Feel free to skip over this post if you are sick of aquarium, beach and rock climbing pictures:)

We headed to the coast the first week of July. We timed it perfectly and totally missed the heat wave at home. We were enjoying 70 degree weather while everyone at home was enduring 106+!

This was our first stroller free trip to the aquarium. It was nice not to have to wrestle the big BOB around everyone, but our little ones sure had tired legs by the end of the day. This was one of our longest "outings" as a family without any major meltdowns! Yes we even celebrate the little things. We enjoyed a couple hours at the aquarium and then walked to a lunch place on the water and walked back to our car. It was a lot of fun.

We got there right at opening so we had this whole exhibit to ourselves. I love when that happens!

Playing dress up and enjoying the sunshine.

Changing the water channels in the kids section.

This little girl is finally deciding to be daddy's girl again. We've had a long few months of only mommy being allowed to do anything with her. I think he's winning her over again.

Fun in the water.

Sister love!

Kevin took the boys to Peter Hay a couple times to play golf. Hudson was in heaven because he got to hit "hard balls". He is only allowed to hit wiffle balls around our house and the beach house so he was pleasantly surprised that he got to use real golf balls.

Teeing off! (excuse the improper golf attire, it was a chilly morning and we forgot khakis)

Ethan is becoming quite a little golfer. He went to a golf clinic every Friday for two months and then did a week long clinic at our local country club. I asked him if he was enjoying golf one day after class and he said, (with a little six year old attitude) "Uh yeah, it's pretty much the best thing ever!"

Shaking hands after the end of the round. I love these two little tow heads.

Since the boys got to go golfing I got to take these two little sweethearts out for a girls morning. We went down to Cannery Row and did a little shopping. I told the girls they could each pick out one thing and they were both very particular and looked at several shops before they chose their one thing. It was interesting to watch them each choose something.

                                              

                                                                          Silly hats!

Overlooking the bay on a gorgeous day.

We ended our time with some frozen yogurt. It was a great girls morning. I see many more of these in our future. Love my little smiley ones too!

This trip was the one that finally had Morgan climbing all over on the rocks. She kept right up with Ethan and daddy and begged Ethan to go climbing with her. It was fun to watch the two of them explore together. She is getting more agile and coordinated every day. That's a good thing!

I had to include this picture because Morgan has started "posing" in pictures now. How do little girls figure that stuff out?

On the Fourth of July we spent about 2 hours down by the ocean. I think that is our longest ocean outing yet! I think we are all growing up.

Buried by daddy.

We had an amazing time and once again appreciate my parents willingness to let us use their house. We were there for about a week again, but unlike previous visits we didn't have anyone join us. Needless to say we were all really ready to see our friends when we got back home!