The long awaited...

camping pictures!

We really enjoyed our camping trip. There was the usual fun - playing with wildlife:

trekking through the woods:

splashing in the river:

bird watching:

playing with toys:

being cute:

making s'mores:

making fires:

cheating at making fires:

In the chilly mornings, the boys decided that a pirate tea party would be a good way to warm up.


They also liked to ride their scooters on the road...

Darius decided to take on the speed bump for a little thrill...

The big event of the trip was our day at Clark's Trading Post.

We caught the train ride as soon as we came in.

The "Wolfman" came out and chased the train away, trying to keep us away from his mine. Darius was a bit freaked out at first, but enjoyed the ride enough to go a second time before we left.

The ride took us past the Segway park - by far the lamest thing I have seen, a bunch of people in bike helmets riding those stupid things around a path - good times. But we did see Paul Blart, which was cool.

We walked around through the museums. I'm pretty sure they didn't really mean it when they put up the sign asking people to stay off this antique fire engine:

My favorite was riding the bumper boats, especially spraying Taye and Daddy :o)

We only ended up camping for 3 days instead of 4. None of us slept well at night, and the boys were cold and wanting to go home in the mornings. By Saturday they didn't even want to play at the river, they were done, but it was a good time, as always.

Not the brightest bulb...

She makes it look good, just don't look too close.

Hallelujah!

My kids actually...swam! In a pool. With water all around...

I don't think you quite understand. We have not been able to get them to set foot in a pool since Taye was a baby. My last attempt was at Eva's party a year ago. I actually put a bathing suit on in front of Tia's entire family (a testament to how long I've known them, and how comfortable I am around them) and went into the water. Taye wouldn't come near me, and Darius let me walk around the shallow end with him, as long as his toes didn't touch the water. Even then, he asked to get out after about a minute. I missed swimming! So Saturday we invited ourselves over to the Kream's house, and into the pool, and the kids came in too! And they stayed in, for hours! Can you tell I was a little excited?


Mya was the first to decide she had had enough. She was perfectly content to crawl around the patio (nakey - ouch), eating (and sitting on) watermelon, and watching the rest of us in the water.

Taye kept going up on to the slide and the diving board, watching me scramble to get in position to catch him, and then changing his mind. A favorite moment was on the diving board, when I told him to pull up his suit, and instead he turned around, stuck his (half bare) butt out for all to see, patted it and laughed. He then said, "I showed you the hole in my butt!" Thanks for that. Very reminiscent of a certain uncle of his who shall remain nameless.

Needless to say, it was an awesome day. Good enough to hold me over for another few years, anyway. :o)

Priceless

Felt cowboy hat - free from Buppa for Christmas...


Genuine cowhide replica synthetic fabric cowboy vest (made by Mama) - $5 in materials...

Finding your faithful steed at the grocery store - priceless.

Its about time this cowboy got a horse.

What is the appeal?

The other day I had to wash Taye's blanket, which is a thick denim comforter that doesn't fit into our machine. When I told the boys we were going to the laundromat, you would have thought I just said we were going to Disneyworld. Honestly. There was jumping and cheering and general cooperativeness with getting ready to go. The excitement did not diminish the entire time we were there, every machine was studied, touched, exclaimed over. Talk about a cheap thrill.

Even more in our backyard...

getting sick of these yet? Yeah? Well, too bad!

Fun with Friends

The past week or so we have been very busy with friends, which has been so much fun. Tia, Matt, and the lovely ladies came over last week to visit. As usual, the kids all ran around like maniacs and had a great time. The grownups managed to put up with each other too (the sacrifices we make for these kids). Also as usual, we sat around and asked ourselves how the heck this happened...we went from just Tia and I hanging out, then allowed Matt to join us, and eventually Luis. After that things just went crazy, and now there are ten (!) of us. We never should have taken down that 'No Boys Allowed' sign...

A few days later, Kathy and Keyeanna came to see the house, and Keyeanna was on a mission to catch a frog. She was in luck, as about 5 minutes after we went into the yard, Taye spotted one. Keyeanna caught it and they all took turns holding it. The three older kids stayed outside the back door with the frog while I attempted to teach Kathy how to navigate the internet. I'm thinking we'll need to develop a 12-step program, but we got off to a decent start. At one point, Keyeanna wanted to show the frog to Mya. For some reason, Taye looks so big to me in these pictures.

Keyeanna took the frog home (which did not go over well at first, but then Taye decided he was ok with it because he liked the stool Kathy gave us for the kitchen island - go figure). I hear it is living better than Kathy now, and that she is even catching bugs for it. I also hear she cannot wait until Friday when they go to the shelter to adopt a new puppy, at which point Keyeanna will hopefully be ok with releasing the frog. This would be part of why we have a 'no keeping wildlife' rule around here - that and we think its kinda mean.

Anyway...

To top it all off, yesterday we met Judy, Justice, and Libby at a playground/splash park near here that we didn't even know existed. All three boys were a bit grouchy at first, and took some time to warm up, but after a while they had fun.

Darius was mostly excited because there were two babies:

As usual, unlike our friends who enjoyed playing in the water...


my kids did a lot of this...*ahem*