belfair camping 2011

Two weekends ago was our 5th annual Belfair camping trip. We have always gone in July and have never gotten rained on (at least not this much). The trip started great and I think we just didn't want to believe that rain was in the forecast. So when it started raining that evening and through the night, we were unprepared. No one had brought a tarp to hang out underneath and many didn't bring warm enough clothes or raingear. There were 4 families all together and two packed up to go home on Saturday (we arrived Friday). Since I was miserable I convinced Chad that we too, should pack up and go home. So we did. At least the packing up part. And when it was time to tell the kids to grab their shoes so that we could go home, the look on their faces told me that we (I) had made a terrible mistake. And since setting camp is SO fun, we did it again. The rain stopped. The kids were happy. I was a good mom.

Setting up (the first time) and testing out the creek:






Somebody loves anything with wheels:


When the rain started we all went our separate ways to stay dry. The boys hung out in the van with the DS until it ran out of batteries:

Abby was in the tent:
Chad and Tristan hung out under the back of the van for most of the morning:

Trying out his rain jacket:

The rain kinda stopped and we went to the playground:


Abby and her new friend Adrian:
Tristan loves to climb:

Tristan's friend Lincoln (they are only a few weeks apart):
Abby is saying something sassy to the creek (hence the hands on hips):
What would camping be without chocolate cereal?
Campfire time (without the rain!). These are all low-light shots, so you may notice some blur.




Otto and Isaac are supposed to be going to sleep:

Jamie thinks his friends are hilarious.
Apparently Lulu cannot sit still for less than 1/2 of second (not surprisingly). But we love her energy.
Poor Asher burns his hand on the lantern and had to soak it in cold water.
That's all til next year!

4th of july

3rd

Our 4th of July is always busy as we celebrate on both the 3rd and the 4th every year. On the 3rd we headed out to Chad's parents for a BBQ. After dinner we headed down to our boat and loaded up for the night. My parents were a bit ahead of us and had already headed out to liberty bay to find a spot for us. We rafted to them and enjoyed the evening while we waited for the fireworks to start.

The sunset made a beautiful cloud formation:

The fireworks started at 10:15 and you can see that the sky is still slightly illuminated. I LOVE the long days of summer!


Tristan slept thru the fireworks this year, maybe next year little buddy!

4th

After staying up late the night before the kids took some naps and then we headed out to the lake for some swimming and more BBQ. Charlie made us a delicious dinner of beer can chicken and grilled corn. We attempted to take some red, white & blue portraits but it didn't exactly turn out how I had hoped. Owell.

We took like 50 pictures and this is seriously the best one! And not even in focus that well.
Chad thought this would be funny and then got upset when he found out I posted it on facebook :)

On the way home we stopped at a fireworks stand and just got a few small things - sparklers, pop-its, snakes, flowers, ground hogs, and parachutes. It was already about 8:30 so we put Tristan in bed and did fireworks with the older two. They had so much fun, it was cute to watch. Then we all went inside and listened to the fireworks warfare for about another 4 hours.

blake island

On our first warm day of the summer, we hopped on the boat and went out to meet my parents at Blake Island. It's so impossible to get a spot at Blake Island so it was good that they were already there so we could raft to them.

Tristan is proving to be a bit of a handful on the boat at this age. He wants to touch everything and climb everywhere and throw anything overboard.
Jamie is our steering helper.

I spend most of my time holding onto the handle of Tristan's lifejacket. Usually he doesn't even know that I'm holding onto him, or else he gets upset.


We took a hike while we were there:

And Abby collected some sand from the beach.
A shot from above.

Jamie's art projects

I've saved several pictures from Jamie this past year. It's also interesting to see how much his writing and spelling have already improved. Here are a few of my favorites:

First of all, these are a few of his "maps" (plans). He wrote the plans on one side and then the picture on the other. Abby is apparently his side-kick in all these plans.

Map 1: "Our plan" Hide map: Let's hid wherever we can find and play tricks"

Map 2: "The gift map: Let's find a box and find another one and put it on top"






Map 3: "The spank map" Let's go wherever mom is and spank her and let's draw the map so let's do it her.


Map 4: "The throw map" Let's go wherever mom is and throw something at she. So let's get to it.





There was also a kick map but that was not as in good of shape as the others so I couldn't scan it. He made all these "maps" last fall.

Then there are the endless amount of superheros:

spiderman-
superman-

And may favorite, the drawings he makes for us.

To dad, love Jamie it says on the back:
To mom, Jamie and mom scrapbooking:
And another he made about him and gramma high-fivin':