A Camping We Will Go!

We went camping with the Joyce's last month.  The kids had a great time hanging out with nature.  They went fishing, exploring, and bike riding.  No swimming this time...too cold.  It was nice and warm during the day but the water was definitely not ready for swimming...although they did often beg to swim. 

Thanks for letting us borrow your truck (and your hat) Papa!

The wild bunch.

Caleb and Maddie were so cute playing with their shadows!  Just like Peter Pan and Wendy.  ;-)

They also enjoyed playing with doodle bugs in the dark.

We had one of the worst nights of sleep in the tent.  It was super windy and got really cold.  We had blankets but we were all waking up shivering and our feet were frozen.  We definitely need to get some sleeping bags...or a camper!  But the kids love sleeping in the tent.  We ended up all piled together and used our body heat to keep warm.  It worked really well except our feet were still cold.

Daddy and Ethan fishing. 

Little explorer.

Buddies.

This picture doesn't do the steepness justice.  They hiked down to the water and gave me a heart attack.  Those rocks were super slippery and steep!

"Can we at least put our feet in the water?"

Super sunny and windy!

Found some great sticks while hiking.

Yes, they wanted to take this home...we didn't.

Lunch time.

Tired boys.

We camped in the same spot as last time with this big tree.  The dads helped them climb up for a pic.  Notice Caleb is missing.  He begged all day to climb the tree.  Then once he got up there he freaked and wanted down.....

...then he threw a fit because he wanted back up.  So the look on his face in this picture is half panic half excitement.  Little turkey.

Yep, barely got away from camp and he passed out. 

Caleb lost a tooth!

He came up to me a few days before complaining that his tooth was hurting.  I was thinking "oh great, he has a cavity!" But then I looked in his mouth and his tooth was barely hanging on!  He lost it a few days later while eating a crouton.  Classic Caleb.  ;-)

Ethan's 8th Birthday

Mondo and I were a little done with big birthday parties for the kids so we decided to tone it down a bit this year for Ethan's birthday.  Of course, I don't know if having six 7/8 year old boys under one roof is toning it down.  ;-)  We had a slumber party filled with pizza, sports, and donuts.  He had a really great time.  And I am thankful to my wonderful husband for taking control of all of those boys!  But really, they did great.

Pizza time!

They stayed outside most of the time playing sports.  It was cold and drizzling but they didn't care!

Present time!

...and then some basketball.

Ethan got really into watching "Adam 12" with Papa.  He requested a "One Adam 12" cake (the say 1-Adam-12 over the walkie talkies on the show so that's what he calls it.)

Will, Tyler, Colton, Liam, and Brock.  Great gang of boys!

Yep, that's all they ate!

Playing with new toys.

All tucked in watching Mr. Popper's Penguins.

 

Caleb was a big boy too and wanted to sleep on the floor.  I took him to my bed later because I didn't want him to wake up in the middle of the night and freak out.

Donuts and home made pigs in a blanket for breakfast.  They TORE UP all of those donuts!

More sports!

I was worried about Caleb getting left out but they were all great with him and he had a great time!

Great Wolf Lodge

After many talks about going to Great Wolf Lodge, we finally went!  We stayed one night but were able to play in the swimming area for 2 days.  We went with another family which is always more fun for the kids to have friends to play with.  We had a great time and even I braved most of the slides...after taking some Dramamine.  There were so many fun activities for the kids that we didn't get to them all but we plan to go again soon!

The wave pool.

Part of the lazy river.

There were lots of floaty things tethered to the bottom of the pool.  The kids enjoyed climbing on them.

Kids play area.  The kids loved it.  I didn't because it constantly drips water all over you!

Ethan coming out of one of the slides.

This was also something they loved.  They had to hold on to the rope while climbing across the lily pads tethered to the bottom of the pool.

Caleb quickly learned that it was easier for him to just hop across like a frog.  So cute!

  

My knees didn't appreciate hiking up these stairs to go down these slides!

Chippie time!

About to get splashed!!

Caleb and Maddie on the floaty snake.

Ethan had a little too much sliding.  He gets motion sickness like his momma.  Poor kid.  :-(

At night we went around the hotel playing Magic Quest.  Pretty cool.  They pointed the magic wand at different things in the hotel to give them clues as to where to go next.

We had dinner in the hotel then the kids saw a little puppet show/bedtime story.  Ethan and Tyler thought it was lame.  *sigh* They're growing up too fast.  :-(

We had a great time and can't wait to go back!