A Little Camping Getaway

Last week, on July 20th and 21st, we went camping. We packed up backpacks for everyone, grabbed our sleeping bags and tent, loaded up the car, and drove 20 minutes south to a nearby campground. The nice thing about this place for us is that since we are novice campers, it is close enough to home that we could come back if we needed to. I also loved that there were flush toilets and they were very clean. But it's far enough away from the sounds of the city that you get that outdoors feel. So it was perfect for us.

Travis and Eliza waiting by the campfire for dinner

Jonah napping in the tent

Snoopy is fascinated by the horses we saw on the other side of the fence from the campground. His first time seeing horses

Caleb, Eliza, and Travis walking the dog

Jonah

Roasting 'Mallows for S'mores

the three boys and Snoopy

Eliza

Jonah

It was a great time. Unfortunately, in the morning, we realized we had brought nothing to clean the griddle off that we cooked the hamburgers on the night before, so we couldn't make pancakes there like we had planned. We ended up packing up camp early and heading home to eat breakfast there. The kids all slept all night, even Jonah. The only problem was Snoopy. He kept whining to go outside ALL NIGHT. Probably because of all the exciting new smells and sounds. He spent the afternoon and evening whining to go in the tent. At one point in the night, he got out. I guess we hadn't zipped up the door completely, so there was a little hole at the bottom, and he used his nose and pushed the zippers open enough to squeeze out. Thankfully, he had only wandered around our own campsite. It was when I noticed he was no longer whining that I realized he'd gotten out. If we go camping again, we might have to leave him with someone else.

Jonah at Four Months Old

On July 13th, Jonah turned four months old. His stats: 16 lbs 7 oz and 25 inches long. 80th percentile for weight, 50th percentile for height.

He's a chubby one. He's growing well and thriving. He's smiling like crazy at everyone and babbles on and on. He started rolling over about a week later. He's just a happy little guy and the kids just adore him. We think he's pretty cute too.

Camping at Home

On July 7th and 8th, we were going to go camping. But two things happened. First, we had taken Eliza in a week before to get some blood tests done for diabetes because she was drinking and peeing so much. The preliminary tests all came back negative for diabetes, but the extended blood test came back with seriously messed up numbers for sodium and a few other things. So on Thursday, we had to take Eliza in to the lab again for more tests with the possibility of having a same day appointment with a kidney specialist because the low sodium levels indicated a problem with her kidneys.

Then, it started raining midday and never stopped. We found out by about three or four in the afternoon that Eliza wouldn't be seeing the specialist and all her recent labs were coming back normal. But with the rain, we couldn't go anyway.

So, we decided to have a campout at home.

Corey roasted marshmallows over the stove and we made s'mores.



We let the kids sleep in their sleeping bags on the floor of their room.

The kids loved the idea of "camping" in their room. And the s'mores were quite delicious.

4th of July

For the 4th of July, Corey was scheduled to work the day shift. So I took the kids to the ward breakfast at a neighborhood park. They had fun playing with the other kids on the playground and eating pancakes in the park. They all insisted on dressing in red, white, and blue and even helped me find something for Jonah to wear.

Eliza let me do her hair in French braids. I had never done it successfully before. I even tried again a few weeks later to do it like this for church but failed miserably. I just need more practice, but my first time turned out pretty good!

That night, after Corey got off work, we drove over to a city park that was having a fireworks show. We found a nice patch of grass and waited for dusk. At dusk, the kids put together their glowing glasses that my visiting teachers gave me for the 4th. They also gave me some snappers to throw on the ground and the kids had great fun with those too. Here the kids are wearing the glasses. After this, they started taking them apart and playing with the pieces, building other things, which helped pass the time while we were waiting. Jonah slept the entire time, which was wonderful.


Here you can see the glow better without the flash.

Travis didn't like the fireworks--the noise freaked him out, especially the whistling and the fizzling ones. Surprisingly, Eliza loved them, a huge change from two years ago when she was terrified.

It was a fun day.

Little Chefs

The new branch of the hospital that opened nearby was handing out these free healthy kids kits. The kit included a recipe book of fun healthy recipes, a box of crayons, and a chef's hat. When I read that in the paper, I drove over and picked up four of them.

After flipping through the recipes, which were things like ants on a log (raisins on top of a celery stick spread with peanut butter), the kids came up with some of their own ideas for recipes.
This is Westley's banana race car. He used a half a banana, four grapes and an apple slice for each one.

Caleb created a smoothie that turned out to be tasty--it had yogurt, ice, blueberries, strawberries, and apple juice. I was surprised at how good it was since he was just winging it, but it was!

The kids especially have loved having their chef hats to wear when they help me in the kitchen.

Kids Bowl Free

We signed up to bowl with KidsBowlFree this summer. The kids get two free games of bowling every day. Of course, we have to pay for shoe rentals, which is why we don't go every day. But we've gone a couple times and it's been fun.

Eliza is really cute. She'll put the ball on the ramp and after it rolls down, she strikes a pose while waiting for it, or she dances around. I tried capturing it on video, but she didn't do it when I was recording.


The next three pictures are Caleb, Travis and Eliza modeling the bowling shoes.




It was fun having Daddy with us the first time we went. I've taken the kids a couple more times by myself, but it sure was nice having another adult there.

I think that it's great, but I think that one game each time we go is probably enough for our family. Two games is too long and the kids start getting bored by about the middle of the second game.

And Travis and Eliza, they have beginner's luck. Travis even bowled more than 100 his first time--he kept getting spares each frame!

Westley has gotten better too. I didn't get any pictures of him, which is weird. Bowling was his idea in the first place.

Check out the link to the website above and see if you can find a bowling alley in your area that does this!

In-N-Out Picnic

The In-N-Out Family Picnic was on June 27th and 28th this year at a local water park. We went on Monday, the 27th. The weather was perfect this year, even hot. Last year it was cold and a little rainy. Corey had to work the lunch shift, from about 10 am to 1:30 pm. I went down with the kids to my cousin's house. She did Eliza's hair in the French braids. Then the kids and I met Corey at the water park. This year we had In-N-Out hot dogs but still no cookout trailer. I don't know if Utah will ever get the cookout trailer. Kind of a bummer. But we did get all-you-can-eat ice cream and cotton candy and hot dogs. There were also burgers and chicken sandwiches provided by the park that were all-you-can-eat.


Here is the whole family. I debated whether or not to bring Jonah. My cousin offered to keep him at her house so we could have more freedom and fun, but Corey wanted him there to show off to people. Corey spent some time doing the store relays. I took the kids to one of the kiddie pools while Jonah was sleeping and Corey was back with the relays. When I got back, Jonah was awake, and we stayed to eat and wait until Corey was done. I ended up leaving with Eliza and Jonah around 6:30 and Corey stayed with the older boys to go on some of the slides.


Here is Jonah with another associate's baby, who was born right around the same time. They are dressed as In-N-Out drink cups.



Eliza is loving the water this year and is not as afraid of it as she was last year.

All in all, a fun time. I wish that we still had family around that we could meet up with there, but not anymore.

Summer Fun and Learning

We have been having a fantastic summer!

I like having structured days, but I also like having the freedom to change the plans last minute. I definitely love summer for that reason.

So I decided to set up a schedule that we would follow, a routine. In the mornings, we are almost always up by 7 am. So we'll eat breakfast and get ready for the day, following the same morning routine that we follow during the school year (get up, make beds, say prayers, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, read scriptures). We mostly do all that. It's harder without the deadline of the bus to get some of it done at all.

At 8 or 8:30, on Mondays and Tuesday, I teach my two older boys piano lessons. I tried with the two younger ones, but it just didn't work out. On Monday, Westley has his lesson and Caleb practices. On Tuesday, Caleb has his lesson and Westley practices. Then, on the other days, that time is practice time for both. On Fridays, while the one is practicing, I am doing music theory with the other one. Then they switch.

We've spent some time doing art lessons on Mondays and Thursdays. I taught some basic drawing skills to the older two boys.

They also had swimming lessons the first couple weeks of summer.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays we have two different play groups we go to at 10 a.m.

We eat lunch around noon. After lunch, it's quiet time. We have reading time for 30 minutes of quiet time and then 30 minutes where they can do something else quiet or they can keep reading. That's when the older boys do their math pages too.

We have spent at least one afternoon a week in the library checking out books.

We try to go swimming most afternoons. There is also playing outside, having park tours, going to the zoo, and other things. The kids just love having free time to play however they want also.




So it's been a great summer.