Dirt, Snowcones, and the Return of the Tent

On the playground . . . Andrew and Noah can do this forever and ever. The faux-ladder was tough for Andrew at first, but my saint cousin Scott helped him until he got it.

Cute, right? Wouldn't let me type above the picture, so here we are, right here in the middle of camping with my extended family. The new tent was still every bit as enchanting to my boys as it was last month, so the first little bit of the trip was automatically awesome since they got to set it up. Seriously, the kids ran away from the playground to "help" Gary set up the tent. Then, lots of playing, lots of chatting, lots of snacks, a movie under the stars, relaxing, getting a toddler to sleep in a tent . . . good times. Really, we had such a blast. Even the toddler in tent thing didn't dampen our spirits.

The dirt was another huge draw. They all looked like depression-era children in a matter of minutes, but they were having a blast. Here's Josh with cousins (second cousins) Audrey and Emma.

Josh and I were intense players in the water balloon volleyball game. I have an amazing physique.

Noah decided to get in on the action, and Uncle Paul lent Josh a hand. My favorite part about this picture is what position Noah ended up in while we were trying to make the perfect play.

Gary took over my spot and made an immediate impact.

My kids were in love with my Aunt Elaine's dog. His name is Skippy Jon Jones, and he got his fair share of love. When we woke up the second morning Noah saw him and said, "There's the dog we love!"

The amazing Farkle crew: Uncle Doug, cousin Dale, wife Suzy, Gary, and Andrew. It's a dice game we learned. And I did not dominate. But it was so relaxing!

One of the best parts - lots of snowcones! My cousin Kim who was in charge owns a machine, and lots of yummy syrups. Serious, not the ones that taste like melted Otter Pops, cravable stuff.

Dale and Suzy just got married, so the first night's birthday cake turned into a lovely wedding cake the second day. Complete with cinnamon bear bride and groom.

Unrelated to camping, but it happened that week - Andrew got hurt and wanted huggies, then went straight to Josh for comfort. They just snuggled for a while and Andrew was all better. I love it!

Ah, summer . . . once again, camping is fantastic. So simple, but dirt and wilderness (and family of course)does it every time. Contented sigh . . .

First Time Food Blogger: Green Bean Slushie

Never posted a recipe on here before, but the boys and I felt we were really onto something here, so we took easy-to-follow pictures to aid you in re-creation.

Put a tray of ice and a handful of green beans in your blender.

Add a little sugar and water. Get excited about it.

Blend. According to my help, after that you must also stir.

Look how vibrantly green and refreshing it turns out!

Enjoy! With a straw or two, of course.

Share with everyone of all ages.

. . . And this may be the result if yours turns out like ours did. Where could we possibly have gone wrong?

You want the true story? Or first the printable recipe?

I told the boys one day that one of the grossest things I ever ate was a green bean slushie. It was presented as a treat to me by my host dad in Taiwan. Certainly I ate things with overall grosser flavor and/or appearance (Goat head anyone? A tray of fried guppies sound scrumptious?), but the texture of that slushie, combined with an overall unappealing flavor, just sent the yuckiness sky high. So of course my boys said, "Let's make a green bean slushie!" My excuse was, "We don't have any ice."

So fast forward a couple of days to a sick day. Nobody was that sick, but we couldn't go anywhere, so Josh suggested we make the green bean slushie - and he had made ice just for the occasion. I was going to say no, but they started chanting, "Green bean slushie! Green bean slushie!" And I thought, "Why not? It will be funny to us, at least." They were laughing the whole time. Ah, sick days . . .

And while we were still in quarrantine mode, I finally busted out the sprinklers in the back yard for the kids. Mean mom, it's July! Wait, cut me some slack. It was too cold for most of June, then we went on a little trip, then did Independence Weekend, so the second week of July it was.

Peanut butter and jelly on the trampoline makes every swim party awesome.

They had a really great sprinkler for the first little while. It shoots up lots of water, and also shoots balls in the air. But I didn't whip out the camera until they switched to this little Elmo. Look how lovely it is here right now . . .

Can you tell by his face what Andrew thought about water shooting all over the place?

Finally it appeared that Elmo was tame enough he could get this close.

So we stayed home, but avoided going nuts. We had a good time . . . just follow our recipe for similar results.

Great Things Happen at the Last Minute

Just realized that title could lead one to believe this is a post about being in great need, and then last second intervention occurs. An inspirational post. However, I came to write about the camping trip we took a couple of weeks ago at the last minute . . . If your whole family is tired and you get to spend some time together and then have a great time, is that inspirational? If so, get out your Kleenex. (If not, sorry. Maybe another time.)

One day in mid-June, while I was away conferencing, my sister Cindy called with a proposition. Would we like to go camping at Bear Lake in a couple of days? I can't believe we hemmed and hawed about all of the things we have to do. Fact is, we will never get them done, so glad we chose Bear Lake!

Packing at the last minute was great, we didn't stress about having everything perfect, we just threw stuff in and went. Between my sister and I, we had everything we needed. We stayed at the KOA camp up there, and it turned out to be tons of fun. A playground, minature golf, and a jumping thingy for the kids, and a nice communal-camping end-of-the-world atmosphere for all. We loved it. At the camp the kids played while I chatted with Cindy and made food. Then we ate lots of yummy food. Both evening and morning. Ah, the simple joys of camping . . . why is it so fun and awesome? It is.

Oh, and as luck would have it, Gary got this for Father's Day:

Doesn't look too different set up in Key West (thank you, Henry, for posting this to Amazon). My kids were sooo excited to set this up, I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of it yet. And we've used it twice. The kids were ecstatic to help Gary both times, and even more ecstatic to run around in it. Perfect for our family, we even set up the port a crib in it. Not that Andrew would sleep in it, but we set it up. Sidenote: The cutest thing ever was waking up to see Gary and Andrew snuggling together while they slept. Yea, Father's Day, so glad Gary got this gift.

Noah on the jumping pillow. They were playing hip music from the 00's, and the kids were thoroughly enjoying it.

Tate, Noah, and a little blur of Josh.

Mr. Beckett loved this rocking horse. This kid makes the most hilarious facials ever, love it.

Andrew loves him some rocking horse action, too.

Noah was proud of this feat.

These babies were being so funny eating their watermelon together. Couldn't snap a picture at the right time, though . . .

Andrew can't resist giving everyone "huggies" all the time.

S'mores time! Guess I didn't get an enthused picture, but I was the S'mores assembler, what can I do?

My nephew Braden is almost 8, so he is the oldest and wisest of the kids. He wanted to tell ghost stories around the campfire, but none of us knew any awesome ones. So, I told the lame ones I knew from 4th grade slumber parties, like "The Hook." I tell you what, they might be lame, but telling them freaked me out! I'm not cut out for ghost stories these days. But it was fun talking with Braden, now that he's big and all that.

Sophie and Noah were hilarious, playing together all morning. They ran around, made little piles of leaves and flowers (something to do with playing house), and I could only capture it once they were still.

We spent quite a while at the lake on Saturday. It was insane how high the water is this year, the beach I remember was mostly eaten up. Didn't stop us from having a great time, once we learned to negotiate it.

Noah, Braden, and Josh, braving the cold water. Noah stayed in the water longer than any of the kids, and was sooo proud of himself. When he saw this picture just now he said, "That's me being a great swimmer!"

I helped the kids make sand creations, although it took a lot of effort on our part to haul the water beyond the reeds and to the sand. It was so nice, though, just to sit in the sand and play.

After the lake, we hit a hamburger stand so that I could get my raspberry shake fix.Yum. We were all exhausted, and my skin was totally fried (I felt like an idiot. Sunscreen on the kids, but not me. Hurt for days.), but we'd had a great time. It felt like we'd had a really action packed weekend, even though we weren't there for very long. We had a great time being with Cindy and fam, and Bear Lake was beautiful. Winning combination!

So, BONUS time . . . I took these pictures the week after Bear Lake, so here they are.

Last time Noah had a chance to pick something at the dollar store, he chose this Knight gear. I told him I needed a picture one day while he was wearing it, and he said I should take a picture while he was doing his moves. Behold, the moves.

Party In the USA's Birthday

"So, do you guys know why we celebrate on the fourth of July?"

"Yeah, because it's Party in the USA's birthday!" (That was Josh. He knows a lot.)

I have some adorable pictures of us enjoying the fourth, but for memory's sake I have to state it was kind of a culmination of a fun yet pictureless weekend. Gary and I went on a date Friday night, and the kids stayed up late with the baby-sitter, the next night we watched neighborhood fireworks with friends (holy relaxed laws, batman . . . awesome to watch, though), and on Sunday we got together with Gary's family for a farewell barbeque for two of his brothers. So much fun at all of those things. Yet no sleep for days in a row for the chillins . . . On Monday morn (the fourth), Gary and I woke up and looked at eachother and said, "Do we really want to do this parade thing?" But the kids woke up too, so we threw on some clothes and went. They loved it and I felt patriotic for being there.

Noah and Josh were so excited to get these flags when the parade started. The shaker in Josh's hands is the reason he HAD to go to a parade on the 4th of July. He made it in summer preschool and planned out exactly how he'd shake it when he got to the parade.

Andrew enjoyed the parade from his stroller. He went nuts over the dogs and horses.

Josh loves this picture because it reminds him of when he got squirted by the firemen. Awesome.

Andrew was so excited to get ahold of the flags.

After the parade we went home to eat a yummy breakfast - at around noon. Gary played patriotic music on youtube as he prepared it, so I felt pretty American. (Actually kinda serious. I was singing Proud to Be An American to my kids - with the artist - and I got all choked up. What having kids has done to me, I tell ya.) Then we were all too exhausted to move. I think we slept and went in slow motion all day, until we were invited to eat a slice of patriotic flag cake with friends. That snapped us back in action. Oh, yeah, and there was some drama about nobody can eat cake until they get their hair cut that nearly left Josh at home, but that's not patriotic, so anyway, we dragged ourselves to the fireworks despite our tiredness. Why? We hadn't been in forever, and are used to being with extended family and weren't, um . . . so we went.

Waiting for the fireworks to begin . . . I don't know what Noah was pointing out at the time, but I love it.

The incredible light saber duel.

Gary thinks it's funny that kids all around us had a whole collection of huge glowsticks, and our kids got these. One was free, so we sprung for the other. They were in heaven.

Andrew was feeling a little restrained, so adorable shots were not in the cards.

They may be assaulted by the flash, but I think they're so cute . . .

And the fireworks were awesome! I'm serious when I say I haven't been for years and years. I've seen them from afar, I've seen the new huge ones people do in the neighborhood, but it's nothing like the big show. There's something like laying on a blanket with your four favorite people on a warm summer night seeing incredible colors burst all across the sky that thrills the soul. (Insert contented shimmy.)

The other kids were asleep, so Andrew got to wear Noah's shoes and backpack. He was SO proud and SO adorable. This was also the first day he started saying backpack. Add the hat and the cuteness level was off the charts.

So, to round out the week, we took the family to the racetrack on Saturday. We have a pass for activities that included that, so we figured, why not? We had no expectations, so it was fun for them to be far exceeded. The boys LOVED it, it held their attention for over an hour and a half. When the cars came out for each race we'd each call which one we'd be cheering for. We each won a couple, actually. Josh won often because he refused to choose until someone was actually in the lead. One time the car I chose had a huge lead, and Noah hadn't even chosen one. I said, "Look at my car, it's winning!" He said, "Yeah, but that red one is coming right up." It was not coming right up at all, actually. But then, at the last minute - it won. Wow, Noah.

Oh, and we didn't time dinner so well, so we were happy that they gave out free "metabolic bars" for the boys to eat while watching. Mmmmm.

Just two little boys enjoying their metabolic bars at the races.

So, it turns out to not be easy to capture a photo with a racecar in it. But I got one, have fun finding it. :)

The kids really, really wanted me to take a picture of the "broken car." Didn't get it until it was loaded onto the tow truck, but here it is. For some reason, this whole process was absolutely fascinating. Noah said, "This is not good, not good at all. "

This is how you get a picture of race cars - when they aren't racing.

Andrew thoroughly enjoyed the one and a half metabolic bars he chowed down.

Afterwards we went and ate BBQ - goes well with racing, right? Turns out the metabolic bars may have made the kids a little sick. Oops. Good thing I didn't eat them. :) So, quite the week. Explosives, racecars, BBQ - what's more American? Happy birthday, Party in the USA!