Camping

Thursday afternoon we went packed up the car and headed down to Bear Lake for a family reunion. It was a nice drive and we arrived early evening to our camping place. We pulled up and the mosquitos were horrible. I think I had 5 mosquitos sitting on me the instant I was out of the car. SERIOUSLY, I was ready to turn around and go home. But of course we didn't we got out our long pants and jackets and the bug spray (I think we used the whole can while we were gone) We set up camp, got ready for dinner Hawaiin Haystacks and Rhubarb Cobbler YUMMO--Isn't food the best part of camping. For some other meals we had Dutch Oven Pork Loin and Potatoes, even breakfast is yummy when you are camping. I can say that there wasn't really a time when I was hungry there was so much yummy food.

Thanks to my mom and dad who took up their trailer and have a nice comfy couch for me to sleep on it was managable 8 months pregnant!! The first night it rained--Brinton and Brock got soaked--Russell and the other kids were ok.

Friday morning was overcast but nice. At least the mosquitos had decided to go to bed. There was a little beach area behind our camp spots and the kids had fun making sand castles and playing in the sand.



This is what I did most of the trip--hung out in my chair. What a lazy bum--Oh well.


Fire Builders--Brock was the most interested in building fires. It didn't matter if we needed a fire for anything. We just needed a fire.

Playing ball---

Friday afternoon we drove up St. Charles canyon to take the kids to the Minitonka Caves. Logan fell asleep on the way up there and I wasn't really up for taking the hike back into the cave so Russell, Brinton, Brock, Breanna, and Hattie went on the hike (I have been before) The kids thought it was cool. Brinton took some good pictures. Here is one showing the stalagtites and stalagmites.

Friday nights sleeping experience for Russell was interesting. He tucked me and Breanna in and went to his tent. The other kids were sleeping and he fell asleep for what he thought was going to be a good nights rest. Well he slept good for awhile until he heard a scritch scratching sort of noise. He listened for a minute and thought maybe it was a squirrell. Well as he was listening he determined that it was a bigger animal. So he got out of bed and looked out the window. There to his surprise---rummaging through the garbage--right by the tent was a skunk!!! What do you do--you don't want to make the skunk mad and spray you. So Russell using his inventive thinking gets out the keys to the car and unlocks the doors so that the lights come on and it makes a clicking sound. He did this a couple of times and sure enough the skunk went away, and Russell made it back into his sleeping bag for a good rest of the nights sleep--RIGHT-

Well you would think so right. He slept good for a little while and then all of the sudden he heard some water spraying. He started wondering and worrying that someone's hose on their trailer got unattached or something--cuz it was a loud spraying kind of sound. He thought about it for a minute and then decided that he better get up and check it out. Well it wasn't the water in anyone's camp it was a broken sprinkler head over by the bathrooms. At least he knew the cause. So he went back to bed just to have Brock wake him up a short time later because he couldn't sleep anymore--you know it was 6:30AM. So Russ sent Brock into the trailer with me--Nice huh--well at least I could turn a movie on for him and roll over and go back to sleep for a little while!!

Saturday morning we got up and ate breakfast and then packed up our sleeping bags, tents, etc. and my brother Jay and his family took us out on to Bear Lake for a boat ride. My kids thought this was great. They loved wearing their life jackets and enjoyed spending time on the boat. (the bumps gave me a few contractions but I am still pregnant today so I guess its ok)

Russell and Brinton spent some time knee boarding. It was fun for them. The water temperature was pretty cold--but I guess if you are having fun it doesn't matter if you are a little cold right??

Russell

Brinton

Brock even tried for a minute. He had Russell helping him a little. After we got home it was all he could talk about and now he wants to go and try it for himself!!

We had a great time and will have to look forward to camping again next summer--cuz I am not going camping again pregnant and I don't really want to camp with a tiny baby--But next summer--Oh the Adventures we will have!!

33 more days

So yesterday I was waddling around the house (because I had been doing laundry all day and had hardly sat down--my back was hurting)

Anyway, Russell came home and was laughing and hugged me and said "what do you think you are ready to have the baby?"
I said, "well maybe not this week but maybe next week!!"
He said, "don't worry you can have the baby in 33 days, haven't you looked at the calendar lately, if you have the baby you can have the baby on July 25th!"
I turned around and reminded him that he would be helping his brother with some Norweigan cousins down the River!!

Guess I will have to have the baby early or have wait 34 days!!

(I am starting to get worried when the baby will come--I would like Russell to be here with me for the event!!!)

Dolls and Puddles

Isn't it interesting that right before school gets out a mother wonders and worries about what children will do over the summer break. Will there be enough things to entertain the children, will they play nicely with each other, etc. Well these are the few things that have entertained my children so far....

Breanna and her friend figured out how to make baby dolls. they used blankets, clothes, and fabric to create these little babies--and played with them for days.

Each time it rains a monsoon, there is a huge puddle in our front lawn. And more than once this summer this is where I find the children playing. It is like our built in swimming pool this year. It is stinky to me but fun for the kids. Logan especially loves running through the puddle.

Luckily the older boys have been pretty content to ride their bikes and find thing to do. Cuz even though we have made it through three weeks of summer, there are still many more weeks to go--eventually the kids are going to tell me they are bored and don't know what to do--then we will have to find more creative fun.

Hattie's Birthday

Hattie anxiously waited for her birthday for what seems like a long time. She has been asking when it would be her birthday for about 2 months now. Then it got even worse after her cousin's birthday at the beginning of the month. Then she continually asked if she could have friends (which the answer was no because I have a 5,8,12,16 Friend rule), then she would ask if she could have a pinata, and a pin the tail on the donkey. This girl knows what birthdays are about!! Then she kept on asking people if they would buy her a present--either lipstick or a new barbie.

When Russell left for his work trip on Saturday--she knew that there were only 3 days more until her birthday!! She as so excited.

Brock had a baseball game the morning of her birthday, her Aunt and Grandma & Grandpa came to the game so she got to open a present. It was her favorite LIPGLOSS!!
Notice the longsleeve shirt and the sweater (isn't it June 16th and she should be wearing something summery??)

Then we went to Robert's to get birthday balloons! Since Russell was out of town we let Hattie open her presents at lunchtime so she could play all afternoon. That was a treat in itself because usually at our house we have to wait until dinner time and daddy to be home.

Later in the afternoon Grandma and Grandpa Anderson came over for cake and icecream. We sang her happy birthday and she blew blew out her candles.

What a great day!! To be four!! Now she can't wait to have another birthday!! And as Hattie would say, "that is going to take for a long time!!"

How did the fish hook get there??

I guess I never really told you all how the fish hook got hooked. The boys (Brock, Jaden, and Garret) woke up on Saturday Morning and wanted to go fishing. My brother Kirk told them to wait until he took his tent down and then he would take them fishing. Well, the boys went over and tried to go fishing. All I know is that Garrett was holding the pole and Brock was holding the hook to help him cast and the next think Kirk knew is that they were trying to hide something from him. He went over to see what was going on and found the hook in Brock's nose.

That is the story that I have been able to piece together.

More Fish Hook Pictures

Thanks to our neighbor Kelby--here are some better pictures of Brock's fish hook.

In this picture you can see the pain that was inflicted as they tried to get the hook out. As long as no one was tugging on it---he didn't feel much pain.

We are glad he is back to normal!!

Blogging Marathon

I think that I have finally updated my blog. So if you want to catch up on what happened at our home for the month of May you will have to scroll through many posts, you may even have to look on the side bar and see which posts you haven't read, because you can't even scroll down far enough to fit all the posts from today!! The first one I blogged about today was the baby. I totally understand if you don't make it through all of the posts, mainly so many posts for my purposes so that I could have some of these events written down. I am sure that it will be out of date tomorrow. But I will find time another day to blog more of our daily happenings!!

Gymnastics

Breanna has been loving gymnastics this year. She is doing great on her cartwheels and roundoffs. She is very flexible and loves going. One of her favorite things to do is to climb the big rope and she can make it to to the top everytime!! They do a competition day and it conflicted with a soccer game. She chose to go to the gymnastics competition. She did a great job.

Waiting for competition to start.

Getting instructions from her coach

Her score on Balance Beam

Getting Awards

Arrow of Light

Brinton has been an 11 year-old scout for a couple months now. And he earned his Arrow of Light back in February but finally in May they had a ceremony where he actually earned his arrow. It was at the park. It was pretty cool ceremony. The Arrow of Light is the only badge they earn in cubscouts that they can wear as a Scout. What an accomplishment.

Way to go Brinton!!

His dad actual did the awarding of the arrow

Tiny Dancer

Hattie has loved dance and tumbling. And she was so excited for her dance recital. It is so much fun to get your hair all fix and use mom's makeup--she just couldn't wait!!

Grandma Anderson came to watch her!!

She was in the same dance class with her cousin Asia. (Asia is only 1 1/2 year older than Hattie but boy is she taller) They had fun dancing together.

After she did her tap and ballet dances then she changed and got ready for her tumbling routine.

The recital and excitement getting ready for the recital tuckered her right out. I think she was asleep with in minutes of being in the car.

When I got her ready for bed she asked me if she could go to her recital again tomorrow.

Whoopi Cushion Fun!!

Brock went with his cousins to Leo's Place. They brought home some bling bling and a whoopi cushion. Well the next morning while the big kids were at school the little two found the whoopi cushions and oh what fun they had!!

Bikes

Logan will climb on any bike. Yes any bike--he gets in the shed and climbs on Brinton's motorbike and says, "Vrrm, Vrrm"

So I decided he needed his own little bike. I looked around for awhile and finally found this one at Fred Meyer on sale even. We brought it home and assembled it. He had fun on it for about 1 day and now doesn't even like it. (it is still a little big and his feet don't reach the pedals--maybe in the fall or at least by early spring he will be able to ride it)



After assembling Logan's bike, Hattie had a chance to ride Logan's bike. Then she wanted to have a go at learning how to ride her two wheeler. She picked it up rather quickly, after about 1/2 hour she could do it. It was frustrating to her to have to have someone help her start though. So then a couple days later she went out and was determined to get started on her own. She spent about 1 hour riding around the circle, getting her pedal in just the right spot so that she could get started and she figured it out. What a girl.