Bass Lake

For the 3rd summer in a row we had a fantastic weekend camping at Bass Lake.  We camped with Carey's family and got to celebrate Grandpa Steve's retirement (hooray) and our nephew, Brannon's, 18th birthday:) The drive there was so quick and easy (unlike our last camping trip) and it was so gloriously hot when we go there that we parked on the side of the road and played in the lake before we went to find our campsite and get set up!  Haley had been really anxious about playing in the lake (a newly developed fear that caused a lot of meltdowns in the days leading up to the trip) and was so thrilled that she was playing in the lake with no fear!  Carey threw the kids as they did cannonballs and I threw a stick for Banjo, who loved retrieving it out of the water.

Hanging out with Grandma Jackie

Keeping busy while we set up the camp site.

  We played at the lake all day on Saturday.  Haley and Abby's half sister Hannah lives near where we were camping, so she came up and spent the day with us.  It was really hot outside and the lake felt so good.   There is a rock across the cove we were at that the kids loved to swim over to and jump off of, which they did over and over and over!

Ready to play at the lake:)

Seth jumping off the rock!

Haley jumping!

Abby jumping!

Banjo loved the lake:)

Ummmm...heaven!

Our kids had so much fun with Brannon.

We all had a great time having Hannah spend the day with us.

On Sunday Grandpa Steve rented a party boat so we got up and moving early and headed over to the marina.  Everyone had a great time on the boat for a while, then Seth decided he was done and really wanted to go back to the campsite with me.  The bbq on our boat wasn't working, so when we went to switch boats, Seth and I hopped off and walked back to the campsite.  On the walk back to camp he told me he was "peopled out" and he just needed some down time!

Breakfast with their favorite (and only) cousin!

Haley loves her auntie Kelly!

Seth, Abby and Brannon on the tube:)

Haley relaxing on the boat!

The biggest excitement we had was a black and white visitor that kept wandering through our campsite in the late afternoon/early evening.  It happened the 2nd and 3rd nights that we were there.  We were all just sitting around and someone (I think it was Abby) spotted a skunk walking into our site.  We all jumped up, grabbed the dogs (Kelly and Rick had their dog there as well) and moved up the road a little.  We waited there until he wandered away.  This happened multiple times!

Sitting around, just before our friend the skunk showed up.

This guy didn't know he was nocturnal!

The self-proclaimed "meerkats" on the lookout for the skunk!

We had such a great time.  I sure am glad my kids love camping!

One of my all time favorite pictures.

Camping Fun

Well, we did it.  We finally took our first camping trip all by ourselves...just the Webbers.  We have never camped without either my parents or Carey's parents before this summer!  And guess what...we had a great time and managed everything all by ourselves; like real, live grown-up parents!  I was a little nervous, mostly just about food/kitchen stuff.  I've never had to be the one to remember the can opener and cutting board (forgot that one) before!  It all worked out, though, and now we know we can do it:)

We didn't get off to a great start.  I ran the Wharf To Wharf on Sunday morning and then came home and got the last few things ready to go.  Carey and the kids got home from our church's worship gathering and we hit the road.  We made it about 40 seconds before we had to turn around and go home!  Carey is leading worship at a friend's church next weekend and had forgotten that he had to get the songs picked and emailed in before we left.  So, he did that and about an hour later, we hit the road for the second time.  We must have been leaving town at the same time as the other 15,000 people that ran Wharf To Wharf because it took us 35 minutes to get from our house to blue ball park (which is about 4 minutes away).  We stopped there for our first bathroom break!  From there the road was clear and we finally felt like we were on our way.  Unfortunately, we weren't!  We made it a little past the summit and were completely stopped in traffic.  S-T-O-P-P-E-D.  Like, not moving even a little bit.  We started a Tinker Bell movie at that point and our kids watched the entire movie before we even made it to Lexington reservoir.  So, what should have been a 3 1/2 hour trip turned into an almost 6 hour trip!  Oh, and of the two movies that I grabbed for them to watch in the car, only one of the cases actually had a movie in it!

You might think we were all falling apart by the time we got there, but we really weren't (all glory to God)!  Carey dealt nicely with the traffic (we kept saying we were so thankful we didn't have a screaming baby in the car) and the kids really hung in there!  As soon as we got to our camp site our kids made friends and ran off to play and climb rocks, which left Carey and I free to set up camp.  That felt extra glorious because trying to get set up and settled with the kids needing to be entertained or helped is usually the hardest part of camping for me.  We had a great night, roasting marshmallows and watching bats fly and the stars come out.

The next morning we woke up ready for a fun day at the lake.  We ate breakfast (why are camping pancakes so good?), packed up our snacks and floaties and headed out.  As we pulled up to the beach, one of the kids pointed out a sign that said "no dogs beyond this point".  What?  No dogs on the beach?  I had checked the website ahead of time to make sure we could take Banjo with us.  I was kind of freaking out!  Carey went over to the marina/store to ask if there was somewhere on the lake we could have our dog, and I started begging the Lord for ideas.  I figured that maybe we could find someone with a smart phone and check Craigslist for a nearby dog-sitter or something.  Turns out that dogs just have to stay off the main beach at the swimming area (which is a new rule that they really should update on their website).  We found a great little spot off to the side of the marina and had a blast all day long.  We did lots of swimming, floating, snacking and laughing.  At one point, Seth and I got out of the lake and plopped down on a towel on the warm rocks/sand and Seth said "Ahhhh...now this is what camping is all about."

The next day we cleaned up camp and spent about an hour or so at the lake before heading home.  Our trip home was wonderfully uneventful!  We wish we could have stayed longer and can't wait to go back next year:)

My $.79 badmitten set was a big hit!

This awesome fallen tree/secret fort/balance beam was in our campsite!

This sweet girl is always ready to help!

Banjo got a little nervous and climbed up into Carey's arms!

We went on a "hike" part-way around the lake.

Cookies and milk at 9:00 in the morning!

One last look at the lake before we left!

4th Of July

Unlike our summer, the 4th of July did not get off to a good start, but got progressively better as the day went on!  I tried to sneak in a run while the kids were watching cartoons, which usually works out fine.  They know daddy is sleeping so they can get him if they need him, otherwise they just sit and stare at the tv!  For some reason, when I walked back into the house after my run, the majority of my kids were crying and Carey was upset that he had woken up to fighting.  I'm still not sure what happened, but I think it was all about red leggings!  Then Haley didn't want to go to the parade we always go to and Abby was freaking out, because she so looks forward to it (which makes it seem like it's a lot more awesome than it is).  But, the kids and I did manage to make it out the door without anyone in tears and with all the snacks and entertainment that we would need for the two hours that we would wait for the parade to start (gotta get there early to get a good spot)!

I think my kids favorite thing about the parade is that they get to get a doughnut!  And maybe all the dogs!  Once we made it down there, we did have a really good time.  We got to catch up with some dear, special friends, we painted nails, played Uno and saw lots of friends.  Carey made it down shortly before the parade started and Grammie Lori, Uncle Nate and Auntie Melissa came shortly after it started! 

If you only get a doughnut once a year, might as well pick the biggest one, right?!

Our friend Sam came and joined us (and hung out with the kiddos and I while we waited for it to start).

Gotta love the dogs:)

After the parade we went home and played in the pool and lounged around at home!  Later in the afternoon we had a bbq out in the street with our neighbors and had a great time!  The girls were all in bed well before fireworks were happening and thankfully, Banjo was not bothered by them!

This is what happens when we hang out with our neighbors...soda and candy!

Look how fun our neighbors are!

Off To A Good Start...

We are about 3 weeks into summer and school already feels like a very distant memory!  We started the summer off running with Haley and Abby's dance recital the day after school got out and then Vacation Bible Camp for all three kids the following week!  The dance recital was so much fun, as usual.  This year the girls' half-sister, Hannah, came over to help me get their make-up and hair done and then went to the recital with us.

Seth was SO happy to give flowers to his sissies!

 This was the first year that all three kids got to go to Vacation Bible Camp.  Seth has been waiting to be old enough to go for the last couple years and was thrilled to finally get to go.  They all had a great time and are already talking about going back next year!  Oh, one funny thing is that every single morning, other than the first, Seth said "I'm not going to 'cation Bible Camp today" as soon as he woke up, which is only funny because about an hour later he would always change his mind.

First day of VBC with their fun friends, Maizie and Lucy:)

We continued our favorite tradition: strawberry shortcake for dinner on the first day of summer, which seemed extra delicious this year.

Other than that, the kids have been spending a lot of time playing in the pool and playing/fighting with each other. 

One day they had been playing together and came out looking like this!

This was when we were still filling the pool.  As you can see, we have a very attentive lifeguard!

$9.13

I'm sure I've mentioned before that we try to walk to school as often as possible.  It's really just a matter of getting out the door with enough time to walk, which includes time to stop and pick up pretty leaves, try to coax cats off their doorsteps to come close enough to pet and stare at a dead skunk in the road!  We often find change on the road as we walk, so this school year we decided to put it all in a jar and then use it for a treat on the last day of school.  The only rules were no matter who found the money it went in the jar, and it had to be found walking to or from school.  Today was the last day of school and our grand total was...$9.13!

Haley was the one who found the $5 bill and she had a really hard time putting in the jar instead of into her wallet!  I made her a deal that she could pick where we got our treats, since she was the "big winner" as far as finding money went!  There was quite a bit of debate, but they ended up getting Slurpees.  We actually went into 7-11 because Haley wanted to choose from the kind of ice creams that you get from an ice cream truck (actually, she wanted me to try and find an ice cream truck).  Once we were there and they saw the Slurpees they were sold.  Abby was especially excited because they had two choices that didn't have red dye (which makes her bonkers)!  When Carey got home she told him that they got "Slurpees.  The legit kind."

Camp-Out

Last weekend (gosh, time really does fly by) we had a camp-out in our backyard.  We set up our sun shade and our fire pit and brought our blankets and pillows out!  We had dinner on the patio and then Carey brought out his guitar and we sat around the fire and sang songs and roasted marshmallows.  That was the best part, for sure.  So fun to hear the kids sweet voices singing and enjoy the kind of family time that is more like in a movie than in real life!

Once the kids actually climbed into their "beds", Seth lasted about two minutes before declaring that his bed was warmer than the one outside and that he was going inside!  Laura and I read with the girls for a while and then they went to sleep.  Haley wanted to go in the house around 1:00 in the morning because the crickets were bugging her!  Abby made it outside all night long!  We really had a great time and I think it will become a Memorial Day weekend tradition!

Seth was singing his heart out!

Auntie Laura told stories about when she was a kid:)

Abby Lost A Tooth

I pretty much count on the blog to be the keeper of all family memories/milestones, since no one has a baby book around here.  It's so nice that it automatically dates each post and can easily be made into a printed book (even though I'm about two year behind on that part).  The problem is, I have to actually post about the event when it happened.  Otherwise, who knows the date! 

I can not remember if this story I am about to type happened last week or three weeks ago!  I'm fairly certain it was about a week and a half ago.  We were having burgers for dinner one Sunday evening, and Abby decided to use her teeth to try to open our mustard container.  She tried so hard that she loosened one of her front bottom teeth!  Until then, she had never had a wiggly tooth so she was really excited about it.  She hardly even ate any dinner after that because she was so distracted by wiggling her tooth.  The following day that wiggly tooth was all consuming.  I mean, I don't think she had any clue about anything that was happening around her because she had a wiggly tooth.  It was starting to make me crazy, and I was dreading how long it was going to take for it to come out, since it really wasn't even naturally loose!  Tuesday morning she was in la la land with her wiggly tooth instead of getting ready for school.  I finally asked her if I could just pull it out, thinking she was going to be so distracted/ing in class for the second day in a row.  She asked if it would hurt and I said it probably would because it really wasn't ready to come out.  Then she asked if it would bleed and I said it would probably bleed a lot since I really wasn't ready to come out.  Despite my answers to her questions, she agreed to let me pull it out.  I grabbed it, thinking for sure that one of the two of us was going to chicken out of this whole thing.  Ughh...just thinking about typing it right now I got all heeby jeeby!  I gave it a pull forward and it literally popped out onto the kitchen floor!  Oh, that makes me shudder, even just thinking about it!

Abby was SO excited (and adorable with that little hole in her smile)!  It did bleed for quite a long time...to the point that we were almost late for school!  She was rinsing with warm saltwater and was such a trooper about it.  I finally just gave her a rag, told her to bite on it, hop in the car, and that it would probably be done bleeding by the time we got to school (it was)!