Camp 2

This year at camp K decided she wanted to go to day camp.  The official “day camp” starts at 1st grade but they do have preschool program which is where she went.  They read books, sang songs, played outside, had snacks, and she seemed like she really enjoyed it.  She made a few friends and was excited to go see them every day.

Mid-week the temperatures started getting a little hotter than before so we started going to town after naps just so we could be in the air conditioned car for a bit.  And so we could call Daddy (no cell reception at camp).  We had to visit the donkeys…a tradition.  They  had a lot more this year, and even had a few little babies.

Here’s one of the little ones.  Boo, of course, called them all “cow!”s. :)

It is SO nice having a porch.  I don’t know how we managed in our small cabin when I was little.  We had 9 people in our little cabin back then!  Having the extra space (doubled!) with the screened in porch was so nice.  The girls had lots of room to run and play and the breeze blows through there very nicely.  They made up all sorts of fun games!

We brought the little pool out of the rafters that we had bought for K the last time we were there.  Of course, they loved having a spot to cool off! 

And Aunt Karen was pressed into service once more.  She is the best bubble blower in the bunch!

Although Boo is taking lessons.

The classes at camp were great this year.  Karen and I went to missionary hour every morning while Noni stayed with the girls and took Bug to day camp.  This year’s missionary was from the Czech Republic and she and her husband minister to the Roma people (gypsies).  I had no idea that the gypsies were still a prominent people but the missionaries said that there are 30-40 million (they don’t like to participate in census so it is hard to tell) in Europe and there is even a population in America.  They are very discriminated against since there is a very strong stereotype of them being thieves and nomads.  It was very interesting. 

I stayed with Boo while Noni and Karen went to bible study, which was on Malachi this year.  And then we all went to morning church and let Boo play in the dirt at the back of the tabernacle. 

Camp is such a great place to get a little perspective.  As much as I love, and use, technology, it is fun to be away from cell phones, TV, radio, etc. for awhile.  It’s a great place to just get away from all that and focus on the important things.  And even though God is always with us, He just seems a little closer at camp.  :)  It is such a wonderful place and I’m so happy that I can take my girls there to enjoy those same things.

A few more pictures tomorrow and then I will be all caught up!  And then I’ll get to show you some pictures of what T did while we were in Texas!

Camp!

It was 7 hours from Auntie K’s house to camp and there were not too terribly many places to stop along the way.  We only stopped one time and stayed only long enough to get some lunch and go to to the bathroom.  Then when we finally made it to the town near the camp the McDonald’s was closed…that was when we had our only set of tears on the trip.  The girls were so tired and ready to be done traveling so I was happy that we were going to spend the next 6 days in one spot. 

We got to camp with just enough time to get unpacked and settled into our cabin before the first dinner and church service.  The girls had to go to bed every night before church started because they usually get about 11 1/2 hours of sleep at night and on a camp schedule you only get about 8 hours.  They were very good about going to bed though.  My mom stayed with them and Karen and I went over to the service every night.  Our cabin is actually close enough to the tabernacle that you can hear the sermon if the wind isn’t blowing so Noni caught most of them. 

At camp breakfast starts at 7:00am.  That is a little early for us.  We usually eat breakfast about 8:30 and with the time difference that would be eating at 5:00am!  The first two mornings I opened the door to the back room to find this.

And this.

They were conked out and we didn’t have the heart to wake them so Noni stayed with them and Karen and I went to breakfast and then brought them back plates. 

One of the best things about camp is catching up with family and friends.  My mom and Karen have a cousin who comes every year with his family.  Their cabin is right next to ours.  They didn’t get to stay the whole week so we were glad that we got a little time with them.

As a side note: for some reason both of my girls have always preferred men to women.  Boo hardly let anyone pick her up the whole trip but she climbed in my 2nd cousin’s lap without qualm and would have happily stayed there all day.  Funny girl.

We have a few nice trees that we set some benches between every year.  It’s a perfect spot in the heat of the afternoon.  The cabin is also pretty shaded but it still gets very hot.  One day the thermometer in the cabin said 98.  We had several fans on the girls, including one that runs water through it and cools the air.  That was helpful.  It was hard for them to sleep when they were so hot.

After naps we headed to the concession stand to get an afternoon treat.

K chose a ring pop.  Funny girl.  I thought she would chose ice cream since it was so hot, but she REALLY wanted that ring pop!

Proud girl.

On Wednesday morning the girls finally made it out of bed for their first camp breakfast (straight from the line, that is).  Here’s K picking out what she wanted to eat.

Camp breakfast.  You can’t get a better breakfast anywhere on this earth!  I don’t know what it is or how they do it but they have the best biscuits and gravy, and eggs and bacon you have ever eaten!  The girls thought their pancakes were pretty darn tasty too!

After breakfast Bug got to go climbing on the rocks with a friend who had helped her two years ago when we were last there.  This little girl is in the 6th grade and it such a little sweetheart.  She just took K under her little wing and played with her, helped her, and showed her around. 

One of the favorite camp activities for the kids is to catch lizards, frogs, and other creepy crawly things for the Critter races at day camp.  I’m not sure what this little girl had but K thought it was pretty cool.

Okay, that’s all for now.  More camp pictures tomorrow.

Maggie

Auntie K has the sweetest dog.  I LOVE big dogs so I was very excited to meet Maggie.  She is such a sweetie!  You can tell she is just a happy-spirited, good hearted dog.  She was great with the girls after we tired her out with a walk.  Isn’t she gorgeous??

After our fun at the waterpark we went out to lunch and then back to the house for books and naps.  When the girls woke up Bug wanted to play a game with her Auntie K.

And being a surgeon, what other game would she have but Operation? :) 

Someone asked Bug if she wanted to be a doctor when she grows up and she said, “No, I want to be a mommy.”  Aww, I guess I can’t be doing too bad of a job if that’s her answer. :)

After several rounds of Operation (sound off!) Noni brought out the Princess cards she had bought a few states back.

Auntie K took us out to a wonderful Tex-Mex place for dinner.  It had the thinnest tortilla chips I have ever seen.  Very good. 

Then it was back to the house for another before bed walk.  We stopped and talked to some neighborhood horses on our way.

Maggie has a big crate she stays in while home alone so she stores up all her energy.  After her walk she was tired enough to let the girls play with her. :)

I love how Boo talked to her. :)

Bedtime stories with Auntie K.

After the girls went to bed we watched The Tourist (very good!) and then headed to bed.  We had to get up the next morning to make it to head to camp.  (Camp pictures to come tomorrow).

Thanks so much for a fun weekend Maggie and Auntie K!  Wish we were closer so we could see you two all the time!  We love you!

Texas ~ Part 2

From Aunt Karen’s house we drove four hours deeper into Texas to get to Auntie K’s new house.  She just started her residency and is officially a doctor!  We are so very proud of her!  We wanted to see the new house that she bought and spend some time with her so we headed down for the weekend.  Her house was so cute!  We love what you have done with it Auntie K!

We were only there for a short time so Auntie K took us to a splash pad in a nearby town.  It was the cutest place!  It had a western theme and water was squirting out of barrels, covered wagons, cactus, cows, even cowboy hats.  The girls had a BALL!  I think it was one of the biggest highlights of our trip.  They loved it!!!

There was also a playground that the girls made good use of.  The ground was covered in rubber tire chips.  I had never seen that before but it was really squishy…good for accident prone kids like mine. :)

I was especially glad of it when Bug went down one of the slides and came shooting off the end like a bobsledder at full speed.  She must have shot out a good three feet before landing smack on her bottom.  Good thing the ground was soft!

What an awesome place!  We would have to go there at least once a week if we lived in that town!  Thanks for all the water fun Auntie K!

Family, Friends, and Sopapillas!

We had quite the busy day on Thursday of that week because we were leaving on Friday.  Pawpaw and Nana invited us over for lunch and Aunt R was also able to come!  K was very happy to have a middle name picture since these three all share the same middle name. :)

We had a delicious lunch and the girls did a lot of playing while the adults visited.  I got a couple of cute videos I will have to upload later.

Nana, Pawpaw, Mommy, Boo, Auntie K, Bug, Noni, Aunt R

After lunch we headed back to the ranch for naps and as soon as the girls woke up we were off again.  This time to visit one of the men that went on the recent trip with Noni and Auntie Karen.

They were some of the sweetest most down to earth people I have ever met.  She was showing us pictures of all their grandkids and then pointed to a large portrait on the wall.  It was a wedding picture of them, but it was fairly recent.  She told us how they had gotten married when she was 16 and he was 17.  She said they didn’t have any special clothes or even any guests, they just went to the preachers’ house and were married in the parlor.  They became Christians in their 30’s and they have a very obvious love for the Lord.  On their 50th anniversary (just a few years ago) they decided to have a real wedding with formal wear, wedding party (which was their family) guests, the whole thing.  It was such a sweet story.

After our visit Auntie Karen took us to one of my favorite restaurants…Rosa’s!  It is sooo good.  They make the tortillas right there and you can see the machine that makes them.  But my favorite thing is the sopapillas!  So so good.

The girls thought so too.

Texas ~ Part 1

The girls were very happy to finally get to Auntie Karen’s house in Texas.  The first thing they did while running around exploring was grab books and settle down to start reading.  I love how they are both girls who love to read!

Book gettin' comfy on the bed Aunt Karen set up.  Love that smile. :)

Aunt Karen invited Pawpaw and Nana over for dinner the next night (since we got in close to bedtime the first night).  K found the Lincoln Logs and talked Pawpaw into constructing a big cabin with her. :)

Aunt Karen had remembered how much Bug loved bubbles from her previous visits so she had a huge bottle.  The wind was blowing pretty hard so all they had to do was lift the wand out of the bottle and the bubbles would just come flying out.  Boo’s new word that day was, of course, “bub-lel!”

Bug also thought Aunt Karen’s hot pink toes were pretty cute so she got her own painted to match.

So excited!

We went for walks every night as soon as the sun would start to sink.  We had to take water squirters and water bottles b/c it was so hot.  They are having a major drought right now and it was so sad to see all the empty fields where there are usually rows and rows of cotton or maize.

The heat was definitely a little hard to take.  Especially since we have been having such an unusually cool summer in the Northwest.  When we arrived in Texas I saw a sign that said 107.  Quite a difference from the low 70’s we’d been use to!  I thought the girls were going to be beat red in every picture b/c every time I looked at them their little faces were flushed.  We counteracted the heat with a little sprinkler fun…as the sprinkler did double duty to water the kids and the tree at the same time.  They are in water conservation mode down there so we had to make good use of it!

Pawpaw came out two of the other days we were there to kill mesquites with Noni and Aunt Karen.  I was surprised at how quickly the mesquites had taken over since our last visit two years ago! 

After they worked hard they took a break with the girls.  I think this is K’s tough cowboy look. :)

More Texas pictures to come tomorrow!