big Big BIG milestone from the archives

My last (I think) post from the trying to play catchup archives is our last camping trip we did last summer. It was a big trip. And by big, I mean 8 adults, 7 kids, 2 infants and a dog!! There were plenty of looks and wonderment from the other campers who walked by and saw our massive set-up. Kerner's go big or go home when it comes it camping ;-) We had 2 side-by-side campsites; one for eating/hanging out, one for sleeping. In the sleeping site, we had 3-8+ man tents that each played their own white noise at night to drown out the sound of all the other kiddos...we had a rainy heartbeat white noise trio! A few steps away, we had our campfire pit with 15+ camp chairs surrounding it, 2 state park sized tables set together, a 2-burner campstove next to our fullsized home BBQ, dishwashing table, numerous coolers and even more bikes and toys. But the weather was nice, the company was refreshing and we left with the same number of children we came with ;-)

Ainsley and Caleb hanging out while the big kids play in the water

Our 1st day of hiking the falls

Very beautiful falls

big Big BIG accomplishment.... Ella learned to ride on 2 wheels! It helped that the 3 kids older than her also could do this task, provide a little motivation ;-)

She picked it up with surprising ease. No major wrecks or wobbles, just a riding machine created!! As she began mastering this skill, I was struck by how proud Neal and I were of her. Not that this isn't a huge accomplishment, IT IS, but more by how it is a natural milestone just like walking or talking and yet as with each milestone we as parents celebrate it with pure joy...almost as if no one has ever done it before! And yet, as each child reaches these milestones, the celebration never ceases and the joy never decreases. Just another marvel, if you will, of the unending love of parenthood.

More hikes to more falls, this time with a little picnic at the end!

Breakfast by the campfire

Ainsley was still in the middle of the worst of the tummy troubles during this trip =( Looking back, I'm sure the steady diet of biscuits and gravy, cheesy everything and lots of iced coffee with milk may have contributed slightly... Grandma Marian persevered! Ainsley would fuss, so Grandma would walk. They did many laps around the campground so that I could do basic things like shower or pack up camp. Thanks Grandma!!

 And so it ends! This post officially wraps up everything I think I was supposed to blog about in 2012. It was a bit scattered, a little sporadic and sometimes short on words but in the end our year has been put into words and pictures. Given the nature of our year, it only seems fitting to end in January with a post from August published after the Christmas blogs

Onto 2013.........